Editor s Box. 505 



Sir, — Uudei" similar circumstances to " Plautatimes " (see page 437), I 

 put in a belt of alternate evergreen oak and various thorns, backed up 

 by English maple and mountain ash, all four of which trees are low and 

 dense in habit. I filled out with larch, silver poplar, and silver birch, to 

 make a screen quickly, the last three named to come out in due course 

 as the first grew- up. "Willows and poplars form but a poor screen when 

 the leaves are off". Qucrcus ilex has to be transplanted in a small state, 

 on account of its tap-root. If " Plantatunes " puts in a few Acer negundo 

 they will grow quickly, and soon help the plantation up. 



C. J. Nayloe. 

 Bnjnlhjivarch, Montgomeryshire. 



THE STORM. 



SiE, — It may interest your readers to know that the storm which was 

 telegraphed from America on the 8th October as being on its way to us 

 across the Atlantic broke over this place with the greatest violence on the 

 morning of Thursday, the 11th ult. About nine o'clock, while the Avind 

 was blowing steadily from the south-east, a dark cloud was seen gathering 

 in the north, which in a short time assumed a most appalling aspect 

 as it came rolling up almost in the teeth of the wind. The darkness 

 became intensified as a heavy shower of snow began to fall, the snowflakes 

 being seen with great distinctness against the dark background. 



At twenty minutes past nine the opposing currents of air seemed to 

 meet at a point near the confluence of the North and South Esk rivers, 

 being nearly the lowest and most secluded part of the grounds within the 

 Park. I will not risk any opinion as to the cause of the phenomena, but 

 can only say that in the short space of two minutes the scene that 

 followed was one of the wildest ever witnessed here. A. large ash tree, 

 fully three feet in diameter at the root, had its entire top carried away, 

 leaving a bare trunk standing twenty feet high, and split nearly half-way 

 down. Another ash, not quite so large, had all its branches wrenched off 

 about three feet from the trunk. A fine old oak, a remnant of the 

 old Caledonian forest, was snapped over four feet from the ground, while an 

 elm covered with ivy was torn up bodily by the roots, and these with 

 a great number of branches from other trees were all piled upon each other 

 in the greatest confusion. 



A large hay stack standing near by was also seized upon, and its thatch 

 with a large quantity of hay was driven amongst the trees, with all the 

 force of an explosion, the hay and straw being twisted amongst the branches 

 in the most fantastic manner. Indeed, the damage, viewed as a whole, 

 resembled more the effects of an explosion than those of a gale, as it was 

 all confined within the radius of a hundred yards. 



The noise made by so much timber falling must have been very great, 

 and yet some men who were sitting at their breakfast in a shed quite close 

 to the place state that they heard nothing but the terrible roaring of the 



