138 NOTES ON TREES. [D^c., 



its spreading habit. The name Wych, an old English word signifying 

 strong, was probably conferred upon it from the character of its 

 timber. 



About forty places in England were named from the Elm, showing 

 what an old favourite it is. Among famous Elms are those at Long- 

 leat, Sion House, Hatfield, Lord Bathurst's Park, Cirencester, Easby, 

 and Eichmond, Yorkshire ; and those in the London parks should be 

 mentioned, though their size is not remarkable, comparing them with 

 the giants elsewhere. A touching history belongs to a couple of Elms 

 in St. James's Park, standing near the entrance to Spring Gardens, 

 and familiar to the millions who come down for the parades or inspec- 

 tions which are often held in the space close by, opposite the Horse 

 Guards. The trees were planted by the Duke of Gloucester, brother 

 to Charles I., and in walking down with his guards from St. James's to 

 Whitehall on the morning of his execution, the unfortunate monarch 

 pointed to the trees, and remarked that his brother was their planter. 

 They have never thriven well. 



The P)EECH. — The exclusive Beech overshadows other timber on dry 

 hills, in the Chiltern Hundreds, the Blenheim Woods, and those of 

 ' Sylva' Evelyn at Wotton, and on the chalk ranges and coral rag in 

 the central parts of the country. It is indigenous in these districts, 

 and arrived in Scotland and Ireland in the sixteenth century. 

 Perhaps I may quit these shores for a moment to observe that the 

 Beech covers the southern slopes of the Alps, having the Silver Fir as 

 a vis-a-vis on the opposite and colder aspect. The beauty of the 

 wide- spreading Beech of Virgil was denied by Gilpin, who could have 

 never seen, one might suppose, Evelyn's Woods at sunset, or the 

 Burnham specimens, in which Gray delighted, or those in Windsor 

 Park, where there is a girth to record of 38 ft. 



The Beech is undoubtedly a native tree, but not wide-spread in 

 England, or known in Wales, Scotland, or the Lake District, except 

 by introduction. The late ]\Ir. Hewett C. Watson, in Cyhele 

 Britannica, remarks : ' It may be said that the Beech is certainly 

 native in the provinces of the Channel and Thames, probably so in 

 those of the Ouse, Trent, ]\Iersey, and Severn ; also in the Peninsula, 

 at least in its most easterly county of Somerset,' It ascends to an 

 altitude of from 100 to 200 yards in England. 



Sir T. Dick Lauder, one of tlie editors of Forest Scenery, has 

 explained that Gilpin's depreciation of the Beech was the error of an 

 artist, his love of the pencil led him astray ; that is to say the Beech 

 is not an artist's tree, and does not occasion pleasurable associations 

 in an artist's mind. The excuse is graceful, but a little lame, for if a 

 Beech be ' one of the most magnificent objects of God's fair creation,' 

 as Sir T, D, Lauder admits it to be, the true artist must needs be its 

 admirer. 



