[495

T

MR. URBAN, Lichfield, July 20. XXXHE large willow tree in the fore-ground of the view of Stow-hill, near this city, fent to your Magazine by my worthy friend the Rev. Mr. White, in June laft, p. 416, has been generally fuppofed to have been planted by the late Dr. Samuel Johnfon's father, as the Doctor never failed to vifit it whenever he came to Lichfield. The vicinity of a building, known by the name of "The "Parchment Houfe," perhaps gave rife to fuch fuppofition, as the Doctor would never admit the fact. The bufinefs of parchment-making was, for many years, carried on by old Mr. Johnfon, at that place, until he had greatly enriched his fervants, and injured his own fortune. There are now no veftiges remaining of fuch manufactory; the pits are filled up, and the yard occupied, in part, by a gardener, and by Mr. Saville, one of the gentlemen belonging to our cathedral, who has lately planted a botanic garden, confifting of above feven hundred fpecimens of rare and elegant plants, well worthy the notice of the

curious.

This willow, as before obferved, attracted the attention of Dr. Johnfon for many years; and during his vifit at Lichfield, in the year 1781, he defired Dr. Jones, a phyfician of that place, to give him an account of it, faying it was by much the largest tree of the kind he had ever feen or heard of, and therefore wifhed to give an account of it in the "Philofophical Tranfactions," that its

"In confequence of the converfation I had lately with you, I have taken the dimenfions of the Lichfield willow.The trunk rifes to the height of twelve feet eight inches, and five tenths, and is then divided into fifteen large afcending branches, which, in very numerous. and crowded fubdivifions, fpread at the top in a circular form, not unlike the appearance of a thady oak, inclining a little towards the Eaft. The circumference of the trunk at the bottom is fifteen feet, nine inches, and five tenths; in the middle, eleven feet ten inches; and at the top, immediately below the branches, thirteen feet. The entire height of the tree is forty-nine feet; and the circumference of the branches, at their extremities, upwards of two hundred feet, over fhadowing a plane not far short of four thoufand feet. The furface of the trunk is very uneven; and the bark is much furrowed. The

As the fcale of our plate was too small to exhibit an exact reprefentation of the wil.. low, our friendly correlpondent has accompanied his letter with another drawing, taken by Mr. Stringer, from the South; which tha'!" be given in a mifcellaneous plate next mouta. The former view was takea from the Northe Welt. EDIT.

tree

tree has now a vigorous and increafing appearance. The willow, in its generic character, reaches but a middling fize; yet there are fome fpecies which authors defcribe as of larger growth than others. This appears to me to be the twenty-ninth of Linnæus, Salix foliis fubintergeminis lanceolato-linearibus longiffimis acutis fubtus fericeis, ramis virgatis; which, Miller fays, feldom grows to a large fize.

"But as great fize is owing to fituation, we may perhaps find, in the spot allotted to this tree, much of the cause of its extraordinary growth. It stands nearly midway, between the Minster and Stow pools, in the boggy vale through which the Pipe Brook runs ; and at the bottom of a gentle descent, which terminates, at a short distance, in a deep moor.

"Draining and an acceffion of foil have, of late years, made the ground near the tree a rich and firm loam, raifed a little higher than the furface of the moor. A public footpath croffes the roots of the tree on the South West fide, and that, with the confolidation of the light fpungy moor, may have been the reafon that the inclination of the tree, from the force of the Northerly and Wefterly winds, is lefs than ufual in aquatic trees, especially thofe which

have diffufe heads.

ed a fize.

opportunity for extenfive growth. The moft moderate reputation of its age is near fourfcore years, and fome refpectable authorities ftrongly incline to think a century has paffed over its head. It were to be wifhed, that we had fome certain knowledge of the time it left its parent ftock, but it has probably outlived all thofe who might have remembered its infancy; and as the place where it ftands has no celebrity, it can scarce be expected that the accidental fpringing, or even defigned planting, of a folitary willow fhould be a circumstance of fo much notice as to have its date tranfmitted to pofterity.

"I am, with much esteem, Sir, your moft obedient and faithful fervant, TREVOR JONES,

Lichfield, 26 Novemb. 1781. To Dr. Samuel Johnfon."

6.

On the fummit of the hill, beyond the great willow tree, appears an handfome dwelling-house, erected about the year 1754, by Mrs. Elizabeth Afton, daughter of the late Sir Thomas Afton, of Afton in Chefhire, and fifter-in-law to the late Gilbert Walmefley, Efquire, the friend and patron of Dr. Johnfon. The venerable old building next attracts our notice. It is fuppofed to be the most ancient church belonging to the city; is dedicated to St. Chadd, and generally called Stow Church. Adjoining, formerly stood the cell of St. Chadd. By fome authentic papers preferved in the archives of the vicars choral of the cathedral, mention is made of an altar dedicated to St. Catharine, as appears by the following tranfcript: Roger, bi fhop of Coventric and Lichfield, did ordain a chantrie at Stowe, and built an house, and gave lands and yearly revenues to a pricft, which fhould be one of the vicars, to fay mafs there daily, which prieft fhould have all fuch allowances as the vicars had. But this mafs being neglected, and the houfe decayed, John dean of Lichfield and the Chapter did enter upon the chantery, and made one King prieft there, and restored the houfe, lands, and revenues to the chantery againe, that the bishop gave; whereupon the fubchanter and his fellow vicars went into the Chapter-houfe, and promifed that fome one of there fellowe priests and vicars fhould fay dayley the mafs there, and that they would repaire the houfe thereto belonginge, and that was ordered in the Chapter-house then, that the fubchanter and company of vicars should prefent a fit man to them,