THE GROANING TREE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3039, 23 March 1881, Page 3

THE GROANING TREE.

The history of the Groaning Tree is this. About forty years ago, a cottager, who lived near the centre of the village of Badesley, near Lymington, heard frequently a strange noise behind his house, like that of a person in extreme agony. Soon after it caught the attention of his wife, who was then confined to her bed. She was a timorous woman, and being greatly alarmed, her husband tried to persuade her that the noise she heard was only the bellowing of the stags in the forest. By degrees, however, the neighbours on all sides heard it, and the thing began to be much talked of. It was by this time plainly discovered that the groaning noice proceeded from an elm which grew at the end of the garden. It was a young, vigorous tree, and to all appearance perfectly sound. In a few weeksjjthe fame of the Groaning Treo was spread far and wide, and people from all parts flocked to hear it. Among others, it attracted the curiosity of the late Prince and Princess of Wales, who resided, at that time for the advantage of a sea bath, at Pile well, the seat of Sir James Worsley, which stood within a quarter of a mile of the Groaning Tree. Though the country people assigned many superstitious causes for this strange phenomenon, the naturalist could assign no physical one that was in tny degree satisfactory. Some thought it was owing to the twisting and friction of the roots. Others thought it proceeded from water which had collected in the body of the tree, or perhaps from pent air. But no cause that was alleged appeared equal to the effect. In the meantime the tree did not always groan, sometimes disappointing its visitants ; yet no cause could be assigned for its temporary cessations, either from seasons or weather. If any difference was observed, it was thought to groan least when the weather was wet, and most when it was clear and frosty, but the sound, at all times, seemed to arise from the root. Thus the Groaning Tree continued an object of astonishment during the space of eighteen or twenty months to all the country around ; and, for the information of distant parts, a pamphlet was drawn up, containing a particular account of all the circumstances relating to it. At length the owner of it, a gentleman of the name of Forbes, making too rash an experiment to discover the cause, bored a hole in its trunk. After this it never groaned. It was then rooted up with a further view to make a discovery ; but still nothing appeared which led to an investigation of the case. It was universally, however, believed that there was no trick in the affair, but that some natural cause really existed, though never understood. —Heath's Gilpin's Forest Scenery.