1878 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



And so as to the number of Tunns according to the scantlings first above mentioned, 

 they computed it to contain (after their gross country way of measure) 96 tuns of 

 timber, a vast quantity indeed for one tree. But whoever will take the pains to 

 cast it nicely and more artificially, according to the above measured scantlings, will 

 find that it must contain 100 tuns at least of neat timber, a fifth part (which is 

 sufficient in such large butts) being allowed for wast of rind, chips, etc." 



Now as one can hardly believe that eight persons would have signed their 

 name to such a statement if they had not believed it to be true, we have dimensions 

 which though they cannot be exact, seem to be unequalled by any hardwood tree on 

 record out of the tropics ; and though the quantity of firewood seems incredible, yet 

 if the number of tons be estimated at only 40 ft. to the ton there is something like 

 4000 cubic ft. of timber, or if the firewood is estimated only at 50 ft. to the load, and 

 the nathes and board at 1000 ft., the volume is 4050 ft., nearly double the contents 

 of the largest tree now standing. 



Aubrey, 1 Natural History of Wilts, 56 (1685), says : " At Dunhead, St. Marie's, 

 at the crosse is a wich-hazell not less worthy of remarque ... for the large circum- 

 ference of the shadowe that it causeth. When I was a boy, the bowyers did use 

 them to make bowes, and they are the next best to yew." 



In Scotland, though the tree is common I have not seen or heard of any of 

 exceptional size. Hunter 2 mentions a good many, but rarely distinguishes between 

 the wych and other elms. Among these the following may be noticed : A tree at 

 Moncreiffe House, which has layered itself in several places ; and a tree at Kinfauns 

 Castle, Perthshire, for which it is said that ^50 was offered forty years ago though 

 only computed to contain 460 feet of timber. It was in 1883 about 70 ft. high by 

 17 ft. in girth at the smallest place, seven feet from the ground. It was figured by 

 Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1403, fig. 1244 (1838). 



In the Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland the same confusion has taken 

 place, the Scotch elm being considered as a variety only and not distinguished 

 in the returns given, but probably most of them relate to the wych elm. The 

 largest of these was a tree then in a decaying condition at Myres in Fifeshire, stated 

 to be 75 ft. by 20 ft. at 9 feet from the ground, dividing into two main stems 16 ft. 

 and 9 ft. in girth. Loudon 8 speaks of an elm near Roxburgh in Teviotdale, called 

 "the Trysting Tree," which, when measured in 1796, was 30 ft. in girth at four feet 

 from the ground. The tallest of which we have any record is a tree measured by 

 Mr. Bean at Dalkeith 4 which was 125 ft. high by 13 ft. 9 in. at four feet. 



Strutt, in his Sylva Scotica, plate iv, figures a group of four wych elms at 

 Pollok in Renfrewshire, the seat of Sir John Stirling Maxwell, Bart., which were then 

 in extraordinary health and vigour, and of which the largest, measured 5 in 1824, was 

 85 ft. by 1 1 ft. 10 in., and contained 669 cubic feet of timber. Mr. Renwick informed 

 me that two of these which remained, were cut down in 1905 and were 90 to 96 ft. 

 high and 12 ft. in girth. The other two were blown down about eleven years 



1 Quoted by Rev. T. A. Preston, in Trans. Wilts. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. 1888, p. 269. 



1 Woods of Perthshire, 134, 486 (1883). s Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1402 (1838). * Gard. Chron. xli. 168 (1907). 

 6 Loudon, Gard. Mag. xiii. 167 (1837) in an account of the trees at Pollok, states that the largest elm was, in 1836, 

 90 ft. high and 11 ft. 9 in. in girth close to the ground. 



