ROYAL CHASE OF SHIRLOT. 51 



a patriarclial-looking ash in the public road at Bar- 

 row ; another is an oak near the Dean ; it is one 

 of which the present noble owner of Willey shows 

 the greatest pride and care. There are also two 

 noble trees at Shipton and Larden ; the one at the 

 latter place being a fine beech, the branches of 

 which, when tipped with foliage, have a circum- 

 ference of 35 yards. A magnificent oak, recently 

 cut down in Corve Dale, contained 300 cubic feet 

 of timber, and was 18 feet in circumference. This, 

 however, was a sapling compared with that king of 

 forest trees which Loudon describes as having been 

 cut down in Willey Park. It spread 114 feet, and 

 had a trunk 9 feet in diameter, exclusive of the 

 bark. It contained 24 cords of yard wood, 11 J 

 cords of four-feet wood, 252 park palings, six feet 

 long, 1 load of cooper's wood, 16 J tons of timber in 

 all the boughs ; 28 tons of timber in the body, and 

 this besides fagots and boughs that had dropped ofi": — 



" What tales, if there be tongues in trees, 

 Those giant oaks could tell, 

 Of beings born and buried here ; 

 Tales of the peasant and the peer, 

 Tales of the bridal and the bier 

 The vrelcome and farewell." 



The old oak forests and chestnut groves which sup- 



