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12 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland At Slindon Wood, near Petworth, Sussex, between the South Downs and the sea, which is seven miles distant, on the property of Major Leslie, there was in 1903 one of the finest beech woods in England, growing on chalk soil, of which I have particulars from Mr. C. H. Greenwood, and of which I give an illustration from a photograph sent me by him (Plate 6). Mr. Greenwood states that 634 trees were recently cut and sold in this wood, many of them being 70 and several 80 to 90 feet long to the first limb, and quarter girthing 20 inches in the middle. One tree now standing measures, without the top, 70' x 26" = 320 feet, and on one acre at the east side of the wood are standing 60 which would average 150 feet each, making 9000 cubic feet to the acre. The tallest tree is 90 feet to the first bough, with 21 inches £ girth = 275 feet. This is perhaps the largest yield of beech per acre of which I have any record in England. In Windsor Park there are some fine old beeches, of which three are figured by Menzies. 1 His plate 4 shows a remarkable old pollard at Ascot Gate 30 feet in girth, which he supposed to be 800 years old, and another, his plate 6, on Smith's lawn, of similar age and 31 feet 9 inches in girth. The third, Queen Adelaide's Beech, is a tree of no great size or beauty. It measured in 1864 8 feet 6 inches in girth, when supposed by Menzies to be 140 years old. In 1904 it had only increased 10 inches in girth. The finest beech now growing at Windsor Mr. Simmonds, the deputy-surveyor of the Park, who was good enough to show it to me, agrees in this is a tree near Cranbourne Tower, which in March 1904 measured 125 feet by 15, with a fine clean bole, but not equal to that of the Queen Beech at Ashridge. The two largest beech trees, of whose measurement I have exact particulars, were both blown down in the heavy gale of September 1903, I believe on the same night. One of these was at Cowdray Park in Sussex, the property of the Earl of Egmont, and grew on sandy soil near the top of the great chestnut avenue at a considerable elevation, perhaps 400 feet. I saw it lying on the ground not long after, and ob tained from Mr. Barber, steward on the estate, the following careful measure ments : Butt 22 feet by 72 inches £ girth =792 feet. Limbs measured down to 9 inches \ girth only, 43 in number, contained 924 feet 6 inches. Total 1716 feet 6 inches. Measured on the ground 2ist September 1903. The other was the great beech at Cornbury Park, of which I give a photograph taken after its fall (Plate 7), that gives an idea of its immense size. I saw the stump of this tree two years afterwards, and counted about 230 rings in it, which justify the belief that it may have been planted by Evelyn. Mr. C. A. Fellowes, agent for the property, had the tree carefully measured after its fall, and gives its height as 120 feet, girth 21 feet 4 inches. Cubic contents 1796 feet (nothing under 6 inches quarter girth being measured). A magnificent beech growing in Studley Park, the seat of the Marquis of Ripon, was figured by Loudon, iii. 1955, and is there stated to have been 114 feet high. 1 History of Windsor Great Park and Windsor Forest, 1 864. Fagus Mr. O. H. Wade, agent for the estate, tells me that this tree cannot now be identified. Another celebrated tree, mentioned by Loudon as Pontey's Beech, was measured for him in 1837 by the direction of the Duke of Bedford in the Park at Woburn Abbey. It was then 100 feet high, with a clean bole of 50 feet, and was 12 feet 6 inches in girth at 4 feet. When visited in July 1903 it was about the same height and 14 feet 6 inches in girth, and was estimated to contain nearly 600 cubic feet. A tree known as the Corton Beech at Boyton, Wilts, once the home of Mr. Lambert, author of the Genus Pinus, and mentioned by Loudon as one of the largest in England, was blown down a few years ago, and I have not been able to get its dimensions. There were some very fine beeches at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, the seat of the Earl of Carlisle, one of which Loudon gives as no feet by 14 feet 2 inches, with a clean bole of 70 feet, and the other as containing 940 feet of timber, but when I visited this fine place in 1905 I could not identify either of these trees as still standing, though I saw many in Raywood of great size, with clean boles of 50 to 60 feet. A tree standing outside the garden wall was remarkable for the very rugged bark on its trunk, which up to 8 to 10 feet from the ground was more like that of an elm than a beech. In Scotland, though the beech does not attain quite the same height and size as in some parts of England, it is a fine and commonly planted tree. The self-layered beech at Newbattle Abbey near Dalkeith, the property of the Marquess of Lothian, eight miles from Edinburgh, must be looked on as the most remarkable, if not the largest, of all the beeches of the park or spreading type now standing in Britain; and though difficult to represent such a tree by photography in a manner to show its great size, every pains has been taken by Mr. Wallace of Dalkeith to do it justice (Plates 8 and 9). This splendid tree is growing in light alluvial soil in front of the house, and not far from the banks of the North Esk river, and may be 300 years old or more. It was in