TALBOT2850

Lulworth Villa
Babbicombe [sic]
Torquay
May 19^th

My dear Henry

Thank you very much for your account of so many trees, for I particularly aspire to mention trees not generally known, nor mentioned in Strutt ¹ &c, although of course I do not neglect the great notabilities. Those near you are quite new to me, & I shall gladly make use of your information as also of S^t Edmund’s tree. Nor did I know that the Oaks in Birnam Wood still existed. I have got accounts of a great variety of Oaks, some singular ones in Dartmoor & all parts of England – also a long description of Herries’ Oak Which has now fallen; & the queen has different articles made of its wood. I have also the Yews at Borrowdale, & Fountains Abbey, & some at Kingslee Bottom, 4 miles from Chichester, where there was once a great battle, & it is originally supposed to have been “Kingslain Bottom”. These interest me very much, as there are 200 altogether, most of them very ancient & the wood is carefully guarded, & no one is allowed to touch or approach them, lest any mischief should be done to them. Of Elms, Chestnuts, Thorns, & some other trees, I have various interesting accounts, but what delight me most are the Scotch Sycamores called “Dool Trees”, of which only two or three remain, & on which they used to hang their enemies, hence the name of “Dool” or “grief” trees – I have an account of one of these still existing at Cassilis near the old Castle, with spreading branches – on which about 200 years ago, the last enemy, a Sir John Faa, was hung by an Earl of Cassilis, who had married his old love whilst he was absent abroad, & when he came home & tried to see her in disguise, he was hung on that tree, & the lady saw him executed from her window! An amiable female! ² Another very curious Sycamore has an immense protuberance, the bark in the course of centuries having grown over some iron then attached to the trunk as a kind of pillory. These have interested me much, & I have collected every scrap of legendary tradition that I can find, to enliven the mere facts of size or age. Caroline ³ has sent me an account of her Chestnut at Cothele ⁴, & of course I have the famous Chestnut at Tortworth. I think she would like my MS if I could ever turn it into a Book, as she has a weakness for old trees, like myself. I am sorry the Annas Thorn was not in Domesday Book.⁵ I must omit that. My mind is much exercised why it is called the Annas, & not the Stanton thorn, & it makes me fancy that thereby hangs a tale, which I have apparently no chance of finding out. On the spot it appears that no one knows anything more of it than that a very old thorn was uprooted between 1829 & 1834. We were all very stupid at Moreton, ⁶ for in my researches I have discovered that one of the most immense Oaks, ever known, existed during a part of the last century, until it was destroyed for firewood, at the eastern side of Blandford, close to the road to Hanford, M^rs Seymer’s, ⁷ where we often went, & yet I have never heard my Mother ⁸ mention it which surprises me. It was called “Damory’s Oak”, being in the grounds of Damory Court, a seat of the Ryves family. Its dimensions are given in Hutchin’s Dorset, ⁹ which I have procured from Henry, ¹⁰ and for many years after the Restoration, it was inhabited, and the size of the interior of the truck enabled it to be used as an Alehouse. I met with a curious account accidentally, of two enormous Oaks now gone, called Adam & Eve, near Leicester I think, but I have not my MS before me. Eve’s trunk formed a house for a Navvy when Railroads begun [sic], & then was used as a residence by the Station Master for some time. Now it is only a donkey shed. The Calthorpe Oak is however the most wonderful of all, larger than the groundplot of the Eddystone Lighthouse which was modelled from its shape, near Wetherby.¹¹ With again thanks,

Your aff^te cousin
Louisa Charlotte Frampton

My Henry has just written that he has Sir R. Hoare’s Wiltshire, ¹² but the Annas Thorn is not mentioned.