ah! pleasing shade,

"Ah! fields belov'd in vain,

"Where once my careless childhood stray'd, "A stranger then to pain !".

The trunk of this willow rises to the height of twelve feet, eight inches and a half, and is then divided into fifteen large ascending branches, which, in very numerous subdivisions, spread at the top in a circular form, not unlike the ap pearance of a shady oak, inclining a little towards the East. The circumference of the trunk at the bottom is fifteen fect, nine inches and a half; 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, overshadowing a plane not far short of four thousand feet. The surface of the trunk is very uneven; and the bark is much furrowed. The tree has now a. vigorous appearance,

t

Probably its uncommon size may, in some respect, be owing to situation. It stands nearly midway between the Minster and Stow-pools, in the boggy vale through which the pipe brook

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brook runs; and at the bottom of a gentle descent, which terminates, at a short distance, in a deep moor.

Draining and an accession of soil have of late years made the ground near the tree a rich and firm loam, raised rather higher than the surface of the moor.

Its age also has afforded time and opportunity for its extensive growth. The most moderate reputation of its age is near a century.

Its wide-spreading branches form a pleasing entrance to the garden of the Parchment-house. The late Mr. Saville's curious botanical and flower gardens contained many scarce and valuable plants. That gentleman was one of the vicars choral of Lichfield cathedral. The choirs of Westminster, Worcester, &c. bear testimony of his vocal powers, and regret that death, awfully sudden, has for ever deprived them of his abilities. Adjoining the Parchment-house is a cold bath, erected at the expence of the reverend Dr. Falconer. Walking over some fields on the left hand, we see a small brick building inclosing a mineral spring,

which was

held in great estimation by sir John Floyer, a

very

very eminent physician. He caused it to be inclosed, and strenuously recommended the use of it. The humble appearance of its

building certainly does not claim much regard from the eye of fashionable water-drinkers; yet many persons have experienced its salutary effects in consumptive, cutaneous, and many other cases.

Opposite is the church of St. Chad, universally allowed to be the most ancient foundation in the city; supposed to have been originally erected by the Romans, who about the end of the second century built many churches in Britain. In the North aile of this church there yet remains an antique font; but the church was probably a small structure, agreeable to the humble mode of those days, and principally used for the performance of solemn rites; for we find that in a ground North of the church, called Christianfield, near Stichbrook, St. Amphibalus taught the British Christians, converted by the martyrdom of St. Alban, which when the officers of Maximian and his associate Dioclesian, who had raised a persecution in Britain anno 286, heard

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heard of, they were sent to apprehend them. Amphibalus, being aware of their coming, fled, and his hearers followed him, many miles from the place of their conversion; but the Romans, who were sent after them, (some say from Verulam, others from Etocetum, now Wall, a village in this neighbourhood,) finding them in the exercise of their religion, took them, and conveyed them to the place where Lịchfield now stands, and massacred them.

About the year 653 St. Ceadda had his cell here, where he used to make his prayer, and preach to the people *. The mildness of his doctrines,

* In a small garden, near St. Chad's-church, is a well, called St. Chad's well; the water of which is of a milky colour, and supposed to be very efficacious in many cases. Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, remarks this well; and observes, "they have a custom in this county of adorning their wells, on Holy Thursday, with boughs and flowers: this, it seems, they do at all Gospel places, whether wells, trees, or hills; which, being now observed only for decency and custom sake, is innocent enough. Heretofore it was usual to pay this respect to such wells as were eminent for curing distempers, on the Saint's day whose name the well bore, diverting themselves with cakes and ale, and a little music and dancing, which, whilst within these bounds, was also

an

doctrines, and the exemplary piety of his life, were such, that the sons of the powerful King of Mercia became converts to the Christian Faith. Even in those early days neither piety nor virtue could exempt men from persecution, and the effects of envy. The frequent absence of the young Princes from the court of

an innocent recreation. But whenever they began to place sanctity in them, to bring alms and offerings, or make vows at them, as the ancient Germans and Britons did, and the Saxons and English were too much inclined to; for which St. Edmund's-well, without St, Clement's, near Oxford, and St. Laurence's, at Peterborough, were famous heretofore; I do not find but they were forbid in those times, as well as now, this superstitious devotion being properly called Well-worship, and was strictly prohibited by our Anglican councils, so long ago as King Edgar, and in the reign of Canutus; not long after again in a council at London, under St. Anselm, Archbishop of Cant. an. 1102; as it was also particularly at those wells near Oxford; and at Peterborough, by Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln."

This ancient custom of adorning wells, &c. and all places at the boundaries of the different parishes, is to this day observed in Lichfield, and many neighbouring towns; where the clergyman of each parish, attended by the churchwardens and other officers, and a numerous concourse of children, with green boughs in their hands, reads the Gospel for the day,

their