1 7 18 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



At Mount Edgecumbe, Henry saw in 191 1 a fine holly about 60 ft. high, with a 

 clean stem of 25 ft., measuring 6 ft. in girth. 



The longest holly hedge in England is probably one bounding the park at 

 Tyntesfield, near Bristol, the seat of G. A. Gibbs, Esq. Planted on a bank 3 feet 

 high it extends by the side of the public road for about two miles. It is about 4 ft. 

 high and 3 feet thick, and is very dense and even. At Kew there is a fine holly 

 hedge surrounding the shrub nursery, 1 which is 315 yards long, the greater part of 

 it 9 feet high and 4 feet wide, but one portion as much as 12 feet high and 7 feet in 

 width. A remarkable holly hedge 2 of great length at Keele Hall, Staffordshire, is 

 25 feet high and 30 feet in thickness. Near Bagshot a fine holly hedge 8 around a 

 private garden is 100 yards long and 40 feet high. 



At Gorddinog, Llanfairfechan, North Wales, there is a remarkable avenue of 

 yews, originally planted alternately with hollies, which the owner Colonel Henry 

 Piatt, C.B., considers to be very old, one yew tree bearing the date 1654 cut into 

 the bark, with the figures stretched by age to a foot in length. Most of the hollies 

 have died of old age, the largest one, which was 42 ft. high and 8 ft. 8 in. in girth, 

 succumbing last year. A few remain, about the same height, all very decayed, and 

 none exceeding 5^ ft. in girth. 



The finest golden variegated holly that we know of is growing in the 

 Isle of Man at Kirby Park, the seat of G. Drinkwater, Esq. In January 

 1 91 3 it was 46 ft. high and 6 ft. 8 in. in girth at one foot from the ground, 

 above which it divides into three stems, forming a beautiful narrow pyramid of 

 foliage. 



In Scotland the holly is quite as much at home as in England, and attains as 

 great a size. Hutchison, who gives a complete list 4 of the remarkable holly trees 

 in Scotland, states that they are most abundant in Morayshire and Aberdeenshire, in 

 the basins of the Findhorn, Spey, and Dee, where the climate is mild, and there are 

 numerous woods of ancient date. In Darnaway Forest, Morayshire, there are 

 thousands of hollies, many of large dimensions, the finest, measured by the forester 

 in 1 89 1, being 42 ft. high with a clean bole of 16 ft., girthing 9 ft. 4 in. at five feet from 

 the ground. These grow amidst oaks in a soil of reddish clayey loam, and are 

 supposed to be 200 years old. The most remarkable collection of varieties of the 

 holly is at Ochtertyre, Perthshire. Some of the oldest holly trees in Scotland 

 appear to be at Glenkill, near Lamlash, in the Isle of Arran, the finest measuring 

 in 1 89 1 50 ft. in height and 8 ft. 3 in. in girth at three feet from the ground. An 

 ash-tree, 30 ft. high and 2 ft. in girth, was growing, naturally grafted, on one of these 

 hollies, the junction being about three feet from the ground, where the holly was 

 8 ft. 1 in. in girth. 



Hunter records 5 a grand holly tree at Gourdiehill, Perthshire, which had a stem 



1 Dallimore, Holly, Yew, and Box, 32 (1908). ' Cf. Gard. Chron. xiii. 10, fig. 5 (1893). 



3 Described in Gard. Chron. xxvi. 424 (1899). A photograph of this is reproduced by Robinson, English Flower 

 Garden, 467 (1893). 



* Trans. Highland and Agric. Soc. Scotland, iv. 80-94 ('892). 

 6 Woods of Perthshire, 495 (1883). 



