the trees of great britain & ireland - Facsimile Books & other digitally ...

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