London's time 88 feet high, and the trunk 9 feet in diameter (probably at the base), with a spread of branches of 100 feet. When I visited it in February 1904 under the guidance of Mr. Ramsay, who has known the tree for many years, I made it about 105 feet high, with a girth at about 5 feet which is near the narrowest part of the bole of 21 feet 6 inches. The trunk, as will be seen from the figure, is unusual in shape, and shows no sign of decay except where one large limb has been blown off, and this has been carefully covered with lead. But the numerous branches which have drooped to the ground, taken root, and formed a circle of subsidiary stems round the main trunk, are its most peculiar feature, and may remain as large trees for centuries after the central stem decays. The first of these has produced 7 stems of various sizes growing into fresh trees, at a distance of 8 to 12 yards from the trunk. The second has 2 large and 3 smaller stems. The third has 3 large stems about 30 to 40 feet high and 3 to 4 feet in girth. The fourth has 3 large and 6 smaller ones. The-fifth is not yet firmly rooted, but is fastened down in several places to prevent the wind from moving it. The total circumference of
2,4 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland these branches is about 400 feet. Detailed measurements by Mr. Ramsay are given below. 1 A similar instance of self-layering, perfectly natural, was to be seen in the Kew Gardens, where a very fine beech, though by no means such a giant as the Newbattle tree, was surrounded by a fence in order to protect it. This tree, however, having become seriously decayed, had its main stem cut down in 1904. Among the best specimens I have seen in Scotland are those at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, the seat of the Marquess of Linlithgow, where I measured a tree no feet high, with a clean bole of about 50 feet, and a girth of 12 feet. At Blair Drummond, near Perth, the seat of H. S. Home Drummond, Esq., Henry measured one of 117 feet high by 16 feet 6 inches in girth, and at Methven Castle, the seat of Colonel Smythe, another which is 120 feet high by 17 feet 2 inches in girth. This tree divides into three stems at about 20 feet, and is the tallest of which we have any certain record in Scotland. At Gordon Castle is a very fine beech with spreading roots (Plate 10) measuring 95 feet by 15 feet 8 inches. At Castle Menzies, Perthshire, the property of Sir Neil Menzies, is a very fine beech, which is described by Hunter 2 as a vegetable "Siamese Twins." Whether originally two trees or one is difficult to say, but it seemed to me to be from a single root which had forked a little above the ground and then grown together again, leaving an opening through which Hunter says an ordinary sized person might pass, but which in 1904 was smaller. At Inverary Castle is another example of an inosculated beech, known as the Marriage Tree, which, from a photograph published by Valentine, does not seem to be so striking as the one at Castle Menzies. l Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, N.B. Measurement of the great beech tree, August 25, 1903, by Mr. John Ramsay. Girth in feet, inches, etc., of trunk At the ground About I foot up z\ feet 3 4 4i 5 6 43 feet 8 inches. The ground measurement was taken by allowing the tape to lie on the roots as near to the uprising of the biittiesses as possible, and is necessarily vague. The measurement at 6 feet up is the most correct, being taken on a line marked at intervals all round with while paint for future comparison. Circumference of foliage fully 400 feet; diameter of foliage averages 130 to 140 feet; height, 112 feet. The following are a few of the branches with the girth of them, and the girth of the branches springing up from the main branches rooted in the ground : No I. Branch girth, I foot 10 inches, with two branches growing up from it; girth of both these new branches, 4 feet 5 inches each. No. 2. Branch girth, I foot 8 inches, having three branches springing up from it, one 5 feet 5 inches, one 5 feet I inch, one 23 inches by I foot 11 inches in girth. No. 3. Branch girth, 12^ inches, having three branches springing up from it, one 4 feet 7^ inches, one 24^ inches, one 4 feet 4 inches in girth. No. 4. Branch girth, 12 inches, with two branches springing up from it, one 2 feet 8J inches, one 12 inches in girth. No. 5. Branch girth, I foot 7 inehes, with three branches springing up from it, one 2 feet 4| inches, one 12 inches, one 18 inches in girth. No. 6. Branch girth, 2 feet 4 inches, with five branches springiug up from it, one 4 feet 4 inches, one 3 feet 8 inches, one 4 feet, one 3 feet 4 inches, one i foot 11 inches in girth. 2 Hunter, Woods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire, 1 883, p. 397. 