295 



in height, at one foot from the ground the trunk measures 2ft. 7in., and 

 it has a foliage diameter of 8ft. 



The " Lower Meadow" in front of the house in the old maps and deeds of 

 the estate is called the Drummercraft," probably from the Anglo-Saxon "Domne 

 Croft" — domini prediolum, "The master's meadow." 



In the middle of this meadow, fronting the house, are a dozen "Walnut 

 trees. They form a short avenue as if at one time they too were intended for 

 an approach to the house. As tbey are thus seen in prospective, they form a 

 very handsome group, with lofty heads, strong gracefully-spreading branches, 

 and the pale deeply furrowed bark, peculiar to the Walnut. The oldest and 

 largest trees are nearest to the house, and gave these dimensions in girth : 10ft. 

 9in. ; 9ft. 9in. ; 12ft. 3in. ; lift. Sin. ; 10ft. 7in. ; and 8ft. Tin. ; and were judged 

 to be from 60 to 70 feet in height. 



At the beginning of this century they were in great danger. Walnut 

 wood for gun-stocks was in urgent demand, and a long price was offered for these 

 trees, but the late Mr. Davies resisted the temptation. He valued them too 

 highly as ornamental trees to lose them at any price, and so "Diana's Grove" was 

 spared. Of late years, however, it has happily been invaded in another way, for 

 now in their branches — 



"Rooks unnumbered build their nests. 

 Deliberate birds and prudent all : 

 Their notes indeed are harsh and rude. 

 But they're a social multitude." 



It is quite clear that Crabbe did not understand the rook language, or he 

 would have said something in praise of its variety, and the musical sweetness of 

 its softer guttural notes. These trees, alas ! are also tenanted by woodpeckers, 

 starlings, and jackdaws, and lively though they too may be, they afford a painful 

 proof of the trees being past their prime. 



That the valley is admirably adapted for timber growing the measurements 

 of the trees already given prove, and still more clearly does a walk through 

 it for it abounds in Oaks that are already getting "sizeable" — trees that make 

 a timber dealer's eyes sparkle, " quartering 2 to 2J," and running their boles well 

 up into their branches, "useful for everything." Occasionally, as in the Yeld 

 meadow, one falls in with a pollard that gives over 15ft. in girth, but beyond 

 those which have already been given there are no trees remarkable for great size. 



In the course of his perambulations your Commissioner came upon a young 

 plantation of Larch to the north of the valley, hard by the farm of Cotmore. 

 He was reminded by it of a fine plantation of Oak he once met with where the 

 trees some thirty years old all of them sent up straight boles from 20 to 30 feet 

 high without a branch, and on enquiring how they had been educated in this 

 very proper manner, he was told that they were self-sown acorns in a young 

 plantation of Larch. This indeed has long been a recognised method of growing 

 Oak timber. The crop of Larch is first gathered at interval?, and a still more 



