Collectanea de Diversis Rebus: Addresses and PapersEade, Peter, Sir
Science
Collectanea de Diversis Rebus: Addresses and Papers
Eade, Peter, Sir
English essays; Speeches, addresses, etc., English
It would have been very interesting had any list or catalogue of Sir
Thomas Browne’s “paradise” of vegetable rarities been left to us, for a
comparison of the possibilities of a city garden two hundred years ago
with those of the present day, but none such is known to exist.
I have mentioned the fact that several old apple trees exist in my
garden, possibly as old as the house itself, which is understood to have
been built 160 or 170 years ago. And I would just mention here that
beyond the roof of my stable buildings, and seen conspicuously from my
garden, rises—nay, towers up towards the sky, that grand old
Aspen-poplar, which is, perhaps, the greatest ornament of the adjacent
Chapel Field, though I think scarcely adequately appreciated. This tree
has a girth of some 15 feet about a yard above the ground, is 90 to 100
feet high, and was so remarkable even fifty-eight years ago as to have
been then pictured by Grigor, in his “Eastern Arboretum,” as one of the
most notable trees in this district. In its later state a photographic
sketch of it is given in my book on St. Giles’s parish, published in
1886, although I fear that this scarcely adequately pictures its
grandeur. {57}
Blomfield states that the great avenue of elm trees in Chapel Field, also
partly visible from my garden, was planted in 1746 by Sir Thomas
Churchman, who is understood to have then lived in my present house, and
who, I believe, then hired the open Chapel Field of the Norwich
Corporation. It may be interesting to state here that some three or four
years ago one of the largest of that row of elm trees was blown down in a
gale. When this tree was sawn across, I took the trouble to count the
rings which this section displayed. The outer ones were so thin and
irregular that it was not possible to tell their number quite exactly,
but as nearly as I could count the total number was between 140 and 150.
This number, added to the few which would exist on the young tree when
planted, would give a date approximating very closely to that assigned by
Blomfield. This is an interesting historical fact, though, perhaps,
somewhat irrelevant, and its mention will, I hope, be excused on this
ground.
In my own garden the various trees appear to be healthy, but some of them
increase very slowly. A small pear tree planted against the ivy-covered
wall some twenty years ago is scarcely larger than when planted there,
even although it every year sends out a full quantity of fresh green
shoots. And a pink thorn tree, transplanted into it a few years ago,
actually remained perfectly quiescent, as if dead, for a whole year, and
then resumed vitality and growth. It is now a vigorous healthy tree,
sending forth every year its normal shoots and blossoms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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