42 EEV. J. C. CLTJTTEEBTJCK — PEODUCTS OF HERTFORDSHIEE. 



of coppice permitted by other forest trees. I am not sure that we 

 are told by CoBsar of what trees the forestry consisted in this part 

 of the county, of which he says of the Cassii and others : " Ab its 

 cognoscit, non Jonge ex eo loco oppidum Cassivellauni abesse, silvis paludi- 

 husque mimitum, quo satis magnus hominum pecorisque numerus con- 

 venerit. Oppidum autem Britanni vacant, quum silvas impeditas vallo 

 atque fossd munierunt, quo incursionis hostium vitandfB causa convenire 

 consuevertmt.^^ The beech on the Chalk, especially on the escarp- 

 ment overhanging the Vale of Aylesbury, furnishes material, which 

 it shares with the elm, oak, ask, and, I believe, cherry, for the 

 manufacture of chairs, of which Wycombe is the well-known 

 centre. In vindication of this distinction, Ave lately learned that 

 the Queen, when on her progress to visit the Prime Minister, stayed 

 on the way to look at and admire, before she passed under, a 

 triumphal arch composed of chairs. Whether any portion of these 

 chairs was of Hertfordshire growth we must be content to be 

 ignorant. The chestnut — the Spanish chestnut as it is called — 

 whether indigenous or imported, as you have been told by Canon 

 Gee, attains very large dimensions and great age. It enters into 

 the construction of many of our oldest buildings, and is often from 

 its similarity to oak mistaken for it. According to Clutterbuck, the 

 Wymondley Chestnut is described in Gilpin's 'Forest Scenery,' 

 and it is said that in 1789 it measured fourteen yards in circum- 

 ference at five feet from the ground. I have a drawing of the 

 Wymondley Chestnut by Thomas Hearne, a well-known artist of 

 the last and present century, who lies buried with his brother- 

 artists, Edridge and Henry Monro, in Bushey churchyard. The 

 drawing is dated 1795. The tree is spoken of by Canon Gee as a 

 wreck. A comparison of this very elaborate drawing with the 

 present tree would show the effect of more than 80 years on that 

 venerable production of Hertfordshire soil.* 



Of trees of foreign rather than English origin, the fir grove at 

 Cassiobury shows the size to which this tree may attain in a soil 

 suited to its growth — probably a deep loam on gravel resting on 

 chalk. There is an old and interesting book, written by Moses 

 Cook, gardener to the Earl of Essex, bearing date 1724, on the 

 manner of raising, and ordering, and improving forest ti'ees. He 

 speaks of planting the lime trees, in and about that seat of the Earl 

 of Essex, whom he alludes to as a great planter ; thus we have a 

 clue to the age of the lime trees at Cassiobury,f most of these 

 trees having been raised by him at Hadham Hall. The cedar attains 

 gigantic growth at Chorlcywood. It has been observed by a per- 

 son well skilled in forestry that some of the largest trees are found 

 where there is subsoil water, as in this case, and that its removal 

 endangers the life of the tree. I know some cases in which this 

 has been the effect on elm trees. When it was proposed by the 

 Thames Conservancy to lower the level of the Thames where that 



* A very clever copy of this drawing has been presented to the Society by Mr. 

 Clutterbuck.— Ed. 

 t Many other trees were most probably planted here at this time. 



