586 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Sussex, the seat of Lord Le^onfield, where the soil seems particularly favourable to 

 very tall trees. A careful measurement of this in 1905 gave the height as 120 feet 

 by 1 1 feet in girth, and a bole of 35 to 40 feet, where it divides into two stems. Sir 

 Hugh Beevor, who saw it in 1904, did not make it quite so tall. This tree appears 

 in the foreground of Plate 162. 



No park in England contains a greater number of fine and picturesque old 

 pines than Bramshill Park, Hants, the seat of Sir Anthony Cope, who tells me 

 that he believes them to have been planted about the year 1600, and to be some 

 of the oldest in England. The soil here is very light and sandy, and the oldest 

 pines are in avenues, which have become rather irregular in course of time. The 

 tallest trees that I measured here were not over about 80 feet high by 10 to 12 feet 

 in girth, but there is one splendid tree in the Gravel Pit drive which is about 

 80 feet by 16 feet, of which I give an illustration (Plate 161). There are many self- 

 sown seedlings of various ages in this park, but no other trees of remarkable size.*. 



At Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire, the seat of the Rev. W. T. Blathwayt, there 

 is a very fine tree, of which I am indebted to the owner for a photograph, which 

 measures about 73^^ feet high by 14 feet 9 inches in girth, dividing at 4 feet into 

 three trunks. There are some very fine clean Scots pines in Stowe Park, near 

 Buckingham, one in the Queen's Quarter being over 100 feet high, with a clean bole 

 over 60 feet long and 11 feet 3 inches in girth. In the Fir Grove, at Bayfordbury, 

 Herts, there is a tree,^ with a clear stem of over 50 feet, which measured in 1905, 

 95 feet high by 9 feet 7 inches in girth. 



In Wales I have heard of no Scots pine of greater size than one at Penrhyn 

 Castle, which Henry measured in 1904, and found to be no feet by y^ feet, and 

 about 70 feet to the first branch. At Gwydyr Castle he measured one about 85 feet 

 by 1 1 feet 2 inches on which a mountain ash seedling was growing. 



In Scotland there are so many fine old trees that it is impossible to mention more 

 than a few of them. Perhaps the finest, if not the tallest, is a tree at Inveraray, of 

 which a beautiful photograph by the late Vernon Heath is in the museum at Kew. 

 I measured this tree in September 1905, when it seemed to have changed very little 

 in appearance, and though supported by chains above the fork, is very sound and 

 healthy. It measures no feet by 14 feet, forking at about 35 feet, and leaning 

 considerably to one side. The Duke of Argyll informs me that it was probably 

 planted about 1620. Plate 162 shows the present appearance of this tree. There 

 are many other very fine Scots pines at Inveraray on the lower slopes of Dun-i-cuach, 

 but none equal to this in height or girth. 



On the banks of the Tay, near Dunkeld, there is a very graceful tree of 

 weeping habit though of no great size (Plate 163), which measures yy feet by 11 

 feet 6 inches in girth ; and at Blair Atholl there are some curious old pines in a row 



' Bunbury, who visited Bramshill Park in 1859, mentions the tradition that these trees were introduced by James I. 

 from Scotland at the same time that he began building Bramshill, and states that there were three magnificent Scots pines 

 at Eversley Rectory, which were coeval with those of Bramshill. Cf. Lyell, Zj/i of Sir C. J. F. Bunbury, \\. 138, 139 

 (1906). 



' This tree measured, in i8i6, 5 feet 8 inches in girth, according to an entry in an old note-book, now in the possession 

 of Mi. H. Clinton Baker. 



