3o8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



This shows an average number of trees per acre (omitting the oak poles) of 

 about 125, and a value of ^320 per acre. 



Perhaps the greatest increase of girth on record in the oak is cited by 

 Gadeau de Kerville ' of three oaks which were felled at Neauphe-sur-Dives (Orne) 

 in Normandy in 1894. Their exact age was not possible to decide, as they were 

 already trimmed and barked and part of the sapwood taken off, but the rings 

 counted by M. de Kerville were 115 to 120, and the girths 6.16, 4.98, and 4.28 

 metres respectively. He thought that they might be from 150 to 200 years at 

 most, and this would make the average annual increase of the largest, on the section 

 measured, over 5 centimetres per annum. 



Remarkable Trees 



The mass of information on the oak which exists in English literature, is so 

 great, so scattered, and often so impossible to verify, that I have had great difficulty 

 in making a selection of what is really valuable and authentic, and have preferred 

 rather to speak of trees and woods that we have seen ourselves, and to quote from 

 the letters of living correspondents, than to repeat what has been written by 

 Evelyn, Hunter, Strutt, Selby, Loudon, and other writers, whose works can 

 always be consulted by those desirous of more detailed particulars than our space 

 will allow. 



Some of the most wonderful oaks of England, which we have seen and now 

 figure, must be described more particularly, and among these I think the oaks of 

 Powis Castle, come first. Robert Marsham, in a letter communicated by Sir T. 

 Beevor to the Bath and West of England Societies Transactions, i. 78 (1783), 

 says: — "The handsomest oak I ever saw was in the Earl of Powis' noble park 

 by Ludlow in 1757, though it was but 16 feet 3 inches. But it ran straight and 

 clear of arms, I believe, near full 60 feet, and had a large and fine head." 



In April 1904 the Earl of Powis showed me some trees growing in his ancient 

 park at Powis Castle, near Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, which I believe to be actually 

 the champion oaks of Great Britain at the present time. They grow on a Silurian 

 formation at about 300 to 400 feet elevation, with an east aspect, and are, as far as 

 one can judge, perfectly sound in the butt, though one of them lost several branches 

 during the dry seasons between 1893 and 1903, and another has a large decayed 

 limb which, if not taken off, may cause the butt to decay. 



The measurements which I give were made most carefully by Mr. W. F. 

 Addie, agent for the Powis estates, who used a long ladder and a man "to climb 

 nearly all over them and take the length and girth of the principal branches down 

 to 6 mches quarter-girth. I checked the height and girth of the trunks myself as 

 carefully as possible, and believe that the following is a very accurate estimate. 



1 J.ei vieux arbrei Je la Ncnnandic, iii. 373 {1895). 



