140 SYLVA SCOT1CA. 



THE WYCH ELMS AT POLLOC. 



THIS graceful group of Wych Elms stands on the 

 banks of the river Cart; at Police, in Renfrewshire, 

 just beneath the site of the castle, occupied by the 

 ancestors of Sir John Maxwell, Bart., the present 

 proprietor, since the forfeiture of the Earl of Niths- 

 dale, about the middle of the thirteenth century, 

 chief of the family of Maxwell. 



The principal tree in this group is of extraordi- 

 nary health and vigour, and does not exhibit the 

 slightest appearance of decay ; it is completely 

 covered with foliage, and its leaves, instead of being 

 small, as is generally the case in old trees, are large 

 and luxuriant ; it still sends forth its tribute of new 

 shoots annually to the spring, and continues to in- 

 crease both in height and girth. In 1812, it was 

 ten feet ten inches in circumference at five feet 

 from the ground ; in 1824, it measured eighteen feet 

 one inch in circumference, at the surface of the 

 ground, and eleven feet ten inches at five feet from 

 the ground : its height is eighty-eight feet, and it 

 contains six hundred and sixty-nine feet of solid 

 timber. 



