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on the highest point of the hill, where a station of the new Government Survey 
wasfound. From the pocket instrument carried by the Rev. H. B. D. Marshall, the 
height of this spot was found to be nearly 500 feet above Bucknell Station, which 
was about 300 feet above Barr’s Court Station level, and thus the highest point in 
Brampton Bryan Park is some 960 or 980 feet above sea level, an approximation 
which must serve until the precise details are published by the Government 
Survey. The magnificent scenery from this spot would take long to describe. It 
must be seen to be realised. Time did not admit of a descent down the southern 
dingle of the park by the magnificent wych elm at its head (whose measurement 
stands in the archives of the club at 18ft. 8in. in circumference at 5ft. from the 
ground), nor could the oaks, sweet chestnuts, or beech trees be visited. However, 
the commissioner of the club was there some fourteen years ago, and a few 
passages from his report in the transactions of 1870 will be interesting now. 
Brampton Bryan Park is noted for its fine timber, its varied scenery, and above 
aud beyond all, perhaps, for the great number and variety of its picturesque trees. 
A wise judgment here leaves the beauty and grandeur of tree growth to be well 
contrasted with the wild havoc of the storm ; so that the pleasure of a ramble up 
its steep slopes, or through its shady dingles, is greatly heightened by the lesson 
so quietly enforced 
Shadow and shine is life, flower and thorn. 
The thoughtful mind sets itself intuitively to read the record of centuries written 
here, and tries to trace the effects of that violent storm of September 3rd, 1658, at 
the time of Cromwell’s death, which is known to have been very destructive here, 
breaking and uprooting the trees in a broad band across the whole park. Claren- 
don and all historians noticed this violent tempest, which seemed, indeed, as if 
Nature herself took notice of his death. 
And his partizans and his enemies did not fail each to interpret it as a confirma- 
tion of their own particular prejudices. Waller, in his poem on the death of the 
Lord Protector, says for his friends :— 
We must resign. Heaven his great soul does claim, 
In storms as loud as his immortal fame ; 
His dying groans, his last breath shakes our isle, 
And trees uncut fall for his funeral pile. 
The Royalists read this great disturbance of the elements in rather a different 
sense, and in this particular locality the saying has come down that “the devil 
dragged Oliver Cromwell across Brampton Bryan Park to spite the Harleys.” 
Sir Edward Harley, then in posssession of the estate, though himself a Round- 
head, quarrelled with Cromwell on the King’s death, and they became bitter 
enemies. After the great storm which occurred when he died, Sir Edward wrote 
to a friend—‘‘I wish the devil had taken him any other way than through my 
park, for not content with doing me all the mischief he could while alive, he has 
knocked over some of my finest trees in his progress downwards.” The tradition 
still remains that ever since that period, on one day in the year, the devil still 
rushes across Brampton Bryan Park. Be this as it may, no Satanic influence 
marred the pleasure of the club’s visit on this occasion ; nor was it likely, said one 
clerical member, that it would do so on St. Peter’s day. Had he taken this day 
