EEV. DK. GEE FAMOUS TEEES IN HEETFOEDSHIRE. 7 



eflifice had to be placed on tliat storm-beaten rock. Then it is said 

 it struck him that if he could imitate the proportions of a tree 

 which weathers every blast, he might hope that his woi'k would 

 staud. He figured to himself a model tree with a real waist, which 

 would encourage the waves to curl over and discharge themselves 

 innocuously. On those lines he built, and the continuance of his 

 erection to this day shows that his labour was not in vain. Well, 

 we will distinguish the old knotted and gnarled patriarchs from 

 these their worthy congeners as best we may. But, applying our- 

 selves to take only the girth of a tree, we are in some indistinctness, 

 how to measure, or how to compare measurements. At what height 

 shall we take the girth ? Shall we be bound to take it at a certain 

 arbitrary height, though not the most favourable to the particular 

 tree ? I think not. I understand that we are to get the greatest 

 girth that can fairly be measured, after clearing the root knobs or 

 earth knots. This, for our own comparison, should be taken as 



Fig. 1.— The Lion Oak in Hatfield Park. 



nearly as possible at the same height in all trees. I approve of 

 Lord Verulam's rule of thumb. He always measures a tree at the 

 height of his own waistcoat pocket, he standing on the best side of 

 the tree for a ground level. Do what you will, trees will not 

 oblige you by coming into a competition upon terms of exact 

 equality. I have found two trees of which the girth of one was 

 the greater, but it was a hollow sinuous girth, while the less tree 

 met the tape evenly and closely on all its sides, and on that account 

 seemed really the finer tree. Then, what shall we lay down as our 

 unit of fame ? What size shall make a tree famous ? I distrust 

 some of the extreme measurements that are given," I have sceptical 

 doubts as to that tree in Hatfield Park, which, according to the 

 ' Quarterly Review,' measures 48 feet in circumference. If it be 

 the oak called the Lion Oak (Fig. 1), that tree I have measured 

 myself and find the circumference to be 31 feet. I have never been 

 able to measure more than one other tree all the way round that 



