19 1 8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



pleasure grounds, and not natural in the hedgerows. The best that I have 

 measured is one at Eastwell Park, which in 1907 was 115 ft. by about 20 ft. in girth. 

 In Lancashire, Leicestershire, and Lincolnshire I have not seen any Enghsh 

 elms remarkable for size or beauty. The majority of the trees in these counties 

 look more like hybrid seedlings of foreign origin than true English elms. 



On November 23, 1910, I saw at Well Vale, Lincolnshire, the seat of Mr. 

 W. H. Rawnsley, some English elms (Plate 405) which had preserved their leaves 

 quite green after several nights of frost, when the thermometer sank to i f Fahr. 

 These elms, one of which measured 108 ft. by 8 ft. 2 in., seem to have been grown 

 from suckers ; and though they retain their leaves abnormally late in the season — 

 in 191 1 till the first week in December — they are English elms, and differ entirely 

 from the Kidbrook elm referred to, p. 1896. 



In Middlesex, and all round London, the majority of the elms appear, like those 

 of the London parks, to be foreign seedlings or hybrids ; and Loudon did not record 

 a single one of any great size which seems to exist at present, though he gave many 

 details of trees at Hampstead, Fulham, and elsewhere. Though there are many 

 large English elms at Hampton Court, Richmond, Syon, and in Kew Gardens, they 

 seem to be suffering more or less like those in Hyde Park from smoke and old age, 

 and none of the younger trees which have been supplied from nurseries to fill their 

 place appear likely to develop into first-class elms. The tallest that I have measured 

 is at Chiswick House, and this in 1904 was a healthy sound tree 137 ft. by \2\ ft. 

 Another in the grounds of Fulham Palace is 120 ft. by 18 ft. Henry saw one at 

 Hampton Court, with a broken top, girthing 27 ft. 9 in. in 1910; and another at 

 Osterley Park, 108 ft. by 16 ft. 4 in. in 1907. 



In Monmouthshire and in South Wales generally, though elms are common 

 enough they are no longer a characteristic hedgerow tree. 



In Norfolk I cannot remember to have seen a single really first-class English 

 elm, most of the hedgerow trees being either U. nitens or the small-leaved elm 

 ( U. minor), which, so far as I have seen, is usually a comparatively small and ill- 

 shaped though picturesque tree. Marshall^ was, I think, not far wrong when he 

 said that there was not, generally speaking, a good elm in the county of Norfolk ; and 

 the only elm mentioned by Grigor of great size was what he calls an English elm 

 over 20 ft. in girth. 



In Northamptonshire, where oak and ash grow so well, I have seen few very 

 striking elms ; and the same may be said of Nottinghamshire, where in the beautiful 

 parks of Thoresby, Rufford, Welbeck, and Clumber they are not so conspicuous a 

 feature as the oaks. At Althorp there are many splendid trees, three of which 

 were measured in 1893 by Mr. F. Mitchell^ as follows: — (No. i) In the pleasure 

 grounds, 117 ft. by 20 ft., with two stems, containing 924 ft. (No. 5) By the carriage 

 drive, 105 ft. by 19 ft. 8 in., also divided, and containing 841 ft. (No. 17) West of 

 Harleston House, no ft. by 18^ ft., containing 715 ft, I verified these measure- 

 ments in 1904, and found that in eleven years they had made but little increase. 



1 Planting, ii. 431 (1796). Cf. Loudon, p. 1383. 

 2 Trans. Roy. Scott. Arb. Soc. xiii. 90 (1893). 



