120 



THE TREES OF PEXGETHLEY. 



Pengothley is situated about a mile and a half south from Harewood, and 

 very tempting and umbrageous the grounds look from the high road. Your 

 Commissioner has never visited them, nor, indeed, are there any very remarkable 

 timbt T trees there. A fine grove of growing oak tiees it is said, good some elm 

 and ash trees, and some beautiful specimens of the Conifers, but nothing of 

 great size. 



The absence of large trees seems explained when it is remembered that 

 the Colonel Symonds of the last generation was a member of Parliament for 23 

 years in succession. He represented the city of Hereford from the year 1796 

 iintil his death in 1819. He was elected five times, and on the last occasion, the 

 year before his death, in 1818, he fought a long struggle successfully. Let 

 entomologists say what they please as to the great ravages of the Zcuzera jEsculi 

 (1), the Lucanus cervus (2), the Dorcus iMralle^opipedus (3), or other insects, 

 but beyond all question the ^Estus poUticus is infinitely more fatal than any of 

 them in its effects on timber trees. A contested election often cuts off all the 

 finest and soundest trees on an estate with one fell swoop, and whole centuries 

 are sometimes requii-ed to restore the eflfects produced by its insatiable 

 demands. 



This may be the explanation here, or it may not ; deponent is unaware. 

 Certain it is from all accounts, that if wanting in size there are still trees of 

 interest and beauty there, and some very remarkable ones too in the district, 

 which have not yet been mentioned in this Report. Colonel Symonds has kindly 

 sent an excellent account of them to the Honorary Secretary of the Club, and 

 from his measurements in 1866 the following Report is chiefly drawn up. 



The Oaks at Pengethly are comparatively young trees. There is, however, 

 one — a mere shell— with a circumference of 17 feet 3 inches, and another tree 

 of 17 feet girth, very aged and of no value as a timber tree. In the Craddock 

 Wye meadows, Sellack, are two sound, healthy trees, the property of E. 

 Cad dick, Esq., which measure respectively 18 feet 4 inches and 16 feet 9 inches 

 jn circumference, at 5 feet from the ground ; and in Sellack parish there are 

 perhaps a score more trees exceeding 12 feet in girth. In the Foy meadows is 

 an oak, that Mr. Wilton, the rector of Foy, reports as measuring 23 feet 3 

 inches in girth. The largest oak at Lyston is 14 feet 9 inches in girth. 



In the Wilton meadows, opposite the town of Ross, on the Guy's Hospital 

 property, is the shell of an old oak, which measures 29 feet in circumference. 

 It is hollow, however, and has a wide opening from top to bottom, so that this 

 large measurement cannot be implicitly trusted. It was set on fire about 12 

 years since, and now but a few smaU branches remain alive. The tree is especially 



(1 . The Leopard moth. 

 (2 . The great Stag beetle. 

 (8;. The small Stag beetle. 



