648 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



some I have mentioned ; and at this fine place I also remarked a large 

 sycamore, with the bark scaling off in a very unusual way, so that it resembled 

 the bark of an old hickory. I am indebted to Capt. Parkin for a good photo- 

 graph of this curious tree. 



At Mitford Castle, near Morpeth, Northumberland, the seat of Edward Mitford, 

 Esq., Mr. W. H. Mason informs me that there is a very fine tree, about 100 feet 

 in height, with a girth of 18^ feet, and a spread of branches 102 yards in 

 circumference. 



In Wales there are many fine trees, the largest that I know being at 

 Dynevor Park, where the Hon. Walter Rice has measured one 81 feet by 15 feet 

 3 inches in girth. At Gwydyr Castle, Carnarvonshire, a tree, dividing into two 

 stems at ten feet from the ground, is 86 feet high by 14 feet 8 inches in girth. 



In Scotland nearly every large place has fine sycamores, some of great age ; 

 but I have seen none to surpass in size, shape, and perfection the one which I 

 figure (Plate 180) in front of Newbattle Abbey. This tree in 1904 was about 

 95 feet high by 16 feet 6 inches in girth at 5 feet, below which its roots spread 

 out very widely. There are other large sycamores here, said by Loudon to 

 have been planted before the Reformation, and one, which I could not identify, 

 before 1530. Judging, however, from a beautiful photograph taken by Col. 

 Thynne, the Newbattle tree is exceeded in height and equalled in girth by one 

 (Plate 181) at Drumlanrig Castle, the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch, of which 

 he gives the height as 105 feet and the girth 19 feet 6 inches. Henry, however, 

 who measured the same tree in December 1904, made it 10 1 feet by 18 feet, with 

 a bole 22 feet high dividing into two large stems. 



At Castle Menzies, Perthshire, there are two magnificent trees, the largest of 

 which is figured by Hunter.^ I found it in April 1904 to be 92 feet high by 

 19 feet 2 inches in girth. Probably this is the same of which Hunter says that it 

 contains upwards of 1000 feet of timber. I have a good photograph of it, but prefer 

 to figure (Plate 182) another sycamore, also at Castle Menzies, which, though not 

 so tall, is 20 feet 4 inches in girth, and is remarkable on account of its short 

 trunk, covered with great burrs and excrescences. 



The tallest tree of this species which we know in any country is one at 

 Blair Drummond, Perthshire, the seat of H. S. Home Drummond, Esq., which 

 is drawn up in a dense wood behind the house. It was measured by Henry 

 in 1904 as no less than 108 feet in height, though only 10 feet in girth. In 

 open ground on the same property there is another tree ^ of an entirely different 

 character, which is 19^ feet in girth with a short bole of 9 feet, dividing into 

 two great limbs and forming a very widespreading crown. Its height is only 

 85 feet. Large variegated sycamores, one 70 feet high by 13 feet 10 inches in 

 girth, also are growing at Blair Drummond, 



At Kippenross, near Dunblane, the seat of Captain Stirling, there are the 



' iVoods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire, 397 (1883). 



' In Loudon, Gard. Mag. 1840, p. 505, there is a list of measurements of trees at Blair Drummond ; and a sycamore, 

 So feet high and 16 feet in girth in 1841, is probably this tree. 



