Volume 4 — Notes.

AGE OF TREES.

Alexander von Humboldt, in his work entitled Views of Nature (pp. 220. 268-276. ed. Bohn), has some interesting remarks on the age of trees.

"In vegetable forms (he says) massive size is indicative of age; and in the vegetable kingdom alone are age and the manifestation of an ever-renewed vigour linked together."

Following up this remark, he refers to specimens of the Baobab (Adansonia digitata), with trunks measuring more than thirty feet in diameter, the age of which is estimated by Adanson at 5150 years. All calculations of the age of a tree, founded merely on the size of its trunk, are, however, uncertain, unless the law of its growth, and the limits of the variation producible by peculiar circumstances, are ascertained, which, in the case of the Adansonia, have not been determined. For the same reason, the calculation of 2,500 years for a gigantic cypress in Persia, mentioned by Evelyn in his Silva, is of no value.

Humboldt afterwards refers to "the more certain estimations yielded by annular rings, and by the relation found to exist between the thickness of the layer of wood and the duration of growth;" which, he adds, give us shorter periods for our temperate northern zone. The calculation of the age of a tree, founded on its successive rings, appears to be quite certain; and whenever these can be counted, the age of a tree can be determined without risk of error. Humboldt quotes a statement from Endlicher, that "in Lithuania linden (or lime) trees have been felled which measured 87 feet round, and in which 815 annular rings have been counted." The section of a trunk of a silver fir, which grew near Barr, is preserved in the Museum at Strasburg: its diameter was eight feet close to the ground, and the number of rings is said to amount to several hundreds.

Unfortunately this mode of determining a tree's age cannot be applied to a living tree; and it is only certain where the tree is sound at the heart. Where a tree has become hollow from old age, the rings near the centre, which constitute a part of the evidence of its duration, no longer exist. Hence the age of the great oak of Saintes, in the department of the Charente Inférieure, which measures twenty-three feet in diameter five feet from the ground, and is large enough to contain a small chamber, can only be estimated; and the antiquity of 1800 or 2000 years, which is assigned to it, must rest on an uncertain conjecture.

Decandolle lays it down that, of all European trees, the yew attains the greatest age; and he assigns an antiquity of thirty centuries to the Taxus baccata of Braburn in Kent; from twenty-five to thirty centuries to the Scotch yew of Fortingal; and fourteen and a half and twelve centuries respectively to those of Crowhurst in Surrey and Ripon (Fountains Abbey) in Yorkshire. These ages are fixed by a conjecture founded on the size, which can lead to no certain result.

Can any of your correspondents state what is the greatest number of rings which have been actually counted in any yew, or other tree, which has grown in the British Isles, or elsewhere? It Is only by actual enumeration that vegetable chronology can be satisfactorily determined: but if the rings in many trees were counted, some relation between the number of rings and the diameter of the trunk, for each species, might probably be laid down within certain limits. These rings, being annually deposited, form a natural chronicle of time, by which the age of a tree is determined with as much precision as the lapse of human events is determined by the cotemporaneous registration of annalists. Hence Milton speaks of "monumental oak." Evelyn, who has devoted a long chapter of his Silva to an investigation of the age of trees (b. iii. c. iii.), founds his inferences chiefly on their size; but he cites the following remark from Dr. Goddard:

"It is commonly and very probably asserted, that a tree gains a new ring every year. In the body of a great oak in the New Forest, cut transversely even, (where many of the trees are accounted to be some hundreds of years old) three and four hundred have been distinguished."—Vol. ii. p. 202. ed. Hunter.

A delineation and description of the largest and most celebrated trees of Great Britain may be seen in the interesting work of Jacob George Strutt, entitled Sylva Britannica, or Portraits of Forest Trees, distinguished for their Antiquity, Magnitude, or Beauty: London, 1822, folio.

The age of some trees is determined by historical records, in the same manner that we know the age of an ancient building, as the Parthenon, the Colosseum, or the Tower of London. It is, however, important that such historical evidence should be carefully scrutinised; for trees which are known to be of great antiquity sometimes give rise to fabulous legends, destitute of any foundation in fact. Such, for example, was the plane-tree near Caphyæ, in Arcadia, seen by Pausanias in the second century after Christ, which was reported by the inhabitants to have been planted by Menelaus when he was collecting the army for the expedition against Troy. (Paus. VIII. 23.) Such too, doubtless, was the oak of Mamre, where the angels were said to have appeared to Abraham. (Sozomen, ii. 3.) A rose-tree growing in the crypt of the cathedral of Hildesheim is referred, by a church-legend, to a date anterior to 1061; which would imply an age of more than 800 years, but the evidence adduced seems scarcely sufficient to identify the existing rose-tree with the rose-tree of 1061. (See Humboldt, p. 275.)

