A treehouse in big trouble
Where is the world’s largest tree house? In 1993, Horace Burgess, of crossville, Tennessee, received a divine instruction: ‘I was lying on the bed after I was praying and I felt the Spirit ask me “Build me a tree house and I’ll never let you run out of material.” That’s more or less how the Spirit was speaking in my soul.’
Since then, Burgess has been engaged in a remarkable labour of love, creating a 97ft tall tree house and church, supported by a live 80ft white oak tree with a 12ft diameter base, relying on six other oaks for support.
It covers about 10,000 sq ft and is widely regarded as the world’s largest tree house, though it is not sanctioned by the Guinness Book of records which has problems defining just what a true tree house is. Burgess hadn’t always led a spiritual life. Following his divorce in 1981, he described himself as ‘a womaniser and a drug addict. and a drunk, from time to time’. But he cleaned up his act and is now a Minister in the First United Methodist church. Since 1993, he has been regularly adding to the tree house and has never run out of material, thanks to his thrifty use of recycled items.
The tree house contains 80 rooms over five storeys, including a church, a bell tower and a remarkable hotchpotch of walkways and balconies.
other features include a basketballcourt-cum- sanctuary, and there’s a halfton bell at the very top of the building on top of a penthouse suite Burgess built for his wife as an anniversary present.
The tree house was closed to the public in 2012, because, according to the local fire marshal, it is over the allowable height by 60ft and its design doesn’t include a load distribution system.
The structure has uneven decking, no guard rails, no fire extinguisher or alarm and the maze-like design has no marked exits or maps.
Mike Dowling, Bristol.
THE biggest tree house in europe is at alnwick Gardens in northumberland a mix of fantasy and the latest technology, it was built around 16 mature limes that will continue to grow unconstrained by the structure, and linked by suspended satellite walkways ‘floating’ in the trees.
at the heart of the tree house is a unique restaurant. There’s a roaring log fire in the centre of the room, trees growing through
Q : A man was recently fined for swallowing a goldfish (Mail). Was there was a goldfisheating fad in the Twenties?
hugh Cookham, Chorley, Lancs. Q : In March/April 1966, Bob Lind’s version of his song Elusive Butterfly and Val Doonican’s cover of the same song were in the UK Top ten at the same time. Has any other song hit the top 10 of the charts in two versions simultaneously?
Sandra Rose, Brighton. Q : How did Fridays Ham Lane in Wiltshire get its name?
Louise Kinnard, Newport, Essex. the floor, and handcrafted furniture and screens created from fallen branches. Brummie Stocks, an everest mountaineer, designed the adventure area for the 6,000 sq ft tree house, featuring wobbly bridges and rope walkways. Paul Doran, a coronation Street set designer, created its wooden interior.
It was part of the Duchess of northumberland’s project to redevelop the castle’s gardens into a visitor centre, and cost upwards of £3 million.
Carrie taton, Bamburgh, Northumberland.
When and in what circumstances did the Vatican become a separate state in Italy? FroM roughly the eighth century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1871, there existed in Italy a series of Papal States — territories under the direct rule of the Pope.
at their apogee, they covered much of central Italy, including the modern Italian regions of Lazio ( including rome), Marche, Umbria and romagna, plus portions of emilia. These holdings were a manifestation of the temporal power of the Pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy.
In 1861, Pope Pius IX was urged to accept peaceful unification of Italy, but refused, stating: ‘This corner of the earth is mine; I received it from christ’.
Following unification, the Pope, now deposed as King of rome, declared himself ‘a prisoner in the Vatican’ and retreated behind its walls from where he continued to fight the Italian state with every means at his disposal.
From his new home he excommunicated all who had been involved in the capture of rome, forbade catholics to vote in Italian elections and refused the subsidy offered by the Italian government. Following the death of Pius IX in 1878, his successors Leo XIII (reigned 1878–1903), St Pius X (1903–14), Benedict XV (1914– 22) and (from 1922 until the issue was resolved in 1929) Pius XI, all refused to leave the city.
Voting by catholics was forbidden until the end of World War I, but in 1919 the church organised the Partito Popolare Italiano (the Italian People’s Party, better remembered as the catholic Party).
In elections in 1919 and 1921 it received 20 per cent of the vote, second only to the Italian Socialist Party.
Following Mussolini’s March on rome, King Victor invited Mussolini to form a government on october 28, 1922, making him Prime Minister of an elected chamber of Deputies he didn’t control. Mussolini required the backing of powerful friends to realise his dream of a totalitarian state, and, to that end, courted the catholic church. In January 1923, cardinal Gasparri, the Vatican Secretary of State, was assigned to deal with Il Duce and they struck a bargain.
The catholic church would support not the catholic Party, but the Fascist Party, and, in return, Mussolini would restore the ancient privileges of the catholic church.
on February 21, 1923, the Dean of the college of cardinals, Vincenzo cardinal Vanutelli, said Mussolini ‘had been chosen to save the nation and restore her fortune.’
The Vatican ordered the catholic Party to disband on June 9, 1923, and a large faction of it joined Mussolini’s Fascists.
In 1926, Mussolini made the catholic Party, along with other political parties, illegal — with no protest from Pius XI. Despite being a former atheist, Mussolini decided to enshrine catholicism as Italy’s religion and allowed himself to be baptised in 1927.
In 1929, he signed the Lateran Treaty making Vatican city a separate, independent state, recognised catholicism as the state-sponsored religion, and gave the church 750 million lire in compensation for the Vatican’s loss of sovereignty over the Papal States.
Mussolini stated: ‘ We recognise the pre- eminent place the catholic church holds in the religious life of the Italian people, which is perfectly natural in a catholic country such as ours, and under a Fascist regime.’
Peter Overhorn, Guildford, Surrey.