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but half a century ago, she sometimes appeared as a Siren. 
So Fuseli may be puzzled, whether he should paint her young or 
old. 
You oblige me, & i heartily thank you, for looking on me as a 
Selborne man. I am certainly a well-wisher wherever your interest, 
or pleasure is concerned. All the compliment i can make you in 
return, is to call a favourite Beech by the name of Mr White’s 
Beech. You know Linnaeus complimented his friends, by calling 
new plants after their names. This is not in my power to do, as 
1 know but few old ones. But you should know some particulars 
of your Tree. ’Tis about 50 years old, & runs clear about 25 
feet, then about as much in handsome head, preserving its stem 
straight to the top, & spreads a circle of about 50 feet diameter. 
This i reckon the handsomest proportion for an out-side Grove Tree. 
For an inside Grove Tree, i should wish the stem longer, about 
2 thirds of the height, & the spread of the head less : & for 
the Lawn or single pasture Tree, i wish the branches should hang 
so low as only to suffer a man to ride on horsback under them ; 
& the Tree to appear at a little distance like a green hill. These 
are my proportions for the beauty of Trees in different situations. 
But i will quarrel with no man, if he likes other proportions better. 
I presume that Grove of Oaks called Losels, mentioned in my 
favourite Book, p. 5. ran clear stems 4, 5 ths of tlynr height : which 
runs them too like to hop-poles. And perhaps the venerable Oak 
which stood in the Plestor, was the very shape i wish a single Tree 
to be! I remember an Oak of Mr Leman’s at North hall in 
Hertfordshire, that spread a circle of about 130 feet diameter. And 
the Bp of Bath & Wells 1 informed me, that the Bp of Salisbury’s 
Oak spread 115 feet in the longest diameter, & 112 in the 
shortest ; & appeared at a distance a perfect semi-globe. Although 
i am much pleas’d with your view of Selborne, & the 
description you give of it, yet the great quantity of rain that 
falls there, is a strong drawback to the pleasure of living, above 
50 inches in 1782, & last year almost 45, seems to mo very 
1 Charles Moss, Bishop of St. David’s, 1766, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 
1776, died 1802. Marsham’s communications, before mentioned, to the 
Royal Society, on washing trees was in the form of a letter to 
him. — A.N. 
