At Niestad,[13] in the duchy of Wurtemburg, stood a lime, which was for
many ages so remarkable that the city frequently took its denomination
from it, being often called _Neustadt an der grossen Linden_, or Niestad
near the Great Lime. Scarce any person passed near Niestad without
visiting this tree; and many princes and great men did honor to it by
building obelisks, columns, and monuments of various kinds around it,
engraved with their arms and names, to which the dates were added, and
often some device. Mr. Evelin, who procured copies of several of
these monumental inscriptions, tells us there were two hundred of them.
The columns on which they were fixed served also to bear up the vast
limbs of the tree, which began through age to become unwieldy. Thus this
mighty plant stood many years in great state, the ornament of the town,
the admiration of the country, and supported, as it were, by the princes
of the empire. At length it felt the effects of war. Niestad was
surrounded by an enemy, and the limbs of this venerable tree were
mangled in wantonness by the besieging troops. Whether it still exists,
I know not; but long after these injuries it stood a noble ruin,
discovering, by the foundations of the several monuments, which formerly
propped its spreading boughs, how far its limits had once extended.
* * * I shall next celebrate the Lime of Cleves. This, also, was a tree
of great magnificence. It grew in an open plain, just at the entrance of
the city, and was thought an object worthy to exercise the taste of the
magistracy. The burgomaster of his day had it surveyed with great
accuracy, and trimmed into eight broad, pyramidal faces. Each corner was
supported by a handsome stone pillar; and in the middle of the tree,
among the branches, was cut a noble room, which the vast space contained
within easily suffered, without injuring the regularity of any of the
eight faces. To crown all, the top was curiously clipped into some kind
of head, and adorned artificially, but in what manner, whether with the
head of a lion, or a stag, a weather-cock, or a sun-dial, we are not
told. It was something, however, in the highest style of Dutch taste.
This tree was long the admiration and envy of all the states of Holland.