144 The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 
stately mansion may be seen, an imaginative, romantic person 
might almost fancy himself perched on the topmost bough of some 
gigantic tree,—the house to be the nest of some monster bird far 
exceeding in size ‘Sinbad’s Roc,”—and the circumjacent woods 
to be the entire top of that mammoth tree on which he is placed ; 
—so thick, so close, so dense is the leafy sea around him. 
To return to the immediate subject. So far as the tree now under 
notice (the beech) is concerned, Longleat swarms with noble speci- 
mens, although it is not so much the tree of the place as of 
Tottenham. With regard to other trees, it is rich indeed; almost 
every kind being found there of noble proportions and of great 
beauty. Perhaps it is most noted for its silver firs, unusually 
large specimens of which are to be found there, and will be more 
particularly noticed in their proper place, in speaking of other 
members of the “ Pine” family. It is also, or rather it has long 
been supposed to be famous for its Weymouth Pines. This tree, 
the “White Pine,” attains an enormous size in North America, 
one having been spoken of some thirty years ago in a work of repu- 
tation, as being then growing near Fort Astoria, on the banks of 
the river Columbia, which at fifty feet from the ground measured 
sixty feet in circumference, and ran to a height of two hundred 
feet, with a clear trunk, free from side branches, and a fine head 
above. It was introduced into England in the early part of the 
last century, was planted in considerable numbers at Longleat by 
the then noble owner, Lord Wrymourtu, and from that circumstance 
obtained its present well-known name. But they did not thrive, 
there or elsewhere, as it was expected they would: the soil or cli- 
mate of this kingdom not seeming to suit them. They never 
attained any very great size, and a very few only, and those but 
insignificant specimens remain. The probability is, that some 
person who visited Longleat, bearing in mind the connexion 
between the name of the noble owner of that noble estate, and the 
tree in question, mistook the grand silver firs, for which it is so 
justly famous, for Weymouth Pines, and hence the error. 
Before leaving the Brercu, the writer ventures to mention a tree 
not in this, but in an adjoining county. It stands at Corhampton, 

