IN a week when most Tavistokians were focussing their attention on Goose Fair, I was deeply saddened by the sight that I saw at the Abbey Bridge end of Dolvin Road cemetery. The once majestic European weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica form pendula) has been reduced to a depressing skeletal simulacrum of its former self. How did this happen? Was it an act of nature such as a gale force wind or lightning, stripping the tree of all its branches from the ground up to its crown, exposing its tall trunk to our incredulous gaze. Or was it an act of ?vandalism? If any of your readers know the answers to my questions I would be pleased to hear from them. It is believed that the first European weeping beech was cultivated in England in 1836. The specimen in Dolvin Road Cemetery is said to be the second tallest in England outside of Kew Gardens. Given its height and maturity, it is reasonable to conjecture that the one in Dolvin Road dates from a little after 1836. The fickle hand of fate or the malicious hand of man has denied this approximately 170-year-old monarch of trees to the resent and if it does not recover, to posterity as well B V Hicks 59 West Street Tavistock l Tavistock Town Council?s works superintendent Wayne Southall says the weeping beech was badly damaged by storms at the end of September. The tree has been inspected by a local tree surgeon and the tree is still safe and in reasonable health ? work to clear away fallen and damaged wood is due to take place in the coming fortnight.