SEVEN GARDENS AND A PALACE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—With reference to your correspondent's letter in the Spectator of August 11th concerning, as it now would appear, an unfortunate statement in the above—i.e., the immunity of beech from lightning—I am sorry to be unable to produce my authority. It is many years since first I heard it from some one—I forget whom—on the occasion of passing through Burnham Beeches during a summer storm. Last June I witnessed, as I believed, ample confirmation. I was at a place in Hertfordshire, and was shown a noble copper beech stand- ing on the lawn near the house. Close under the tree was a wooden bench, one arm and part of the back of which had been struck by lightning a few days before, wrenched off, and flung to a distance of, I should think, about a hundred yards, The pieces were still lying where they had been thrown. The beech tree was untouched.—I am, Sir, 8.c., E. V. B.
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