Windso7' Forest and Park. 709 



sadly diminished and cut up ; the hedgerow trees were horribly- 

 mangled and trimmed up for firewood, the elm being the favourite, 

 in consequence of its large production of successive crops of boughs, 

 and its patience under repeated mutilation. It was employed for the 

 great avenue of the Long Walk on the south approach to the Castle. 

 The couplet — 



" Here aged trees cathedral walks compose, 

 And mount the hill in venerable rows," 



applies to the present appearance of the avenue, which Pope saw only 

 in its infancy. The planting of the Long Walk was commenced in 1680, 

 on the purchase of the fields lying between the Castle and the Great 

 Park. The distance from the Castle to the statue of George III. on 

 Snow Hill is two and three-quarter miles, and the length of the 

 avenue is rather less. The distance between the two inner rows is 

 150 feet. The trees are ten yards apart in the rows, and each tree 

 composing the aisles at the sides is thirty feet from its neighbour, 

 which is considerably less than it should have been. There were 

 originally 1,652 trees. Those on the low ground, and on good loamy 

 land, ten or fifteen feet deep, on chalk, at the Castle end of the avenue, 

 are twice as large as those on the cold stiff clay on the ascent towards 

 the statue, and at this southern end there have been some failures and 

 replanting. Mr. Menzies, the resident deputy surveyor, mentions in 

 his " History of Windsor Great Park and Windsor Forest " that red tape 

 has been amply manifested in their unprosperous condition. All the 

 oldest planted woods are of about the same date as the Long Walk. 



In the plantation of os.ks between Bishop's Gate and the road 

 running from the top of the Long Walk to Blackness there are thirty- 

 two trees to the acre, containing on an average 10-1 feet each of timber. 

 They are sound, healthy, and growing fast, the soil being a fine light 

 loam at top and a good clay below, and the land at planting was 

 trenched. There is a photograph of one of these oaks in Mr. 

 Menzies' magnificent work. The height is 100 feet, the circumference 

 of the trunk is nine feet at five feet from the ground. The tree will 

 be found standing at the edge of the wood close to the Eoyal Chapel. 

 The planting of the pleasure-grounds of the wilderness (now Cum- 

 berland Lodge) belong chiefly to the period betvveen 1695 and 1735. 



In 1711 Dean Swift visited Windsor, and wrote to Stella how 

 much the Long Walk surprised him. The Duchess of Marlborough 

 was then the Eanger, and so continued till her death in 1744, setting 

 the Court at defiance in a very termagant fashion. Among her 

 numerous complaints she declares she is out of pocket, keeping up the 

 lodges and paying the keepers, and " all she got was a few Welsli 

 knuts to eat and the grazing of some cows." At the age of eighty-four 

 she is still busy about the park, and often " in the vapours against 



VOL. I. 3 D 



