FORESTRY 



tlieir treatment ; (4) the extent and nature of 

 recent plantations ; and (5) the method of plant- 

 ing usually followed on the estate. The details 

 kindly supplied by the courtesy of some pro- 

 prietors are unfortunately, however, insufficient 

 to furnish anything like a conspectus of the 

 present position and extent of arboriculture in the 

 county. 



The Althorp and Harleston estates in the 

 mid-division of Northants, the property of 

 Earl Spencer, are among the most interesting 

 from an arboricultural point of view. The soil 

 within Althorp Park (550 acres) is generally 

 favourable to the growth of fine trees ; it 

 varies from a stiflF loam to a rich red loamy 

 earth, resting on sandstone strongly impregnated 

 with iron, and all belonging geologically to the 

 Oolite formation. The park is situated between 

 320 and 450 feet above the sea-level. There is 

 an annual rainfall of about 25 inches. Arbori- 

 culture has been practised in Althorp Park for at 

 least 300 years, and many of the woods and 

 groves have commemorative stones, giving the 

 date of planting and the name of the lord in 

 possession at the time, e.g., 'This wood was 

 planted by Robert, Lord Spencer, in the year of 

 our Lord 1 602-1603.' ^^^ "^^e oldest of them 

 is dated 1567-1568, and Evelyn speaks of this 

 practice being ' the only instance I know of the 

 like in our country.' Within a radius of a mile 

 and a half of Althorp House the following 

 twenty remarkably large trees are to be found 

 which had attained the given measurements in 

 1893:—! 



Two of the most notable trees in the county 

 are, however, the ' Queen's Oak ' at Grafton, 

 and the ' Yardley Oak ' (also known as 

 ' Cowper's Oak ' and ' Judith ') at Yardley. 

 Tradition says that under the former, Elizabeth, 

 widow of Sir John Grey of Groby, who fell 

 at the battle of St. Albans, and whose estates 

 were forfeited, first met her second husband, 

 Edward IV, and pleaded for the restitution of 

 the family estates. The hollow trunk girths 

 22 feet at 5 feet from the ground. The 

 Yardley Oak is said to have been planted by a 

 niece of William the Conqueror, Judith, 

 countess of Northumberland, who held many 

 manors in Northants. The tree is a mere 

 hollow shell, girthing 30 feet at 3 feet above the 

 ground. Its other name commemorates Cowper 

 the poet's association with it ; and an inscription 

 attached to the tree says, ' Out of respect to the 

 memory of the poet Cowper, the Marquis of 

 Northampton is particularly desirous of preserving 

 this oak.' 2 



As in most of the other English counties, the 

 majority of the woods in Northamptonshire 

 principally serve the purposes of ornament and 

 of coverts for the protection of game. They 

 are consequently not worked upon sylvicultural 

 methods having as chief aim the growth of wood 

 upon commercial principles, but are rather treated 

 arboriculturally. The arboricultural method ob- 

 taining is the direct and natural outcome of the 

 British system of growing oak-trees in copses, 

 i.e., standards over coppice, which has prevailed 

 for centuries. This system was peculiarly 



1 F. Mitchell, in Trans, of Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society, vol. xiii, 1893, p. 90. 



* John Smith in Trans, of Royal Scottish Arboricul- 

 tural Soc. vol. xiii, 1893, p. 42. 



351 



