



























The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 141 
alive, by all means let it be cut sloping wnder, so that neither rain 
“nor snow may lodge on the cut, as, when that is the case the stump 
soon decays at the centre and forms a tube which will convey water 
to the very heart of the tree, and consequently cause it to become 
rotten and worthless. Let it never be forgotten that generally 
‘speaking the more branches and leaves a tree has, the quicker and 
sreater will be its growth; every leaf being a mouth, and every 
tw g and every branch a throat to convey nutriment to the body 
of ad tree. What: so frightful as a tree ripe almost to the tops 
or what so absurd as to suppose that a tree so maltreated can thrive 
like one left to its kind nursing-mother, nature ? To promote the 
growth of trees in a plantation, give them air and room, not by 
depriving them of the means of taking food by such foolish prun- 
ing, but by a judicious thinning of the whole plantation, a weeding 
of _ removing the small and weakly plants, and not, as is too 
or: Brrcu.—This tree standing next to the elm in point of 
numbers in this county, deserves the second place here. As the elm 
predominates in the vales, so does the beech on the high grounds. 
jven on the poorest downs where the chalk is barely covered with 
l, it thrives better than almost any other tree, and in many 
ses thrives well. But the part of the county where it may be 
md in the greatest numbers and of the greatest size and beauty, 
is neither a vale nor a chalk down. Still it is high ground. It is 
han dly necessary to say that Tottenham Park is the place indicated, 
‘There it is found not only in the greatest numbers, but of the 
greatest beauty. Well does the writer remember, and never, while 
memory remains, will he forget the impression which the first view 
_ of the sylvan beauties of that park and of Savernake Forest made 
upon him. The grand avenue through which you enter from 
Marlborough ; the clumps with which the park is dotted; the noble 
single trees which continually present themselves; the beauty of 
he forest itself with its lovely glades, its giant oaks, its wide 
