' In the Middle Ages, when the Swiss and the Flemings were always
struggling for liberty, it was their custom to plant a lime tree on the
field of battle, and many of these old trees still remain and have been
the subject of ballads and poetical effusions:
"'The stately lime, smooth, gentle, straight and fair.'"
"Is there any story about it, Miss Harson?"
"No," was the reply, "not much of a story; only descriptions of some
very large and very ancient trees. One of these, the old linden tree of
Soleure, in Switzerland, was spoken of by an English traveler two
hundred years ago as 'right noble and wondrous to behold. A bower
composed of its branches is capable of holding three hundred persons
sitting at ease; it has also a fountain set about with many tables
formed solely of the boughs, to which men ascend by steps; and all is
kept so accurately and thick that the sun never looks into it.'"
"It is just like a tent," said Malcolm, "it must be pleasant to sit by
the fountain. Wouldn't you like it, Miss Harson?"
"I am sure I should," replied his governess; "and I should also like to
see the famous lime tree of Zurich, the boughs of which will shelter
five hundred persons. At Augsburg, in Germany, feasts and weddings have
often been celebrated under the shade of some venerable limes that
branch out to an immense distance. In early times divine honors were
paid to them as emblems of immortality. And now," said Miss Harson, "the
last of these famous trees is a noble lime tree which grew on the farm
belonging to the ancestors of Linnaeus, the great naturalist, beneath
the shade of which he played in childhood, and from which his ancestors
derived their surname.
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