LIME TREES AND ROYALTY
Snt,—It will be interesting to know whether any of your readers can support Sir William Beach Thomas's suggestion that certain clumps of limes may have been planted as a Jacobite emblem, for this is entirely contrary to the tradition, which I have heard more than once, that the lime when planted formally in clump, avenue or circle, was a sign of .a Whig family, and was planted by those who supported William III. I cannot see any connection between the lime and the Jacobite cause ; whereas its association—a tree commonly planted in Holland—with " Dutch " William; is easy to see.
One cannot help wondering whether whoever alleged a Jacobite reason for the clumps referred to by Sir William Beach Thomas had not mixed up the planting of limes with the planting of Scots pine by families- of Jacobite sympathy. Not only are there a number of individual Scots pine known as " Charley Trees " in various parts of the country, but in South Wales there are not only the clumps of Scots pine at Dynevor Castle said to have been planted to commemorate the " Forty-Five," but also at Llanvihangel-Crucorney, near Abergavenny, there are still a few trees left of an avenue of these pines which were, so tradition says, planted to commemorate the same event. In several cases known to me, it has been proved that the planters of lime avenues and circles were most decidedly Whigs, and supporters of William III, and were therefore hardly likely to have been ardent Jacobites.—Yours faithfully, R. C. B. GARDNER. Secretary, The Royal Forestry Society-of England-and Wales. 49 Russell Square, W.C.I.
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