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timber, if they do not surpass, those of the New Forest. 
One of the old oaks had a magnificent bole 20 feet in height to 
the branches, and girthing 16 feet 10 inches at 5 feet up. 
It was estimated that it contained about 550 cubic feet of 
timber. Hornbeam and larch also thrive well in this wood, in 
which likewise occur some fine examples of the Douglas fir. 
An oak in the centre of the wood measured 16 feet 4 inches 
in girth. We passed through the deer park, where, among 
the tall bracken, could be seen the deer sheltering themselves 
from the fierce rays of the sun. At another point, where the 
park was clear of undergrowth, a line of flags marked out a golf 
course, where the Marquis and the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, 
his nephew, play the Royal and Ancient Game. 
The Conduit Wood, to the east of the house, was examined 
with great interest. It is mentioned in Domesday Book as con- 
taining two thousand oak trees, and giving pannage for two 
thousand swine. The oaks, growing in a strong clayey soil, stand 
now about forty to the acre, and are admirable timber trees. 
One measuring 12 feet 3 inches at 5 feet up had a clean bole of 
50 feet to the forks, A very instructive visit was afterwards 
paid to the Brick-Kiln Wood, which was planted by Mr Barton 
about twelve years ago with oak, ash, and larch. The ground 
had been deeply ploughed, and drained, before the trees were put in. 
Foresters will recognise at once how well the trees have grown, 
when it is mentioned that the tallest larch is now 32 feet, 
and that on an average all the trees in the wood are fully 20 feet 
in height. In our walk in the vicinity of the Brick-Kiln Wood— 
where, by the way, the badger is still an inhabitant—we came upon 
an Italian poplar, Populus monilifera, about 120 feet in height 
and 8 feet 8 inches in girth, with the mistletoe growing freely ~ 
upon it; a splendid larch, 80 feet high and 8 feet 6 inches in 
girth; and a plantation of about 6 acres of the Spanish silver 
fir, Abies Pinsapo, and other Conifers, doing remarkably well. 
QUEEN ELIZABETH’s OAK. 
Our perambulation of the park brought us by-and-by to an old 
oak tree which links the present with a very interesting period of 
past English history. This is Queen Elizabeth’s oak (fig. B in 
illustration on next page). In an account of Hertfordshire trees 
‘in the Flora Hertfordiensis, the editor says: “Hatfield Park 
