Thou wast a bauble once; a cup-and-ball, Which babes might play with; and the thievish jay So Fancy dreams. Disprove it if ye can Thou fill'st nature; and in the loamy clod, Didst burst thine egg, as theirs the fabled Twins, And, all the elements thy puny growth Fost'ring propitious, thou becam'st a twig. Who liv'd when thou wast such? O couldst thou speak As in Dodona once, thy kindred trees, Oracular, I would not curious ask The future, best unknown, but at thy mouth By thee I might correct, erroneous oft, Time made thee what thou wast, king of the wood; No flocks frequent thee now. Thou hast outlived Thy popularity, and art become (Unless verse rescue thee awhile) a thing While thus through all the stages thou hast push'd Then twig; then sapling; and as cent'ry roll'd Of girth enormous, with moss-cushion'd root * WILLIAM COWPER, 1731-1800. THE GROANING ELM OF BADESLEY. The history of the Groaning Tree is this. About forty years ago, a cottager, who lived near the center of the village (Badesley, near Lymington), heard frequently a strange noise behind his house, like that of a person in extreme agony. Soon after it caught the attention of his wife, who was then confined to her bed. She was a timorous woman, and being greatly alarmed, her husband endeavored to persuade her that the noise she heard was only the bellowing of the stags in the forest. By degrees, however, the neighbors on all sides heard it, and the thing began to be much talked of. It was by this time plainly discovered that the groaning noise proceeded from an elm, which grew at the end of the garden. It was a young, vigorous tree, and, to all appearance, perfectly sound. In a few weeks the fame of the groaning tree was spread far and wide, and people from all parts flocked to it. Among others, it attracted the curiosity of the late Prince and Princess of Wales,* who resided, at that time for the advantage of a sea-bath, at Pilewell, the seat of Sir James Worsley, which stood within a quarter of a mile of the groaning tree. Though the country people assigned many superstitious causes for this strange phenomonon, the naturalist could assign no physical one that was in any degree satisfactory. Some thought that it was owing to the twisting and friction of the roots. Others thought it proceeded from water, which had collected in the body of the tree-or perhaps from pent air. But no cause that was alleged appeared equal to the effect. In the mean time the tree did not always groan-sometimes disappointing * Frederick Prince of Wales, father of George III-ED, its visitants; yet no cause could be assigned for its temporary cessations, either from seasons or weather. If any difference was observed, it was thought to groan least when the weather was wet, and most when it was clear and frosty; but the sound at all times seemed to arise from the root. Thus the groaning tree continued an object of astonishment during the space of eighteen or twenty months, to all the country around; and for the information of distant parts a pamphlet was drawn up containing a particular account of all the circumstances relating to it. At length the owner of it, a gentleman of the name of Forbes, making too rash an experiment to discover the cause, bored a hole in its trunk. After this it never groaned. It was then rooted up, with a further view to making a discovery; but still nothing appeared which led to any investigation of the cause. It was universally, however, believed that there was no trick in the affair, but that some natural cause really existed, though never understood. WILLIAM GILPIN, 1724-1807. YEW-TREES. There is a yew-tree, pride of Horton Vale, To be destroyed. But worthier still of note Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved- Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, decked With unrejoicing berries, ghostly shapes To lie, and listen to the mountain flood LINES. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. FROM THE ICELANDIC EDDA. I know an ash, Named Ygg-drasill, A stately tree, With white dust strewed. Thence come the dews That wet the dales; It stands aye green O'er Urda's well. Thence come the maids Who much do know; Three from the hall Beneath the tree; One they named Was, And Being next, The third Shall be, On the shield they cut. HENDERSON's "Iceland." LIME-TREES. At Niestad,* in the duchy of Wurtemburg, stood a lime, which was for many ages so remarkable that the city frequently took its denomination from it, being often called Neustadt ander grossen Linden, or Niestad near the Great Lime. Scarce any person passed near Niestad without visiting this tree; and many princes and great men did honor to it by building obelisks, columns, and monuments of various kinds around it, engraved with their arms and names, to which the dates were added, and often some device. Mr. Evelin, who procured copies of several of * Neustadt. these monumental inscriptions, tells us there were two hundred of them. The columns on which they were fixed served also to bear up the vast limbs of the tree, which began through age to become unwieldy. Thus this mighty plant stood many years in great state, the ornament of the town, the admiration of the country, and supported, as it were, by the princes of the empire. At length it felt the effects of war. Niestad was surrounded by an enemy, and the limbs of this venerable tree were mangled in wantonness by the besieging troops. Whether it still exists, I know not; but long after these injuries it stood a noble ruin, discovering, by the foundations of the several monuments, which formerly propped its spreading boughs, how far its limits had once extended. * * * I shall next celebrate the Lime of Cleves. This, also, was a tree of great magnificence. It grew in an open plain, just at the entrance of the city, and was thought an object worthy to exercise the taste of the magistracy. The burgomaster of his day had it surveyed with great accuracy, and trimmed into eight broad, pyramidal faces. Each corner was supported by a handsome stone pillar; and in the middle of the tree, among the branches, was cut a noble room, which the vast space contained within easily suffered, without injuring the regularity of any of the eight faces. To crown all, the top was curiously clipped into some kind of head, and adorned artificially, but in what manner, whether with the head of a lion, or a stag, a weather-cock, or a sun-dial, we are not told. It was something, however, in the highest style of Dutch taste. This tree was long the admiration and envy of all the states of Holland. WILLIAM GILPIN, 1724-1807. THE BIRCH-TREE. Rippling through thy branches goes the sunshine, Ovid in thee a pining Nymph had prisoned, The soul once of some tremulous, inland river, Quivering to tell her woe, but, ah! dumb, dumb forever! While all the forest, witched with slumberous moonshine, Waiting the dew, with breath and pulse suspended-- I hear afar thy whispering, gleamy islands, And track thee wakeful still amid the wide-hung silence. Upon the brink of some wood-nestled lakelet, Thy foliage, like the tresses of a Dryad, Dripping about thy slim white stem, whose shadow |