In other cases, however, the historical evidence extant, if not altogether free from doubt, is sufficient to carry the age of a tree back to a remote date. The Swilcar Lawn oak, in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire, is stated by Strutt, p. 2., "to be known by historical documents to be at this time [1822] six hundred years old; and it is still far from being in the last stage of decay." Of a great elm growing at Chipstead Place in Kent, he says: "Its appearance altogether savours enough of antiquity to bear out the tradition annexed to it, that in the time of Henry V. a fair was held annually under its branches; the high road from Rye in Sussex to London then passing close by it." (P. 5.) If this tradition be authentic, the elm in question must have been a large and wide-spreading tree in the years 1413-22. A yew-tree at Ankerwyke House, near Staines, is supposed to be of great antiquity. There is a tradition that Henry VIII. occasionally met Anne Boleyn under its branches: but it is not stated how high this tradition ascends. (Ib., p. 8.) The Abbot's Oak, near Woburn Abbey, is stated to derive its name from the fact that the abbot of the monastery was, by order of Henry VIII., hung from its branches in 1537. (Ib., p. 10.) But Query, is this an authentic fact?

There is a tradition respecting the Shelton Oak near Shrewsbury, that before the battle of Shrewsbury between Henry IV. and Hotspur, in 1403, Owen Glendower reconnoitred the field from its branches, and afterwards drew off his men. Positive documentary evidence, in the possession of Richard Hill Waring, Esq., is likewise cited, which shows that this tree was called "the Great Oak" in the year 1543 (Ib. p. 17.). There is a traditional account that the old yew-trees at Fountains Abbey existed at the foundation of the abbey, in the year 1132; but the authority for this tradition, and the time at which it was first recorded, is not stated. (P. 21.) The Abbot's Willow, near Bury St. Edmund's, stands on a part of the ancient demesne of the Abbot of Bury, and is hence conjectured to be anterior to the dissolution of the monastery in the reign of Henry VIII. (P. 23.) The Queen's Oak at Huntingfield, in Suffolk, was situated in a park belonging to Lord Hunsdon, where he had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth. The queen is reported to have shot a buck with her own hand from this oak. (P. 26.) Sir Philip Sidney's Oak, near Penshurst, is said to have been planted at his birth, in 1554: it has been celebrated by Ben Jonson and Waller. This oak is above twenty-two feet in girth; it is hollow, and stag-headed; and, so far as can be judged from the engraving, has an appearance of great antiquity, though its age only reaches back to the sixteenth century. (P. 27.) The Tortworth Chestnut is described as being not only the largest, but the oldest tree in England: Evelyn alleges that "it continued a signal boundary to that manor in King Stephen's time, as it stands upon record;" but the date of the record is not mentioned. We can hardly suppose that it was cotemporaneous. (Ib. p. 29.) An elm at Chequers in Buckinghamshire is reported, by a tradition handed down in the families of the successive owners, to have been planted in the reign of Stephen. (Ib. p. 38.) Respecting the Wallace Oak, at Ellerslie near Paisley, it is reported that Sir William Wallace, and three hundred of his men, hid themselves among its branches from the English. This legend is probably fabulous; if it were true, it would imply that the tree was in its full vigour at the end of the thirteenth century. (Ib. p. 5.) The ash at Carnock, in Stirlingshire, supposed to be the largest in Scotland, and still a luxuriant tree, was planted about the year 1596, by Sir Thomas Nicholson of Carnock, Lord Advocate of Scotland in the reign of James VI. (Ib. p. 8.)

Marshall, in his Work on Planting and Rural Ornament (2 vols. 1796) refers to a paper on the age of trees, by Mr. Marsham, in the first volume of the Transactions of the Bath Agriculture Society, in which the Tortworth Chestnut is calculated to be not less than 1100 years old. Marshall, who appears to have examined this tree with great care, corrects the account given by Mr. Marsham, and states that it is not one, but two trees. Sir Robert Atkins, in his History of Gloucestershire, says: "By tradition this tree was growing in King John's reign." Evelyn, however, as we have already seen, speaks of a record that it served as a manor boundary in the reign of Stephen. Query, on what authority do these statements rest? Marshall thinks that a duration of nearly a thousand years may be fairly assigned to the Tortworth tree; and he adds:

"If we consider the quick growth of the chestnut, compared with that of the oak, and at the same time the inferior bulk of the Tortworth Chestnut to the Cowthorp, the Bentley, and the Boddington oaks, may we not venture to infer that the existence of these truly venerable trees commenced some centuries prior to the era of Christianity?"

