Ulmus 1 9 1 9 



Oxfordshire may be called par excellence the county of the elm, and it would be 

 hard to find a place in it, except in the barest parts of the Cotswolds, where they do 

 not form a conspicuous feature of the landscape. Among the parks where they grow 

 best the following may be mentioned : Barrington, Blenheim, Cornbury, Fawley 

 Court, Heythrop, Thame. At Brightwell Park, among a number of large old 

 elms, I measured in 1905 two trees, 119 ft. by 17^ ft. and no ft. by 19 ft. respec- 

 tively ; and probably larger ones can be found. One of the oldest in this county 

 is the " Tubney Tree " at a roadside meet of the Old Berkshire hounds, eight 

 miles from Oxford. This has larger leaves than usual, but no suberose branches. 

 Its trunk is 27 ft. in girth, and still fairly sound, and at about 20 ft. from the ground 

 divides into five ascending limbs, which were topped about twenty -five years 

 ago, and have thrown out many healthy branches. The Rev. H. J. Bidder of St. 

 John's College has a water-colour drawing of this tree, made before it was topped. 

 In Magdalen College Park at Oxford there are some very tall English elms, one 

 being, in 1905, 134 ft. by 13 ft. 5 in. 



In Shropshire, notwithstanding the splendid soil, the elms are not so large as 

 the oaks ; and in Somersetshire 1 I have neither seen nor heard of any elms of larger 

 size than one in the park at Dunster Castle, which in 1904 measured 120 ft. by 22 ft. 

 The same remarks apply to Staffordshire and Suffolk. 



Surrey and Sussex are more remarkable for conifers than for elms, and my 

 local knowledge is not enough to enable me to indicate where the finest elms are 

 to be found. Among the innumerable residences with which these counties are 

 so thickly studded, no part of England would better repay the researches of any 

 one interested in trees ; and we have probably missed some of great rarity, though 

 we have visited a great number of places in these counties. Henry measured in 

 1905 in Betchworth Park, near Dorking, an English elm 122 ft. in height and 23 

 ft. in girth. 



Warwickshire and Worcestershire are, like Oxford and Gloucester, renowned 

 for large and fine elms. Loudon recorded at Coombe Abbey a tree, 1 50 ft. high and 

 28^ ft. in girth, which I fear no longer exists, as I could find none nearly as large 

 now standing at that place. 



In Mr. Berkeley's park at Spetchley, near Worcester, there are great numbers 

 of large trees, about 200 years of age. I measured one 108 ft. by 21^ ft.; 

 another 127 ft. by 14 ft. ; and in front of the house, one with very large spread- 

 ing branches, 125 ft. by 20 ft. The largest in girth was 22 ft. 8 in., broken 

 off at about 20 ft. up. At Ombersley Court, 6 miles north of Worcester, Lord 

 Sandys showed me the remains of a huge tree, only the ivy-covered stump of which 

 is left, and measures about 23 ft. in girth. From it about 1 700 ft. of timber was 

 sold ; and I was assured by Mr. Groom of Hereford that this tree contained 2000 ft. 

 of timber. A little way off I measured a tree, which is perhaps the largest sound 

 English elm now standing, and which I found to be 130 ft. high by 23^ ft. in 

 girth ; another in the park was 125 ft. by 21^ ft. 



1 Babbage, in Loudon, Card. Mag. xvii. 356 (1 84 1), and xviii. 488 (1842) gave particulars of English elms at Nettle- 

 combe Court one, only eighty years old, having a clean trunk 32 ft. long, with a middle girth of 12 ft., containing 200 

 cubic fL of timber ; and another, sixty-nine years old, containing 360 ft. in the trunk, and 120 ft. in the top and branches. 



