184 Remarkable Inftance of the Renovation of a Frustt Tree. [April 
Hastincs in the ferious light Ido, I 
fhould have thought mylelf at once mean 
and criminal to have fupprefled the 
emotians of my indignation. Is this 
carrying the boldnels of hiforic licence 
foo far? 
t¢ So impudent, I own myfelf no knave ; 
Soodd, my countty’s rzin makes me grave.” 
As to the period of publication, I can 
truly affert, that it never entered into my 
imagination to conceive that after nine 
years parliamentary inveftigation of the 
queftion, after pamphlets, f{peeches, and 
reports innumerable, had been citculated 
relative to it, that any thing I could fay 
would, in the flighteft degree, influence 
the judicial decifion of the houte.of peers ; 
or that a rule of difcretion adapted to 
common a could poffibly be fuppofed 
to apply tothis. Your opinion might in- 
deed have carried great weight; it might 
become you, therefore, to be filent; and 
the cafes you fee are not analogous. I 
know not whether I afk too great a favor 
in requefting a place in your magazine 
for thefe remarks. As they relate not to 
my literary, but moral character, unjuftly 
and ungeneroufly, as I thin’, attacked by 
you, I flatter mytelf they will not be 
rejected by perfons entertaining fuch 
delicate notions of honor; and £ dare 
venture to affirm, that as this is the frit, 
fo it will, in all probability, be the laft 
and only tine that I fhali ever folicit for 
the privilege of admiffion. I remain, fir, 
Your moft obedient fervant, 
Bedford, Feb.18,1739- W.Bk&LsHAM.* 
— ee 
To tre Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE following piece of natural hiftory 
cs has been thought by many of m 
friends fo curious as to be worthy of 

* We have inferted this letter entire, be- 
eaufe we think that as far as concerns the 
defenfive part of it, Mr. Bersnam, had a 
right to require it; and with refpe& to any 
rnixture of contemptuous acrimony which was 
not effential to the argument, we lefs fear 
undergoing its effeéts, than the imputation 
of fupprefiing it through a confcioufnefs of 
deferving it. Mr. Bersuam’s literary ta- 
jents and exertions in the caufe of liberty, 
cannot but command our efteem, whether it 
be returned or not ‘The general character 
and contents of our mifcellany will, we 
truft, alfo fecure for us that of the public, 
notwithftanding any individual expreflions of 
refentment. EpiroRs. 
being communicated to the public. EF 
therefore fend it to you, that if you think 
it inerits the notice of your readers, you 
may give it a place in your valuable mit- 
cellany : 
About the middle of my garden ftood 
an old plumb-tree, which had gone to 
decay, and loft imoft of its branches. 
As it produced little, if any fruit, and 
fhaded the green-houfe, I ordered _it to - 
be cut down towards the end of the year 
1793. The head and the root were cut 
off and burned, with a part of the trunk, 
the lower part of which, about eight or 
nine feet in length, lay on the ground all 
the winter. 
In the Spring of the year 1794, having 
occafion to make a boarded fence ta 
{creen the cucumber-bed, I ordered this 
old tree to be put in the ground as a 
poft, merely to fave the expence of a new 
one. As the {pring advanced, I obferved 
feveral leaves fhoot forth toward the top 
of it, which I expected thortly to wither 
‘away: but they grew confiderably in the 
fummer; and the next f{pring, to my 
altonifhment, they put forth again, and 
feveral bloffoms appeared. In the courfe 
of that year thefe little fhoots became 
vigorous branches, and the year following 
produced twelve or fourteen fine plumbs, ~ 
much like a damfon, but of a much - 
larger fize. 
‘The body of the tree ftill appears old 
and decayed , but the branches have con- 
tinued to grow more luxuriant than thofe 
of any other young tree in the garden. 
The laft year it was full of bleffoms ; but 
the fharp north-eaft wind cut them all. 
off. At this time there is the appearance 
of a fine bloom. : 
As this tree ftands at the entrance from 
the carden into the burying-ground, it has 
often reminded me of the. ftriking con- 
traft, fo finely illuftrated in the book of 
Job, between ** a tree cut down, of 
which there is hope,”’? and the bodies of 
men, which, when once laid in the duft, 
‘srife not till the heavens be no more.” 
See Fob xiv. 7—12. 
I fhould be glad to be informed if any 
of your readers have ever met with an 
inftance of renovation in a fruit-tree of a 
fimilar kind, and whether this fact may 
be applied to any practical ufe in gar- 
_dening. 
Tam, Sir, 
Very refpeftfully; your's, 
Hackney, March 5, 1799. Se oS 
: } To 
