172 



THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 



Photograph by kind permission oj H. J. Elwes, Esq. 

 Oak in Kyre Park Worcestershire. 



forests. Yet with 

 that curious attitude 

 in which the average 

 Englishman ignores 

 the value of the pro- 

 ducts of his own 

 country and utilises 

 instead those of 

 foreign lands, such 

 trees as these become 

 well known, whilst 

 others in England, 

 of equal quality and 

 as large dimensions, 

 remain unnoticed. 



For instance, in 

 Kyre Park, Worcester- 

 shire, the property of 

 Mrs. Baldwin Childe, 

 is an oak grove con- 

 taining over one hun- 

 dred trees, whose 

 clean, straight stems 

 are of a wonderful 

 height. H. J. Elwes, 

 writing of them, says 

 "... they are not so 

 remarkable for their 

 girth as for the way 

 in which they run up 

 with clear stems to 

 a great height. The 

 two tallest are cer- 

 tainly over 130 feet 

 by my own measure- 

 ments in 1907. . . • 

 The largest . . . has 

 a stem 83 feet long 

 by 17 feet 8 inches 

 in girth at 5 feet, and 

 contains 103 1 cubic 

 feet of timber. Four- 

 teen of them contain 



