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INCIDENTAL NOTES ON REMARKABLE TREES 

 IN HEREFORDSHIRE. 



BY A COMMISSIONER FROM THE WOOLHOPE CLUB. 



(N.B. — The circumference of the trees is always measured at 5ft. from the [/round 

 when not otherwise stated, and it will also save repetition to remember that the 

 figures given always refer to feet and inches.) 



"Hail ! old patrician trees, so great and good, 

 Hail ! ye plebian underwood, 



Where the poetic birds rejoice, 

 And for their quiet nests and plenteous food, 



Pay with their grateful voice. 



Here Nature does a house for me erect ; 

 Nature, the wisest architect, 



Who those fond artists does despise, 

 That can the fair and living trees neglect, 



Yet the dead timber prize." — Cowley. 



Hail ! all hail, too ! to those scattered trees that have struggled through 

 difficulties and conquered neglect to take unlooked for forms of beauty. Such 

 trees in this luxuriant county are too frequent to be remarkable, and necessarily 

 do not attain any great size, yet the eye ever lingers on them with pleasure, and 

 they live in the memory as the redeeming points of a landscape that might 

 otherwise be common place. Such trees do not come within the scope of these 

 "Incidental Notes," which string together the description and exact measure- 

 ment of some of the many trees to be found in Herefordshire which have not 

 yet been noticed in the Transactions of the Woolhope Club, and which from 

 one cause or another are remarkable. 



The Oak tree is the great characteristic of Herefordshire. Pollard Oaks 



of considerable size are very numerous throughout the county. In many a 



meadow they form excellent rubbing posts for the cattle, and their remaining 



boughs shelter them from the sun's heat. In many a home orchard or rick-yard 



they serve as props for the hop poles, and in their hollow centres the turkeys 



make their nest. The great secret perhaps of their being so many, is that the 



storms which destroyed their tops rendered them useless for timber ; and so it 



could be said of them 



" Thou temptest none but rather much forbidd'st 

 The fellers toil which thou couldst ill requite." 



and thus they have been allowed to grow to their full size and take in their 



