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so, indeed, than the holly, hut much more easily and quickly obtained. The 

 brown leaves linger on them all the winter through, and do not fall till the 

 young leaves come again. It will be seen, therefore, that beech are particularly 

 suitable for ornamental planting. They harbour less damp than other trees. 

 They are available at all ages and in all situations. The ground under them is 

 always dry and free from weeds. No trees are so pleasant to sit under, and 

 so it has been always thought ever since the day when Virgil's shepherd rested 

 Beneath the shade which beechen boughs diffuse. 



Eclog. I, 1. 



There are two varieties of the beech which deserve a passing notice— the 

 Purple and Fern-leaved or Feather Beech. Loudon speaks of the latter as 

 more curious thin beautiful. I venture to think it is both. It is a tree that 

 grows freely and rapidly, forming a compact mass of foliage of somewhat pyia- 

 midal shape, each leaf being deeply cut, sometimes even to the midrib, not at 

 all unlike the fern to which it has been compared. It bears cutting as well as 

 the common beech. I saw one a few days ago, which had leaves of at least 

 three distinct types ; some simply shaped like those of the common beech, 

 others reduced to mere shreds and strips of leaf. 



The Purple or Copper Beech is more common. It grows very freely, 

 and has long pendulous boughs, which are very graceful. The contrast it 

 affords to ordinary foliage makes it very ornamental. 



It is as ornamental timber that the beech is generally to be found in 

 Herefordshire ; and it now remains for me to notice some of the most remark- 

 able trees that I have met with in the county, and to give some particulars 

 both of them and of others of which I have received accounts. 



At Croft Castle there are great numbers of beeches. A beech avenue 

 leads up to the castle on the east, more than half a mile long; and vtry 

 fine single trees are to be met with in the grounds. Among those in front of the 

 castle, between it and the road, are one of 14 feet in girth and two above 

 15 feet at 5 feet from the ground. These are handsome, shapely trees, rising 

 to a great height, and covering a wide extent with their ample foliage. In 

 the trench of the British Camp, which crowns the Ambury, the hill behind the 

 castle, there are a large number of very fine old beech, one of them 15 feet in 

 girth, and the others not much less. These trees mostly rise with clear single 

 trunks ; but it is very common to find two or more trunks forming apparently 

 one tree. In such cases the separate trucks sometimes grow together again 

 above, at some point of contact. Loudon gives two very good figures of such 

 trees : and I well remember that when I went to Selborne, now many years 

 ago, I saw on the Hanger there a very curious instance of the kind, of which I 

 made a memorandum at the time, which I have now before me. I mention this 

 because this tendency makes it difficult to say what is the girth of some beech 

 trees. Are you to reckon two closely-adjuiniDg trunks, springing from the 

 same root, as one tree or as two ? If as one, you must measure nearer to the 

 ground than our regulation 5 feet ; if as two, you treat one very fine tree as 



