From Matthies's book: "Jabez Perkins, who lived on Sentry Hill, planted two young elms in front of the Coit House in 1754. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his 'Autocrat of the Breakfast Table', mentions having received a 'very pretty' letter telling about these elms with their spread of 'one hundred twenty-seven feet from bough-end to bough-end.' He writes: 'What do you say to that? And gentle ladies beneath it, that love it and celebrate its praises! And that in a town of such supreme audacious Alpine loveliness as Norwich!' Girth of trees seventeen and thirteen feet.