444 The Natural History of Selborne 



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 at five feet from the ground, six feet three inches in girth, and 

 with its head spreads a circle of twenty yards diameter. This tree 

 was also dug round, washed, &c." Sratton, i^th July, 1790. 



The circumference of trees planted by myself at one foot from 

 the ground (1790). 



ft. in. 



Oak in 1730 4 5 



Ash 1730 . . 4 6 



Great fir 1751 . . 50 



Greatest beech 1751 . . 4 



Elm 1750 . 53 



Lime 1756 5 5 



The great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. Marsham to 

 be the biggest in this island, at seven feet from the ground, 

 measures in circumference thirty-four feet. It has in old times 

 lost several of its boughs, and is tending to decay. Mr. Marsham 

 computes, that at fourteen feet length this oak contains 1,000 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 peep over an opposite roof at the beginning of summer ; 

 but before the growing season 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 suppo- 

 sition, a tree may advance in height considerably, though the 

 summer shoot should be destroyed every year. WHITE. 