37 27 2S 23 21 2O 19 3i Fagus There are two beeches standing on a mound near the road to Lochfynehead in the Park at Inverary, which are known as the Doom trees, because in former times they were said to have been used as a gibbet for criminals; the largest of them measures 75 feet by 16 feet 5 inches. The Duke of Argyll, however, doubts this tradition. There is another very fine beech, the largest I know of in the West Highlands, at Ardkinglas, at the head of Lochfyne, under which Prince Charles's men are said to have camped in 1745. Though of no great height it has a girth of 18 feet 8 inches, and spread of branches 30 yards in diameter. In Ayrshire the largest beech is at Stair House. According to Renwick, 1 in 1903 it was 100 feet high, and 18 feet 9 inches at 4 feet 3 inches above the ground. At Kilkerran, in the same county, Renwick records a beech 21 feet 3^ inches at 3 feet from the ground, which, however, had a bole of only 4 feet. Other large beeches in Scotland occur at Eccles in Dumfriesshire and at Belton in East Lothian. The Eccles Beech, according to Sir R. Christison, was little inferior to the Newbattle Beech; according to Hutchinson, in 1869 it was 20 feet in girth at 4 feet up. I learn from Dr. Sharp that it has been dead for some years. The Belton Beech in 1880 was 20 feet 4 inches girth at 5 feet, with a i3-feet bole and a height of 63 feet. One of the most striking effects produced by the beech in Scotland is the celebrated beech hedge of Meikleour, in Perthshire, on the Marquess of Lansdowne's property. An account of this hedge is given in the Gardeners Chronicle, Dec. 15, 1900. This hedge forms the boundary between the grounds and the highway, and has to be cut in periodically, which is done by men working on a long ladder, from which they are able to reach with shears to about 60 feet. Local history says that this hedge was planted in 1745, and that the men who were planting it left their work to fight at the battle of Culloden, hiding their tools under the hedge, and never returning to claim them. 2 It is 580 yards long, and composed of tall, straight stems planted about 18 inches apart, and nearly touching at the base. The average height of the trees, as I am informed by Mr. Donald Matheson, is 95 feet, and their average girth at 3 feet is 18 to 36 inches. He adds that "close to the ground they are as fresh and green as a young hedge." An illustration of this hedge, taken specially for our work by Mr. D. Milne of Blairgowrie, gives a good idea of its appearance in October 1903 (Plate n). I am informed by Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P., that a remarkably similar occurrence is on record at Achnacarry, on the property of Cameron of Lochiel; here the trees were laid in ready to plant in 1715, and the men were also called off to take part in the rebellion of that year. The trees were never planted, and have grown up in a slanting position close together just as they were left. In a paper on the " Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland," published in 1867 by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, many other remark- 1 Renwick in British Association Handbook, p . 140 (1901). We are much indebted to Mt. John Renwick for measurements and descriptions of large and interesting trees in the south-west of Scotland. 2 Hunter, loc. cit. 3 79. I E
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2OO The Trees of Great Britain and
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a 7" KSrJi «£^«~ **». . "" ^ '"
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INARCHED BP;ECH AT ASIIRIDGE TLATE
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13KECII WOOD AT SLINHON A ru 6.
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BEECH AT NEWBATTLE Pi .ATE 8.
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I BEECH AT GORDON CASTLE TLAI-K 10.
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KING BEECH AT KNOLE I'LAIE 12.
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AILANTHUS AT BELTON PLATE 14.
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SOI'HORA AT CAMBRIDGE PLATE 16.
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ARAUCARIA FOREST IN CM ILK I'l.MT.
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ARAUCARIAS AT BEAUFORT
Page 133 and 134:
MAIDENHAIR T liEK AT FKOGMOKF. PLAT
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TULIP TREE IN NORTH CAROLINA 1'LATE
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TULIP TREE AT KILLERTON PLATE 26.
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PLATE SERVIAN SPRUCE IN BOSNIA 28.
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MENZIES' SPRUCE AT BEAUFORT PLATE 3
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YEW AVENUE AT MIDIIURST PLATE 32.
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i '*m i t /n b &; y'JM i /Jk, - •
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•• *-' YEW AT WHITTIKGHAME PLAT
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CRYPTOMERIA FOREST IN NORTH JAPAN 1
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CRYPTOMEKIAS AT IMAICHI I'l.ATE 40.
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CRYPTOMERIA AT HEMSTED PLATK 42.
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PYRUS. PLATE 44.
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SORB TREE AT ARLEV PLATE 46.
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SERVICE TREE AT RICKMANSWORTH >.mmm
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'^iji^m^^Jt^.^M. SERVICE TREE AT SY
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS IN VIRGINIA PLATE
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS AT SYON Tr.ATE 54
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GIANT THUYA IN VANCOUVER'S ISLAND P
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Plate 58 represents the trunk of wh
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j« WESTERN HEMLOCK GROWING ON FALL
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