A HISTORY OF KENT 



There are also many other parks in the county, all more or less well wooded and some 

 of considerable extent where there are no deer. 



The chief of these are Chevening Park, the seat of Earl Stanhope, which has an area 

 of S50 acres, delightfully picturesque and beautifully wooded ; Belmont Park, Lord Harris, 

 500 well-wooded acres ; Fredville Park, of 300 acres, containing the celebrated old oak which 

 has a girth of 35 ft. ; Old Park, near Dover, 410 acres ; Goddington Park, in Great Chart 

 parish, which is well wooded and incloses 400 acres ; Hothfield Park, Lord Hothfield, 350 

 well-watered and beautifully timbered acres ; Linton Park, another well-wooded domain 

 of 385 acres ; Penshurst Park, undulating and containing some magnificent old timber, of 

 about 350 acres ; and Hole Park, Rolvenden, remarkably well wooded, and having an area 

 of 260 acres. Other good parks of less size are those of Addington, Bedgebury, Betteshanger, 

 Dawson, Holwood, Preston Hall, and Swifts, Cranbrook. 



There are open commons with a good deal of brushwood and some larger timber at Hayes, 

 Keston, West Wickham, and Tunbridge Wells. 



Horsmonden is a parish celebrated for the luxuriant growth of its forest trees of oak, 

 chestnut, elm, beech, and ash. Knockholt, on the high ground of the chalk plateau a few miles 

 to the north-west of Sevenoaks, has a remarkably fine clump of old trees known as the Knock- 

 holt Beeches ; they stand 770 ft. above the sea-level, and form a landmark for many miles 

 around. Within the churchyard of Headcorn, one of the We.nld parishes, is an immense oak 

 of great age, having a girth of 40 ft. ; it is looked upon as a relic of the ancient forest of 

 Andred. 



The attention given of late years to arboriculture and planting throughout England 

 has brought about a most marked result. There is an increase in England's woodlands of 

 about 200,000 acres in the last twenty years. In this happy result Kent has taken a considerable 

 share, though the growth has been slight in the last decade. The woodland area of Kent, 

 according to official returns, was 85,887 acres in 1888, but in 1891 the amount had grown 

 ^o 96,333 acres. In 1895 the total had risen to 98,302 acres, and on June 4, 1905 (the last 

 occasion on which a full return was made), the total had reached 98,871. Of this last total 

 75,820 acres are returned as coppice, that is woods that are cut over periodically and reproduce 

 themselves naturallv by stool shoots ; 1,431 acres as plantations, that is planted or replanted 

 within the last ten years ; whilst the remainder, 21,620 acres, are entered as ' other woods.' 



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