Report of Meetings for 1 891. By Dr J. Hardy. 283 



in the churchyard, and a fine Service-tree near the vicarage. 

 The girth of the Ash-tree at 3 feet from the ground is 15 feet 7 

 inches. 



The vicar led the way to the romantic wooded dean above the 

 church, by the footpath cut in places through the solid rock 

 across the steep bank. At the base, margining a flatter interval, 

 the limpid Hart lapsed gently along its rocky sandstone pave- 

 ment, widening lower down into the " Cobbler's Hole," which 

 the villagers imagine to be fathomless. The Silver Firs in this 

 retired and sheltered dean are remarkable for their dimensions ; 

 and the ash-trees are no despicable accompaniments. The two 

 largest Silver Firs are called the King and Queen of Hartburn, 

 and were planted according to Mr Selby's " British Trees," in 

 1755. The measurements of these two have been courteously 

 communicated by the Eev. J. 0. Kershaw since the meeting. 

 " Of the three which stand together, one is 13 ft. 2 in., another 

 13 ft., and the third 7 ft. 5 in. A Larch close to them is 10 ft. 

 8 in. ; all at 3 ft. above the sod line." Mr G. C. Atkinson 

 measured the Silver Firs in 1873; and found the girth of the 

 largest, at a height of 5 feet, to be 11 feet 7 inches ; and he 

 made its height to be 126 feet. ("Nat. Hist. Trans. Noithd, 

 and Durham," v., p. 82). He afterwards, p. 162, gives a caveat, 

 that owing to a strong set to one side, it appears shorter than it 

 really is. The native plants, so far as noted, were the Great 

 Wood Eush, much Herb Mercury, the Blue Bell {Endymion 

 nutans), Allium ursinum or Ramps, Primroses, Wood Anemone, 

 Lychnis dioica. Campanula latifolia. On record for Hartburn 

 there are also Ruhus saxatilis, Polypodium Dryopteris, Gagea 

 lutea, and Allium oleraceum, "on the Hartburn between Hart- 

 burn Grange and the Moor," gathered by Miss Emma 

 Trevelyan. 



The rocky hall or grotto formed by Archdeacon Thorpe, when 

 vicar here, 1749-1792, is dismal and damp. Away on the 

 opposite side, green ]iastoral banks stretched upwards. We 

 here said good-bye, with many thanks, to our courteous enter- 

 tainer, and resumed the journey ; crossing shortly after the 

 track of Watling Street, which proceeded by Harpeth Loaning 

 in the direction of Thornton Moor, having run straight from 

 near Bolam West House to Highlaws or Aynsley Hall, and 

 then over the Wansbeck to West Marlish, and keeping Hall's 



