Moretonhampstead Dancing Tree

   
       
       
Reproduced courtesy of Francis Frith.
   

'Near the churchyard is a public park called Sentry, i.e. "Sanctuary". Between it and the churchyard are the remains of an ancient cross, and a vigorous but venerable Elm-tree [now replaced with a copper beech - witnessed as a mature tree in 2010], whose branches were formally so trimmed and disposed as to support a platform for dancers.  The musicians were perched up in the higher boughs, and dancers ascended to their leaf-embowered salon by means of a ladder.  This tree and the neighborhood are renowned in Mr. Blackmore's Christowell.'

Hope Moncrieff 1895