b EEV. DE. GEE FAMOTTS TEEES IN HEETFOEDSHIEE. 



Chestnut, whether horse or Spanish, should always be spelt with 

 a "t" in the middle, in honour of its derivation from chataigne 

 (French) and castanca (Latin), both of which words come from the 

 city of Castana in Pontus, whence chestnuts first came into Europe ; 

 as cherries came from a neighbouring town, Cerasus, now Korasaun. 

 I particularly admire, in large Spanish chestnut trees, as at Ashridge, 

 the twist, as of a rifle barrel, which the bark takes, giving the 

 effect of a spiral column, and making the tree look larger than it 

 really is. I was surprised to find one tree that I measured to be 

 only fourteen feet in circumference. And there is at Abbot's 

 Langlcy a singular instance of the horse chestnut taking fresh 

 root with its branches and springing out again, as does the banyan, 

 thicker than where it touches the ground. The road having been, 

 raised formerly under the large chestnut on the lawn of Langley 

 House, this process may clearly be traced where the earth has been 

 lifted up until the branches touched the soil. They have taken 

 root and sprung up in renewed vigour. The interest of this tree is 

 60 great that it throws literally into the shade the cedars on the 

 lawn, one of which is 16i feet round. 



I might leave out the larch as being a member of the excluded 

 Fir tribe. I would like to say a few words of this tree as being a 

 tender nursing mother or nursing father to the oak. In the only 

 forest of which I know anything — the Forest of Dean — they prepare 

 for planting, or I think I should say, sowing oaks, by planting 

 larches. These spring up soon and form a screen and shelter for the 

 more valuable seedlings. By the time that the oak can stand alone 

 the larch is valuable as a pole, and is then removed to the planter's 

 immediate profit. So is fulfilled the saying that "Larch will buy 

 you a horse when oak will not buy you a saddle." Still, as Sir 

 Walter Scott says, " Plant trees, good trees," for, as he piits into the 

 mouth of one of his characters, I think Dumbiedikes, " They'll aye 

 be creeping while ye are sleeping." 



Now I am at liberty to notice individual trees in Hertfordshire, 

 famous for their own grandeur, or for their story. Even in the 

 first di-vision of natural grandeur, I desire to make a subdivision. 

 There are trees famous for their girth, implying age and generally 

 involving decay. Some of our most venerable friends are mere 

 shells. There are others which stand erect in stalwart strength 

 and are solid and massive trees. Comparisons are odious ; but I 

 think we ought to do justice to the really vigorous and more natural 

 trees, for the greater girth will always be found in those which have 

 been polled or pollarded. I do not want you to look at a tree as 

 do some of my simpler neighbours, in whose minds at once rises the 

 consideration of what it would fetch when down. "I'd be bound 

 to say, sir, that there are four loads of timber in that tree. Why, 

 I recollect when a water wheel at such a mill wanted a new axle- 

 pin master got £50 for such a hoak." No ! I would deprecate so 

 commercial a view of the glories of our county. I would rather 

 ask you to look at a grand oak as Smeaton, the engineer of the 

 existing Eddystone Lighthouse, studied an oak when the third 



