FROM THE ARCHIVES: TO DREAM OF EMMA HAMILTON:

A Short History of a Tall Tree (THOMAS PAKENHAM, December 24, 2002, NY Times)

Those fortunate enough to be in London this Christmas season should stand under the neo-Classical portico of the National Gallery and cast their eyes to the south, where they will see something altogether delightful and unexpected. Below, in Trafalgar Square, this city's only great civic piazza, two pillars leap toward the heavens: Nelson's column and London's largest Christmas tree, a green spire of common spruce 60 feet high, lit with 1,000 bulbs and crowned with a star.

The tree, botanically known as Norway spruce, is appropriately a present from the people of Oslo--a tribute in gratitude for the help Britain gave them in World War II. Similar arboreal compliments are exchanged between other communities of the world; to the people of Boston comes a Christmas tree from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in gratitude for help in a fire in 1917. (In the spirit of civic pride, this year's tree at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, another Norway spruce, was donated by a family from New Jersey.)

This is the year to visit Trafalgar Square. For the first time in two centuries the great space is at peace with itself. The fetid tide of cars and trucks, sluiced down from Piccadilly Circus, has been banished to the south and east. So Nelson, the one-eyed adulterer, can be left to dream of his mistress Emma Hamilton amid the whir of London pigeons, and one can walk down to salute the Christmas tree without being knocked down by a bus.

For 150 years this species of evergreen has served as Britain's symbol of peace at Christmas--ever since Queen Victoria's German husband, Albert, set the fashion by putting a German-style Christmas tree in a drawing room at Windsor Palace.

Mr. Pakenham, who has written a couple of terrific books of colonial African history, is apparently also something of a tree buff; go figure. (Originally posted: 12/25/02)
Posted by oj at December 24, 2011 12:00 AM
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