50 ON THE OLD AND KEMAKKABLE 



says, " also of an uncommon bulk, and long accounted the largest 

 tree in Scotland." This famous tree, which has now ceased to exist, 

 is noticed by Dr Walker, in his catalogue of old and remarkable 

 trees already referred to. In noticing it he says — " The great 

 chestnut, which stood at Finhaven in Eorfarshire, was long 

 accounted the largest tree in Scotland. In the year 1760, a great 

 part of the trunk of this remarkable tree and some of its branches 

 remained. The measures of this tree were taken before two justices 

 of the peace in the year 1 744. By an attested copy of this measure- 

 ment it appeared at that time that at half a foot above the ground 

 it was 42 feet 8^ inches. As this chestnut appears from its dimen- 

 sions to have been planted about five hundred years ago " (Walker 

 wrote in 1812), " it may be presumed to be the oldest planted tree 

 that is extant or that we have any account of in Scotland." * 



So venerable a trunk in our northern climate compares favour- 

 ably with the famous Tortworth chestnut in Gloucestershire, which 

 is generally supposed to have been planted in the time of the 

 Eoman occupation of Britain, and which certainly in the reign of 

 King John was known as a landmark or boundary tree, and 

 which in the reign of Stephen was so remarkable for its size and 

 dimensions as to be familiarly called in charters of that period, 

 " the Great Chestnut of Tortworth." Bradley, in his " Philosophi- 

 cal Account of the Works of Nature," written in 1739, states 

 that the Tortworth chestnut then measured 51 feet in circumfer- 

 ence 6 feet above ground. In the " Bath Memoirs " of 1780, it is 

 stated that in the year 1759 a chestnut in Lord Ducie's garden at 

 Tortworth in Gloucestershire measured 46 feet 6 inches, 6 feet 

 high. How to reconcile the discrepancy between these two 

 recorded measurements of what is evidently the same tree, it is 

 difficult to say, but we must proceed upon the assumption that 

 in the smaller recorded girth, though at a period of twenty years 

 later, more care was taken to avoid " burrs " or excrescences, 

 which so frequently occur in the Spanish chestnut near the 

 conoidal base of the trunk; although it is quite possible that 

 with a decaying trunk twenty years' interval may have caused 



* From information kindly furnished by Colonel Gardyne of Finavon, we learn 

 tliat this celebrated tree was dead, and cut down during the time of Laird James 

 C. Gardyne, about twenty years ago. He had some furniture made of so much of 

 the wood as was good. An old print of the tree, dated 1745, still exists in Finavon 

 House, representing only a part of the tree as alive at that time. The following 

 inscription appears on this'print:— " The Chestnut tree in the Park of Finhaven, 

 in the county of Forfar. The dimensions of the tree as measured by two justices 

 of the peace, are — The circumference of the smallest grain is 13 feet 2| inches. 

 The circumference of the largest grain is 23 feet 9 inches. The circumference of 

 the smallest part of the trunk is 30 feet 7 inches. The circumference of the top of 

 the trunk where the grains branch out is 35 feet 9 inches. The circumference of 

 the root end of the trunk, half a foot above the ground, is 42 feet 8^ inches. — At 

 Finhaven, Airril 20, 1745. " Until lately the name of the place was spelt Finhaven, 

 but was always pronounced locally Finavon, and on inquiry, Colonel Gardyne 

 i iound that in 1715 the name was spelt Finavon, Avhich is the correct manner. 



