I saw cut down, from the window of my sitting-room, in Jesus-lane,
Cambridge (which happened to overlook the Fellows' Garden of Sidney
College,) in March, 1833. The tree is said to have been planted by
Cromwell's own hand, when a student at Sidney College, and, said the
Cambridge Chronicle of the 11th of the above month, it seems not
unlikely that the original stock was coeval with the Protector. The
tree consisted of five stems (at the time it was cut down,) which rose
directly from the ground, and which had probably shot up after the
main trunk had been accidentally or intentionally destroyed. Four of
these stems had been dead for some years, and the fifth was cut down,
as stated above. "A section of it, at eight feet from the ground, had
103 consecutive rings, indicating as many years of growth for that
part. If we add a few more for the growth of the portion still lower
down, it brings us to a period within seventy years of the
Restoration; and it is by no means improbable that the original trunk
may have been at least seventy or eighty years old before it was
mutilated. The stumps of the five stems are still left standing, the
longest being eight feet high; and it is intended to erect a rustic
seat within the area they embrace."