The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 151 
for ten or twelve feet, and the larger ones which are thrown out 
at that height, sweep down to the ground or within a foot or two 
of it, and then rise again with a slight but graceful curve toa 
considerable distance,—some of them, where they have had space 
to grow and have not been broken or shortened, extending to a 
distance of forty-five feet or more from the bole, Thus had either 
of them stood alone with sufficient space around it, there is very 
little doubt but that the circumference of the spread of the branches 
might have been nearly, if not quite three hundred feet. Each 
tree is fully fifteen feet in circumference at between three and four 
feet ftom the ground, where the trunk is clear of those swellings 
that are so often found at, and just above the roots. At the ground 
one of them measured twenty-one feet in circumference. On the 
whole these two larch firs are the most worthy of notice of any the 
writer has seen. On the south side of Nonsuch House are the 
remains of an avenue of Scotch firs: good, tall, clean, straight 
- trees, and of fair size; one of them measuring ten feet in circum- 
ference at a foot from the ground. There is also a larch in the 
gardens at Tottenham Park, with the same history attached to it. 
It is from eighty to ninety feet in height ; the trunk is straight 
_ and sound, and at five feet from the ground measures eleven feet 
in circumference. Its branches sweep down to the ground, and 
then curve up again in the same manner as those at Nonsuch,—a 
graceful habit common to almost all larches of considerable age. 
- The spread of its branches is nearly three hundred feet in circum- 

bam 


ference. As a single tree, this is the handsomest larch the writer 
has seen. 
The Sitver Fir.—Longleat, as has been before stated, is the 
place where the most notable examples may be found. Besides 
individual trees scattered about in various parts of the grounds, 
there is a “grove of them” so called; but apparently from their 
standing in lines, they are part of what once was an avenue. 
Several of them are fine, perfect trees; others much broken by the 
wind, some of them snapped off short at twenty or thirty feet from 
the ground. Before they were so broken and disfigured, they 
must have presented a very grand appearance. Not many years 
