32 
CEDRUS LIBANI 
the last two or three years of her life her health had greatly failed. Its dimensions are not conclusive either 
for or against the truth of the tradition, but are at least perfectly consistent with its being no older 
than the date usually assigned to the introduction of the Cedar. Its height, when blown down, was 
70 feet, and the diameter of the space covered by its branches 100 feet. The girth of the trunk, at 
six feet from the ground, was 16 feet; at 12 feet from the ground, where the insertion of the branches 
swelled it, it was 20 feet in girth; and the limbs varied in girth from six feet to 12 feet. 
In its native country (see infra), each foot of girth represents, in all probability at least, not less than 
70 years; but the average of its rate of growth in this country, after eliminating exceptional cases, is, up 
to 50 or 60 years, about one foot in five years; up to 100, about one foot in six years; but after that, 
its rate of increase is very much slower. A tree 16 feet in girth, therefore, may fairly be reckoned 
as having lived at least 100 years; it may be older, and if in an unfavourable situation, much older. But 
the situation at Hendon was good, and therefore the age of the tree, when blown down, was probably 
not far off 100 years, which would take its birth back to 1679. 
Sir John Cullum, in a letter published in the Gentlemans Magazine (p. 138, 1 6th Feb. 1779), in 
which he announces the destruction of the Hendon tree (which he characterises as “ a superb tree, una 
nemus ,” and “perhaps the finest Cedar in England”), discusses its age, and the question when and by 
whom the Cedar was introduced into England. He says : 
“ I find not with exactness, when or by whom the Cedar was first introduced into England. Turner, one of our earliest herbarists, where 
he treats of the ‘ Pyne tree and other of that kynde,’ says nothing of it. Gerard, published by Johnson in 1636, mentions it not as growing here ; 
and Parkinson, in his ‘ Theatrum Botanicum,’ 1640, speaking of the Cedrus Magna Conifera Libani , shews that he had never seen it. ‘The 
branches, some say, all grow upright, but others straight out.’ Evelyn, whose discourse on forest trees was delivered in the Royal Society in 
1662, observes that Cedars throve in cold climates ‘even where the snow lay, as I am told, almost half the year ; for so it does on the mountains 
of Lebanon, from whence I have received cones and seeds of these few remaining trees. Why, then, should they not thrive in Old England ? 
I know not, save for want of industry and trial.’ 
“ Hitherto I think it is pretty plain the Cedar was unknown among us, and it appears probable we are indebted to the last-mentioned 
gentleman for its introduction into England ; for he informs us, in the same paragraph from which I made the above quotation, that he had 
received cones and seeds from the few trees remaining on the mountains of Lebanon. 
“ Something better than twenty years afterwards we find, among Mr. Ray’s philosophical letters, the following curious one, addressed to him 
from Sir Hans Sloane :—‘ London, March 7, 1684-5.—I was the other day at Chelsea, and find that the artifices used by Mr. Watts have been 
very effectual for the preservation of his plants, insomuch that this severe enough winter has scarce killed any of his fine plants. One thing 
I much wonder to see, the Cedrus Montis Libani , the inhabitant of a very different climate, should thrive so well as, without pot or greenhouse, 
to be able to propagate itself by layers this spring. Seeds sown last autumn have as yet thriven well, and are like to hold out; the main artifice 
I used to them has been to keep them from the winds, which seem to give a great additional force to cold to destroy the tender plants.’ 
“This is the first notice that has occurred to me of the cultivation of the Cedar among us.” 
A similar claim to being the oldest tree in Britain, and also to having been planted by Queen 
Elizabeth, has been set up on behalf of an old tree in front of Enfield Palace, known as the Enfield 
Cedar, but its dimensions are even less than those of the Hendon tree. In 1788 it was 45 feet 9 
inches high, though nine feet had been broken off by the high wind of 1703. In 1793 it measured 
12 feet in girth at three feet from the ground; and in 1809, at 3 feet 10 inches from the ground, its 
girth was 13 feet 1 inch. In 1821, the girth was 19 feet 9 inches at one foot from the ground, 
and 64 feet 8 inches in height. In 1835, it was 15 feet 8 inches at five feet from the ground, 
and its height in the same year was 64 feet 8 inches. In 1849 it measured 19^ feet in girth. 
But, besides the doubt suggested by its minor dimensions, there is much stronger traditional evidence 
in favour of its having been planted by Dr. Uvedale. Dr. Uvedale was born in 1642 ; he was 
master of the grammar-school at Enfield about the time of the great plague (1665); and he died 
in 1722. He was a great florist, and is said to have devoted so much of his time to his garden as 
to have been threatened with removal from his situation on that account by the authorities who had 
appointed him. 
There is a tradition that one of Dr. Uvedale’s scholars who travelled, had a commission from 
the Doctor to bring a plant of the Cedar of Lebanon from Mount Lebanon, and that he brought a seed¬ 
ling, which has grown into the tree now standing. 
Another 
