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1391

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“ Mine own hands,” he adds, “ measured a table more than once, of about 5 ft.in breadth, 9J ft. in length, and 6 in. thick, all entire and clear. This, cut outof a tree felled by my father’s order, was made a pastry board_The incom-

parable walks at the royal palaces in the neighbourhood ofMadrid were planted,”he continues, ‘‘with this majestic tree.” These are said to have been the firstelms that were planted in Spain ; and Baron Dillon tells us that, when he sawthem, about the end of the last century, they were 6 ft. in diameter, and in ahealthy state. The plants were taken from England by Philip II. , who hadmarried Mary Tudor , daughter of Henry VIII. , and Queen of England.Henry IV. of France planted an elm in the gardens of the Luxembourg , in Paris ,which stood till it was destroyed during the first French revolution. An elm inSwitzerland , near Morges , at the time it was blown down, had a trunk 17 ft.7 in. in diameter, and was estimated to be 335 years old. Queen Elizabeth issaid to have planted an elm at Chelsea, which was cut down in 1745, andsold for a guinea by the lord of the manor, Sir Hans Sloane . It was supposedto have become a nuisance to the public road, close to which it stood, fromits great size and age. It was 13 ft. in circumference at the ground, and half asmuch at the height of 44 ft. Before the hard frost in 1739-40 had injured itstop, it was 110 ft. high. The Crawley Elm, which has been figured by Strutt,stands on the high road from London to Brighton. It is 70 ft. high, and thetrunk is 61 ft. in circumference at the ground. Its trunk is perforated to thevery top ; and it measures 35 ft. round the inside at 2 ft. from the base. Thereis a regular door to the cavity in this tree, the key of which is kept by the lordof the manor; but it is opened on particular occasions,when the neighbours meetto regale themselves within the cavity, which is capable of containing a partyof more than a dozen. The floor is paved with bricks. Madame de Genlis says a poor woman gave birth to an infant in ‘the hollow of this tree, whereshe afterwards resided for a long time A hollow elm stood formerly atHampstead , but in what spot is uncertain. It was engraved by the cele-brated Hollar, in 1653 ; and fig. 1238. is a copy of it from Parke’s Hampstead ,reduced to the scale of 1 in. to 12 ft. “ The Great Hollow Elm Tree ofHampstead, ” as it is called in the engraving, was upwards of 42 ft. high. Itwas hollow from the ground to the summit, from which the trunk appears tohave been abruptly broken off; and in the hollow a wooden stair, or ladder, wastormed, which conducted to a turret on the top, containing seats on which sixpersons might sit. The following quaint description is given on the margin ofthe engraving: — “ 1. The bottom above ground, in compass, is 28 foote.2. The breadth of the doore is 2 foote. 3. The compass of the turret onthe top is 34 foote. 4. The doore in height to goe in is 6 foote 2 inches. 8.1 he height of the turret is 33 foote. 11. The lights into the tree is 16.

j ste PP s to § oe U P is 42. 19. The seat above the Stepps six may sitt on,

) l ? unc ^ a bout roome for foureteene moore. All the way you goe up withinthe hollow tree.” {Parke's Hampstead , p. 34.) About the time that theengraving was published, a number of rhymes were printed on the subject ofthis tree, some of them by Robert Codrington; and others were printed byH ii ! 6S ’ an< ^ were “ to be given or sold in the Hollow Tree at Hampstead .”Hollar’s engraving appears also to have been sold at the tree. Nine elm trees,* andmg on Hampstead Heath in 1805, were celebrated in a poem by Edwardp° x ?’ published in that year. {Ibid., p. 40.) In a manuscript lent tolotessor Martyn by Craven Ord, Esq., of Purser’s Cross, and probablyritten by Oldys (the translator of Camden’s Britannia, who died in 1761),mention is made of several remarkable elms. One at Charlton, in Kent,out which it is said Horn Fair was kept, spread 8 yards on every side; theeight was about 10 yards, but the trunk not above 1 ft. in diameter. One ofm rancis Bacon ’s elms, in Gray’s Inn walks, planted in 1600, was felled,cone' 1 s , us P ecte d decay, in 1720 or 1726, and was 12 ft. round; its headleft ft-°f timber. In 1750, not above eight trees of his planting were

j n ,V . ■y were planted in 1600. At Fulham are, or were, some elms plantede tlme King Edward VI. ; and one at Richmond, said to be planted by

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