386 OBSERVATIONS 



I had begun with beeches, (my favourite trees, as 

 well as yours) ; I might then have seen very large 

 trees of my own raising. But I did not begin with 

 beech till 1741, and then by seed ; so that my largest 

 is now 5 feet from the ground, 6 feet 3 inches in 

 girth, and, with its head, spreads a circle of 20 yards 

 diameter. This tree was also dug round, washed, &c. 

 Stratton, 24th July, 1790." 



The circumference of trees planted by myself, at 

 one foot from the ground (1790) : 



The great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by 

 Mr. Marsham to be the biggest in this island, at 7 

 feet from the ground, measures, in circumference, 

 34 feet. It has, in old times, lost several of its 

 boughs, and is tending to decay. Mr. Marsham com 

 putes, that, at 14 feet length, this oak contains 1000 

 feet of timber. 



It has been the received opinion, that trees grow 

 in height only by their annual upper shoot. But 

 my neighbour, over the way, whose occupation 

 confines him to one spot, assures me, that trees are 

 expanded and raised in the lower parts also. The 

 reason that he gives is this : the point of one of my 

 firs began, for the first time, to peer over an opposite 

 roof at the beginning of summer ; but, before the 

 growing seasor. was over, the whole shoot of the 

 year, and three or four joints of the body beside, 

 became visible to him as he sits on his form in his 

 shop. According to this supposition, a tree may 