The oaks here alluded to by Marshall are of immense size. The Cowthorp Oak is near Wetherby; the Bentley Oak, in Holt Forest, near Bentley; the Boddington Oak, between Cheltenham and Tewksbury (vol. ii. pp. 127. 298.).

Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to point out authentic evidence respecting the true dates of ancient trees. A large tree is a subject of interest to the entire neighbourhood: it receives an individual name, like a river, a mountain, or a building; and by its permanence it affords a fixed point for a faithful local tradition to rest upon. On the other hand, the infidelity of oral tradition is well known; and the mere interest which attaches to a tree of unusual size is likely to give birth to a romantic legend, when its true history has been forgotten. The antiquary and the botanist may assist one another in determining the age of trees. By the authentic evidence of their duration which the former is able to furnish, the latter may establish tests by which their longevity may be calculated.

L.

LINES ATTRIBUTED TO ADMIRAL BYNG.

The following lines are copied, verbatim et literatim, from a window pane in an upstairs room of the Talbot Inn, Ripley. The tradition is that they were written by Admiral Byng, who was confined in the room as a prisoner when on his way to Portsmouth; that sentinels were placed on the staircase outside; that during the night the admiral walked past the sleeping guard, gathered some flowers from the inn garden, and returned to his room; and that on leaving the following morning, he told the Inn Lady he should see her on his way back to London, when he was acquitted.

Is there any reason to doubt the truth of this tradition, or that the verses were written by the unfortunate admiral?

A. C. G.

Ripley, Nov. 10, 1851.

A CHAPTER ON EMBLEMS.

"An history of emblems in all languages, with specimens of the poetry and engravings, accompanied by some account of the authors, would be a very interesting contribution to our literature." Thus speaks the author of a work remarkable for interest, information, and elegance of taste, viz., Lives of Sacred Poets, by Robert Willmott, Esq.; and truly such a work would be a great desideratum were the idea here suggested efficiently carried out.

In our own, and in other languages, many beautiful poems—some of them very gems—exist, attached to, and written on some of "the most ridiculous prints that ever excited merriment." A tasteful collection of the more beautiful poems, with some spirited woodcuts, or engravings to accompany them, would form a beautiful volume. This, however, is a suggestion different from, and secondary to, Mr. Willmott's.

Emblems, figures, symbols, &c., constitute a vast ocean of associations which all enter on, all understand, all sympathise with more or less. They enrich our language, enter into our commonest thoughts and conversation, as well as our compositions in poetry and prose.

Often the clearest ideas we have on abstruse points are derived from them, e.g. the shamrock or trefoil is an emblem of the Blessed Trinity. Nothing perhaps helps us to comprehend the resurrection of the body, and in a glorified state through preserving its identity, as the apostle's illustration and emblem of the growth of corn.

In a work on the subject it would be desirable to keep the classical, artistic, political, and other emblems apart from the sacred and moral, &c.

I must now say a few words on a book of emblems, entitled Schola Cordis, sive Aversi a Deo Cordis, ad eumdem reductio et instructio, Authore Benedicto Haefteno, Antv. 1635. (This Benedict Haeften was also the author of Regia Via Crucis, published at Antwerp the same year as the above, in 2 vols. 8vo., I think, and afterwards translated into French.) This work suggested Schola Cordis, or the Heart of itself gone away from God, brought back again to Him and instructed by Him, in XLVII emblems: London, printed for M. Blunder at the Castle in Cornhill, 1647, 12mo. pp. 196. The authorship of this English Schola Cordis is generally attributed to Christopher Harvie, the author of The Synagogue. (Vide Lowndes, and a note in Pickering's edition of George Herbert.) The second edition was printed in 1674, third in 1675, fourth in 1676.

Now, Mr. Tegg in 1845 printed an edition of this Schola Cordis as the production of Francis Quarles; what was his authority I know not, he certainly did not attempt to give any.

The last three books of Quarles's Emblems contain forty-five prints, all from Herman Hugo's Pia Desideria, which has that number of emblems. Quarles sometimes translates, sometimes paraphrases Hugo, and has a good deal of original matter. His first two books are not in Hugo's work, and I do not know whence they are derived; nearly all the cuts contain a globe and cross.

