1354 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



on Plate 208, there are two remarkably tall trees, which in 1903 I estimated at 140 

 to 150 ft., but owing to the steep slope on which they grow, and to the adjoining 

 trees, I could not measure a base line. They were 11 ft. 6 in. and loj ft. m girth 

 in 1906. Mr. Harold Pearson has recently had these measured by Mr. T. Roberts, 

 forester at Cowdray, who informs me that he levelled a base line, and found the 

 height in January 191 1 to be 153 ft.; but this tree which has three leaders is not so 

 handsome as the other, which he thought was about 148 ft, high. 



The tallest which I have myself measured are two trees growing on the 

 edge of the lake near Fountains Abbey, Studley Royal, Yorkshire, which Loudon 

 describes as the tallest spruces known to him, and says were 132 ft. high. When 

 I saw them in 1905 I found one to be 140 ft. by 12 ft. 10 in., and the other 

 137 ft. by II ft. They are free from branches for 30 to 40 ft., and seemed in 

 excellent health, though probably over 150 years old (Plate 341). 



In Earl Bathurst's woods at Cirencester there are two narrow avenues of spruce 

 known as the Cathedral firs, because they resemble the cross aisles of a cathedral. 

 Of these Plate 342, from a negative taken by Mr. T. E. Gerald Strickland, gives 

 an excellent picture as they were four years ago, but since then several have been 

 blown down, one of which was over 100 ft. high, and showed on the stump 134 

 annual rings. Those standing average from 1 10 to 1 20 ft. high by 8 to 10 ft. in girth. 



On my own land at Lyde near Colesborne, in a deep sheltered valley, there 

 is a tree about 125 ft. by 8 ft., but this is beginning to decay at the base, though 

 not much over 100 years old. 



At Bowood, Wilts, I saw a very fine tree which measured, in 1908, 125 ft. by 

 10 ft. 8 in. ; but there may be better ones here. 



On the Earl of Powis's estate at Walcot, Shropshire, there is a wood of spruce 

 about 100 years old on a steep hill-side next to the Plassey plantation, a photograph 

 of which has been reproduced in the Quarterly Journal of Forestry, iii. p. 358. I 

 have seen no spruce plantation in England which equals this, and am indebted to 

 Mr. R. H. Newill, agent for the estate, for the following account : — 



" When I came to measure up an area in the Spruce Plantation, near Plassey, 

 I found it difficult to find a piece without any gaps in it, as the wind has been busy 

 of late years, and has blown down many trees. Eventually I chose a piece near 

 the top and squared \\ chain along the bank and i chain down it, an area of 0.15 

 acre. On this were twenty-two trees standing, of which I enclose measurements.^ 



Total 



22 trees, 1401 cubic feet. 



