330 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



speedily followed. Great trees, however, still remained till near the end of the 

 eighteenth century. At that time Mr. Sisson, who had purchased large quantities of 

 timber, was given an oak tree of his own choice as a present, and this tree was so 

 large that though forked at the base, each stem was big enough for a mill shaft at 

 more than 50 feet from the butt. Two pieces being appropriated to this use, he 

 sawed the remainder into panels for coach-building, which were sold for ;^250. In 

 the MSS. of Thomas, Marquess of Rockingham, it is recorded that in 1731 there 

 were standing in the deer park of Shillelagh 2150 oak trees, then valued at ;^83i7, 

 the timber being rated at is. 6d. a foot, and the bark at 7s. a barrel. In 1780 there 

 remained of the old reserves 38 trees, which contained 2588 feet of timber. In the 

 adjoining woods of Coolattin, in Hayes' time, there was a considerable number of 

 young healthy oaks, several being 7J feet in girth. 



I visited Coolattin in 1906 and was shown many fine trees, though none 

 were of great thickness, the best tree seen being 118 feet high with a clean bole to 

 40 feet and a girth of 1 3 feet. All the trees were Quercus sessilijiora. 



The largest oak wood in Ireland is in Viscount de Vesci's park at Abbeyleix, 

 Queen's County, where there are several hundred acres of trees of the pedunculate 

 species, growing very close together, especially on the alluvial flats along the river 

 Nore. The trees are of no great height, and have usually short boles with wide- 

 spreading, stout branches, the largest tree measured being 21 feet in girth. 



Hayes gives several instances of the remarkable growth of oak in Ireland. At 

 Ballybeg in Wicklow, a tree growing in alluvial soil, eighty years old, was 12 feet in 

 girth at 8 feet from the ground. At Muckross, Killarney, six trees sown in 1760 

 measured in 1 794, from 3 feet to 4 feet 1 1 inches in girth at 5 feet from the ground. 

 Ireland, renowned in ancient days for its oak timber, which was valued abroad, is now 

 singularly wanting in even good specimens of solitary oak trees ; and Loudon gave in 

 1838 no examples of fine oak trees growing in Ireland. The finest which have 

 been seen by me are : At Dartrey, Cootehill, the seat of the Earl of Dartrey, a 

 beautiful symmetrical pedunculate oak, 100 feet high with a girth of 14 feet 4 inches ; 

 at Kilmacurragh, Wicklow, a sessile oak \\\ feet in girth; at Glenstal, Limerick, a 

 tree of the same species \b\ feet in girth ; and at Shane's Castle, Antrim, a peduncu- 

 late oak 19 feet in girth. There are also many fine trees with good boles at Done- 

 raile Court, Co. Cork, the largest about 13 feet in girth. (A. H.) 



Remarkable Trees Abroad 



As the oak is one of the most characteristic British trees we give only a few 

 details of the remarkable oaks which we have seen on the Continent. A good 

 account of the trees in the forests of Retz, Compiegne, and St. Amand was written 

 by Prof Fisher in the Trans. Eng. Arb. Soc. v. 205. I took part in the 

 excursion which this paper records, and saw the splendid sessile oaks at 

 Compiegne, of which the one called the Czarina's Oak is the finest. This is as well- 

 grown, but not a finer tree than some of those which I have described and figured in 

 England, though in cubic contents inferior to several of them. The French measure- 



