Fellow's praise for a great Cambridge tree

A famous tree that has given pleasure to generations of staff and students at a Cambridge college is being celebrated in a new presentation book.

The Great Oriental Plane Tree, which stands in the Fellows' Garden at Emmanuel and can be seen overhanging the wall by Drummer Street has already been immortalised in the work of a Spanish poet, and listed as one of the 60 most remarkable trees in the British Isles.

Now a brochure about its life is being published by one of the college's longest-serving life fellows, Dr Ronald Gray, as a gesture of thanks to its Master and staff. The former Vice Master first arrived in Cambridge for his scholarship exam in 1937, and has spent much of his career at Emmanuel, where he taught German.

Not even Dr Gray, however, can lay claim to the length of service provided by the Great Oriental Plane Tree, which some have speculated may date back more than 200 years.

Nobody is quite sure how old the tree actually is. A measurement taken in 1986 suggested that it was planted in 1836. Others believe it was planted in 1802; the same year a similar tree was planted at Jesus College. A group of Cambridge scholars had originally picked up the seeds while visiting Thermopylae in Greece.

During its long Cambridge career, the tree has been used for church fetes and outdoor performances of Shakespeare plays.

As Dr Gray describes in the booklet: "Some branches… look neurotic, plunging downwards but then thinking twice about it, reversing and plunging again. Two have lifted themselves with ease over the wall by the taxi-rank, as though judging the distance by radar. Some reach the ground and put down roots and should, one day, become a circle of new trees."

Famously, the tree acted as inspiration for the Spanish poet Luis Cernuda, who lived at Emmanuel during the Second World War. He wrote about it in his poem, El Arból, the first verse of which translates as: "By the side of the waters stands like a legend in its walled and silent garden the beautiful tree, surrounded by grass, interweaving its leaves, a canopy where a shadow of Eden still exists." Thomas Pakenham also featured it in a book of 60 favourite trees from around the British Isles entitled 'Meetings With Remarkable Trees'.

"Over the years it has become quite famous and a lot of people outside the college know about it as well," Dr Gray said. "The idea for the book came to me simply because I wanted to give something back to the master, fellows and staff of the college. It is my way of saying thank you to them for all the years that I have enjoyed here."