Weeping-willow, the
After the
South Sea bubble in
England had collapsed, one of the speculators who had been ruined went to
Smyrna to mend his fortunes.
He was a friend of
Pope, the poet, and sent him a box of figs.
In the box
Pope found the twig of a tree.
He had just established his villa at
Twickenham.
He planted the twig (fortunately) by the shore of the
Thames, not knowing of what tree it was. It grew, and was a weeping-willow, such as the captive Jews wept under on the banks of the rivers of
Babylon.
That twig was planted in 1722.
In 1775 one of the young British officers who came to
Boston with the
British army brought a twig from
Pope's then huge willow, expecting, when the “rebellion” should be crushed, in a few weeks, to settle in
America on some confiscated lands of the “rebels,” where he would plant his willow.
John Parke Custis, son of
Mrs. Washington, and aide to
General Washington, at
Cambridge, going on errands to the
British camp, under a flag of truce, became acquainted with the owner of the willow twig (which was wrapped in oiled
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silk). The disappointed subaltern gave the twig to
Custis, who planted it near his home on his estate at
Abingdon, Va., where it became the progenitor of all the weeping-willows in
America.
