154 The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 
good height and great beauty are not at all uncommon. It is un- 
necessary to enumerate the places where they are to be found. 
Strange to say, the two which have been most frequently named 
here—Longleat and Tottenham—are not at all famed for them. 
But Bowoop and Witton may boast of splendid specimens. The 
latter, so far as the writer’s knowledge goes, contains the best tree in 
the county. It stands in the gardens and is called the “Earl’s Tree.” 
And the writer believes he was quite justified in speaking of it 
as the best cedar in the county. But he had no idea it is so grand 
a tree, or that it is found in such company as itis. Thanks toa 
friend, the reader shall have full particulars. One of the principal 
trees of the group, for there are twenty-four of them upon the 
lawn between the house and the water, measures as follows. The 
circumference of the stem at one foot from the ground is twenty- 
one feet, and at eight feet from the ground twenty-two feet. At 
twelve feet high six enormous limbs, each measuring ten feet 
in circumference, spring from the main stem. Immediately above 
these, at an elevation of fifteen feet, the main stem measures 
nineteen feet. At twenty feet from the ground, the main trunk 
divides into seven distinct and enormous limbs, some of them 
exceeding in size those already mentioned, the whole of which, 
vigourous and healthy, reach a height of upwards of a hundred 
feet. Each of these is equal in height to an ordinary tree, and the 
effect is very grand. The tree just specified is not the largest, but 
from its more favourable position produces the most striking effect. 
If Loudon is correct that these cedars were raised between the 
years 1710, and 1720, and taking into consideration that they 
had been confined in pots some ten or twenty years, then indeed 
is there no comparison between the growth of the cedar and 
any common tree. When the writer was a boy, it was a com- 
mon saying that an “Ash” would buy a horse before an “Oak” 
would buy a saddle. Why; any one of these would buy a whole 
team of good horses! The Evercreen Oak so well known in 
some parts of England, is almost unknown in other districts not 
far apart, or known only as a fine shrub. But where they grow 
and thrive as they do at Wilton, they are worthy being ele- 