Herman Hugo had the talents and versatility which characterise his order (the Order of Jesus), "he was a philosopher, a linguist, a theologian, a poet, and a soldier, and under the command of Spinola is said to have performed prodigies of valour." He was the author of De prima Scribendi Origine et Universa Rei Literariæ Antiquitate, an excellent work; and of De Militia Equestri antiqua et nova amongst others. His Book of Emblems was first published at Antwerp, 1624. It is divided into three books, viz.,

Each book contains fifteen emblems. The principal editions are, Antv. 1624, ed. princeps; Antv. 1628, 1632; Græcii, 1651; Lond. 1677, sumptibus Roberti Pawlet, Chancery Lane. This London edition contains only verse, whereas all the other editions contain metre and prose before each picture, the prose being far the better of the two. The only prose that Pawlet's edition has is a motto from one of the Fathers at the back of each picture.

There are two or three English translations. I have seen but one, a miserable translation of the verse part, I suppose from Pawlet's edition. There are short notices of emblems in the Retrospective Review, ix. 123-140.; Critical Review, Sept. 1801 (attributed to Southey); see also Willmott's Lives of Sacred Poets (Wither and Quarles); Cæsar Ripa's Iconologia, Padua, 1627; and Alciati Emblemata, Lugd. 1614. The Fagel Library, Trinity College, Dublin, has a fine copy of the first edition of the Pia Desideria, and upwards of sixty books of emblems, principally Dutch.

P.S.—When I penned the above I was not aware that any mention of the School of the Heart had been made in "NOTES AND QUERIES." I find in Southey's fourth Common-place Book that he quotes from the School of the Heart as Quarles's. He has the following note on Quarles's Emblems: "Philips erroneously says that the emblems are a copy from Hermannus Hugo." I know not what Philips exactly intended by the word "copy;" but if any one doubts what I have before said respecting these Emblems, let him compare Hugo and Quarles together. I forgot to give the title of the first edition of Hugo: Pia Desideria Emblematis, Elegiis et Affectibus, SS. Patrum Illustrata, vulgavit Boetius a Bolswert, Antv. 1624. Also the title of our English translation: Pia Desideria; or, Divine Addresses, in three books, written in Latin by Herm. Hugo, Englished by Edm. Arwaker, M.A., Lond. 1686, 8vo., pp. 282., dedicated to the Princess Anne of Denmark, with forty-seven plates by Sturt.

MARICONDA.

FOLK LORE.

Music at Funerals.

—Pennant, in his MS. relating to North Wales, says, "there is a custom of singing psalms on the way as the corpse is carried to church" (Brand's Pop. Ant., ed. Ellis, vol. ii. p. 268.). In North Devon the custom of singing is similar; but it is not a psalm it is a dirge. I send you a copy of one in use at Lynton, sent to me by my sister.

Another dirge, ending with the sixth stanza of the foregoing, is used at an infant's funeral, but the rhyme is not so well kept.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

Cheshire Folk Lore and Superstition.

—There is in this town a little girl, about thirteen years old, in great request among the poor as a charmer in cases of burns or scalds. Immediately on the accident the girl is fetched from her work in the mill; on her arrival she kneels down by the side of the sufferer, mutters a few words, and touches the individual, and the people believe and affirm that the sufferings immediately cease, as she has charmed the fire out of the parts injured. The surgeon's aid is then called in to heal the sores. The girl affirms that she found it out herself by reading her Bible, of which the wonder-working charm is a verse. She will take no reward, nor may any of her relatives; if she or they were, her power would be at an end. She is an ordinary, merry, playful girl; as a surgeon I often come across her in such accidents.

I know some other such charmers in Cheshire, but none so young. One, an old man, stops bleedings of all kinds by a similar charm, viz. a verse from the Bible. But he does not require to be at the patient's side, his power being equally efficacious at the distance of one hundred miles, as close by.

E. W. L.

Congleton.

Minor Notes.

Talented.

—Sterling, in a letter to Carlyle, objects to the use of this word by his biographer in his Sartor Resartus, calling it a hustings and newspaper word, brought in, as he had heard, by O'Connell.

J. O'G.

Anagram.

—Sir J. Stephen, in his essay on The French Benedictines, gives an anagram of Father Finavdis of the Latinized name of that great bibliophagist Magliabechi:—Antonius Magliabechius—Is unus bibliotheca magna.

In the same essay he says that Mabillon called Magliabechi "Museum inambulans, et viva quædam bibliotheca." Possibly this is the origin of our expression "a walking dictionary."

J. O'G.

Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations.

—I beg to inform your correspondent who suggested such a publication as a Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations, that I commenced such a work some time ago, and hope before long to have it ready for the press.

Every common quotation or familiar proverb from the poets will be ranged with the context under its respective author, while an alphabetical index will facilitate reference to any particular passage. I doubt not the readers of your valuable periodical will assist me whenever I am at fault as to the authorship of any line or "household word;" and I should feel at the present time much obliged if any one could tell me where

may be found?

H. A. B.

Trinity College, Cambridge.