43 
Professor BAYLEY BALrour tendered the cordial thanks of 
the company to Mr and Mrs Smythe and family for their 
kindness, and expressed a hope that Colonel Smythe might 
see his way to allow some of the interesting records, of which 
mention has already been made, to be published. 
Colonel SMyTHE, in reply, expressed the pleasure it had been 
to them all to see the Arboricultural Society there that day. 
He had been a member of the Society for the past ten years, 
but he had never been able to attend any of the meetings. 
Professor Bayley Balfour had referred to Mr Bishop’s book. If 
it would be of any use to the Society, he should be glad to 
put it at their service. The record had been extremely well 
kept up to forty years ago, but since then there had not been 
so much put in. A beginning, however, had again been made, 
which he hoped would be continued. 
Leaving the castle, the party walked or drove through a bit 
of Methven Wood, heavily timbered with oak, larch, and beech, 
to the deep and romantic valley of the Almond, to see one of the 
largest beeches on the estate. The ground around it has been 
cleared to give this handsome tree light and air; and a more 
beautiful example of Fagus sylvatica could not be desired. It 
ranks among the largest beeches in the country. It is over 100 
feet in height, with a magnificent head adorned with the 
richest foliage. In the Woods and Forests of Perthshire, 1883, 
the girth of this grand tree is given at 14 feet 9 inches at 5 feet 
up. On measuring it the arborists got a girth of 16 feet 8 inches. 
It has a splendid bole of 20 feet, and divides there into five main 
limbs, each of which is in itself a respectable tree. In the 
immediate vicinity of the beech is a fine oak, which, however, 
from want of time, was not measured. In 1883 it was 8 feet 
9 inches in girth at 5 feet from the ground; and, throwing its 
arms over the Almond, is a handsome sycamore, also of large 
girth. The beech, it should be said, was grandly anchored in 
the ground by roots which gave at the base of the tree a 
measurement of nearly 24 feet; but it was observed with 
regret that rabbits had eaten away a good deal of the bark 
from the base. Colonel Smythe mentioned that he meant to 
surround the tree immediately with a rabbit-proof net. 
Methven Wood, through which we have been passing, is 
redolent of traditions of both the great Scottish liberators, 
Wallace and Bruce. There was a battle fought here between 
Bruce and the Earl of Pembroke in 1306, which ended dis- 
astrously to the Scots, who, tradition says, were encamped on 
this very spot where the beech tree now stands, cooking their 
supper, when Pembroke’s forces burst in upon them. 
On the way up from the dell attention was called to a fine 
