Ulmus 191 5 



place, which will be found in the Report of the Commissioners of Woods to Parlia- 

 ment in March 1861. 



Along the Thames valley throughout Berks there are abundance of splendid 

 elms of the best type, but as far as I know none so large as exist farther 

 west. 



In Bucks, the same remarks apply to all the alluvial soil ; and those in the 

 playing fields at Eton must recall happy days to numbers of our readers, though 

 like some of the older elms in the country they are decaying and being replaced by 

 inferior grafted trees. The two best trees in 1907 were, 113 ft. by 17 ft. 8 in. and 

 115 ft. by 17 ft. 3 in., as measured by Henry. 



In Cambridgeshire we are out of the region of native English elms, but there 

 are some of good size in the College Backs at Cambridge. Two of the largest, 

 which grew in the grounds of St. John's College, and were known as the Sisters, 

 were blown down in the great gale of 14th October 1881, These were recorded at 

 the time by Mr. J. W. Clark,^ as 10 ft. in girth, and about 130 ft. in height to 

 the topmost branches. Prof Hughes^ counted 218 rings on the base of one of 

 the fallen trunks, showing that these elms were planted a few years after the 

 College grounds were laid out, as is generally supposed, in 1630. Perhaps the 

 finest English elm now at Cambridge is in the grounds of King's College, which 

 measured 130 ft. by 13 ft, in 1906. 



In Cheshire the only fair elms that I have seen are in the park at Eaton Hall ; 

 but I must confess that I have unduly neglected this county, where, perhaps on 

 account of the soil, trees do not generally attain a large size. 



In Cornwall true English elms are rare, if not entirely absent, all those which 

 I have seen being of other species,^ 



In Cumberland, and in Derbyshire we are too far north to see this tree at 

 home, but there are some fine trees in Kedleston Park. 



In Devonshire there are many splendid elms, among which I have seen none 

 finer than those at Powderham. Plate 404 shows a tree which, in 1902, when it 

 was photographed for this work, measured 125 ft. by 22 ft., but when I revisited 

 Powderham in 1906, it had lost a large limb. 



In Dorsetshire the finest elms I know of are at Melbury, where a row of seven, 

 known as the Seven Sisters, stand in front of the house, on what was described 

 by the gardener as a thin, but evidently a very fertile soil. The centre tree in this 

 row measured 130 ft. by 17 ft. 10 in. in 1906. 



In Essex* there are great numbers of this elm, which may be called the pre- 

 valent tree of the county, and it is difficult to select the finest. Mr. J. C. Shenstone 



1 In Cambridge Review, 26th October 188 1. 



2 In Comm. Antiq. Soc. Cambridge, xxiv. page xxxix (1884). 



3 Cf. pp. 1884, 1889. 



« Holinshed, Chronicles, ii. cap. 22 (1586), says :— " Of elme we have great store in everie high waie and elsewhere, yet 

 have I not seene there of anie together in woods or forrests, but where they have beene first planted and then suffered to 

 spread at their own willes. Of all the elms that ever I saw, those in the south side of Dover Court, in Essex, near Harwich, are 

 the most notable, for they grow in such a crooked maner, that they are almost apt for nothing else but navie timber, 

 ereat ordinance and beetels : and such thereto is their natuiall qualitie, that being used in the said behalfe, they continue 

 longer, and more long than anie the like trees in whatsoever parcell else of this land, without cuphar, shaking, or cleaving as 

 I find." 



