8 REV. DE, GEE — FAMOUS TREES IN HERTFORDSniRE. 



measured more than 30 feet in circumference. That was the yew in 

 Crowhurst Churchyard in Sun-ey. It has a door in the side, and 

 several persons go in, and squeezing tight, declare that they are 

 able to sit round it inside. I would suggest that we take 20 feet 

 circumference as our starting-point, and that we make it our busi- 

 ness to be on bowing terms with all trees in West Herts of that 

 girth. You need not be afraid of an inconveniently large acquaint- 

 ance, while you will not be overwhelmed with everybody else's 

 favourite tree. 



The largest tree that I know, and seemingly the oldest, in 

 Hertfordshire, is the Spanish chestnut tree at Little Wymondley, 

 near Baldock. It is now the wreck of a wreck. There is not half of 

 its circumference standing, though a print at High Elms, of the year 

 1790, shows the tree as much more nearly perfect. An original 

 girth of 42 feet is claimed for this chestnut, and possibly may have 

 been attained ; but if so, the tree must have projected on the fallen 

 side, and would not be in anything like a circle with what is left. 

 It is still a grand old tree, and one is ready to believe that it was 

 standing at the time of the Conquest. There is no mention of it 

 however, in the Domesday Book of the parish. Wymondley, being 

 then king's land, stands in that book first of all in Hertfordshire. 

 'No ! nothing of this tree, though the account relates of the other 

 Wymondley that there is wood in this parish that would make 

 fences, and pasturage for so many sheep. Here I may notice the 

 value of our own researches, in that the size of particular trees 

 seems singularly ignored in all county histories. I have found no 

 Domesday notice, as I have said once, of particular trees. Looking 

 through the indices of Clutterbuck and of Chauncy, I have foimd 

 but one solitary tree specified in each. That in Chauncy is a 

 walnut tree at Codicote, now gone. It is stated by deposition 

 before a Justice of the Peace, that this tree covered 74 poles of 

 ground and took a lad of fifteen years, eight of his fathoms, to reach 

 round the trunk. My schoolmaster tells me that this area of 74 

 poles, supposing it to be a circle, represents an outstretch or radius 

 of 80 feet from the centre of the stem. 



Next to the trees already mentioned, the largest girth that I 

 know is of a pollard oak in Moor Park, that measures 25 feet, and 

 another near it measures 23 feet. There is also in this park a 

 prostrate lime mentioned in the Rev. C. A. Johns' book as among 

 the largest in England. It must have been a fine tree, though, like 

 the Codicote tree, its size lay in the space it covered, rather than in 

 its height or girth. Close behind it, and in the avenue or row 

 skirting the park, is another lime in full vigour, girthing 23 feet. 

 This is a beautiful tree. There are two beech trees in Cassiobury, 

 near the Swiss Cottage, both of which reach my standard of fame. 

 Lord Verulam writes me word that the Kennel Oak, at Gorhambury, 

 measures 23 feet. The Queen Oak measures 20 feet, and he has 

 a lime which measures 22 feet. He gives also as just below my 

 standard (being 19 feet IO7V inches) the Kiss Oak, the origin of 

 which title, his lordship thinks, is that the oak was cased or fenced. 



