430 Report of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy. 



and there are beds of butter-bur. The giant bell-flower ( Cam- 

 panula laUfolia) grows near the footpath, in the wooded part of 

 the dean above the house. There are here exposed small sections 

 of the sandstone rock, which rises obliquely at a considerable 

 angle in white and red seams. A band of *' keel " or ruddle 

 occurs in a quarry on the south side. On the north, where we 

 emerge on Biel property, the rock ap]Dears to be a compact red 

 marl. It is occupied by a fragment of aboriginal wood. The 

 rest of this northern bank is in grass. Eound its lower margin 

 the rivulet made a fine semicircular sweep below a rocky bank 

 clothed with tall beeches and elms, of a pale green hue at this 

 season, especially the clusters of elm seeds ; whence the wind, 

 keeping up a continuous sighing, wafted the withered envelopes 

 of the bursting foliage, that dropping in successive streams to the 

 sheltered side, wove a sort of gauzy mist in the sunshine. The 

 seclusion here is perfect. 



The Biel policies were entered at the eastern lodge by the 

 drive that crosses the deer-park. There is a considerable stock 

 of fallow-deer, but none of them were visible. The park has 

 scattered clumps, and broader masses of beech and other trees 

 crowning the elevated positions, and there are trees in rows as if 

 the remnants of old hedges. The wooded screen between the 

 park and the burn is not broad. It is composed mostly of large 

 beeches, oaks, and elms ; the beeches predominate both in num- 

 bers and magnitude. There is a fine cluster of rough-barked 

 Spanish chestnuts among the oaks. The oaks are stiff, short 

 stemmed examples, remarkably umbrageous. There is an impos- 

 ing line of beeches on the side of the park on the bank opposite 

 the mansion house, and viewed from the front of it, they have a 

 fine effect. One of the finest trees on the place grows here, at the 

 height of 120 feet above sea-level. By Mr Hutchison's mea- 

 surement it is 105 feet high ; its bole is 38 feet long ; its circum- 

 ference at one foot from the ground is 11 feet 10 inches ; and at 

 5 feet, 11 feet 8 inches. 



The house is not visible till a descent is made to the burn, and 

 then it appears on the edge of the northern raised bank when 

 looked up to, as a vast combination of handsome buildings, of a 

 variety of ages, and of no particular style, almost street-like in 

 its proportions, — surmounting a series of stone terraces, tier above 

 tier, overhung or decorated with the foliage of shrubs and creepers 

 cultivated in the intervening spaces. Between the base of the 



