WINDSOR ARK. 97 



elm being the favourite, in consequence of its large pro- 

 duction of successive crops of boughs, and its patience 

 under repeated mutilation. It was employed for the great 

 avenue of the Long Walk on the south approach to the 

 Castle. The couplet 



' Here aged trees cathedral walks compose, 

 And mount the hill in venerable rows,' 



applies to the present appearance of the avenue, which 

 Pope saw only in its infancy. The planting of the Long 

 Walk was commenced in 1680, on the purchase of the 

 fields lying between the Castle and the Great Park. The 

 distance from the Castle to the statue of George III. on 

 Snow Hill is two and three-quarter miles, and the length 

 of the avenue is rather less. The distance between the 

 two inner rows is 150 feet. The trees are ten yards apart 

 in the rows, and each tree composing the aisles at the 

 sides is thirty feet from its neighbour, which is considerably 

 less than it should have been. There were originally 

 1,652 trees. Those on the low ground, and on good loamy 

 land, ten or fifteen feet deep, on chalk, at the Castle end 

 of the avenue, are twice as large as those on the cold 

 stiff clay on the ascent towards the statue, and at this 

 southern end there have been some failures and replanting. 

 Mr Menzies, resident deputy-surveyor, mentions in his 

 History of Windsor Great Park and Windsor Forest that 

 red tape has been amply manifested in their unprosperous 

 condition. All the oldest planted woods are of about the 

 same date as the Long Walk. 



" In the plantation of oaks between Bishop's Gate and 

 the road running from the top of the Long Walk to Black- 

 ness there are thirty-two trees to the acre, containing on 

 an average 104 feet each of timber. They are sound, 

 healthy, and growing fast, the soil being a fine light loam 

 at top and a good clay below, and the land at planting was 

 trenched. There is a photograph of one of these oaks in 

 Mr Menzies ' magnificent work. The height is 100 feet, 

 the circumference of the trunk is nine feet at five feet 



H 



