728 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



by the first severe gale. I measured this tree in 1906 in company with Mr. Roberts, 

 forester to the Earl of Egmont, as carefully as the nature of the ground would allow, 

 and believe it to be still over 130 feet in height ; when I first saw it in 1903 it was 

 taller. It is clear of branches to at least 90 feet and 10 feet 2 inches in girth. In 

 the background some spruce which are even taller may be seen in our illustration. 



I am informed by Mr. F. H. Jervoise, of Herriard Park, Hants, that there was 

 a silver fir there which probably exceeded this height before its top was broken off 

 about sixteen years ago. A photograph, taken in 1851, shows the height to have 

 been then at least double what it now is, namely 70 feet, and another tree standing 

 not far off measures approximately 140 feet. 



In the Shrubbery at Knole Park, Kent, a very large silver fir is now about 

 no feet high, with a clean bole about 80 feet by 12 feet ; but its top is broken off, 

 and it looks as if it might have been much taller. 



At Longleat there are a great number of very fine silver firs near the Gardens, and 

 also in the valley at Shearwater, the largest of which I measured in 1903, and found 

 to be about 130 feet by 16 feet 5 inches in girth.^ Mr. A. C. Forbes estimated the 

 contents of this tree at 550 feet, and in the Trans. Eng. Arb. Soc. v. 399, gives 

 the measurements of a group of twenty-seven trees, 1 20 years old, growing on an 

 area of ^ of an acre at the same place as follows : — Average height, 1 30 feet ; 

 average girth at 5 feet, 9 feet ; average contents, 180 cubic feet. Total, 5000 cubic 

 feet. I doubt whether any similar area of ground in England carries so much 

 timber, except, perhaps, a group of chestnut and oak in Lord Clinton's park at 

 Bicton. Silver fir requires unusually good soil to attain these dimensions. Plate 

 209 shows a part of this grove which stands at an elevation of about 500 feet on 

 a greensand formation. 



There is a row of very fine silver firs by the road on Breakneck hill in Windsor 

 Park, one of which I measured as 1 30 feet by 1 1 feet, and no doubt many as large, 

 or nearly so, can be found in other parts of the south and west of England ; but, 

 as a rule, when the tree attains about 100 to no feet its top ceases to grow and 

 becomes ragged. 



Near the great cedar at Stratton Strawless (see Plate 133) there are some tall 

 silver firs, one of which in 1907 was 131 feet by 9 feet 7 inches; and Mr. Birkbeck 

 informed me that another, believed to be the tallest tree in Norfolk, and measuring 

 135 feet, had been blown down in 1895 at the same place. 



There are some very fine silver firs still standing at Eslington Park, Northumber- 

 land, which were planted about 1760, though Mr. Wightman, the gardener, informs 

 me that the largest, which could be seen standing above all the other trees, was 

 blown down in a gale in December 1894. It measured 122 feet by 21 feet at five 

 feet from the ground, and at fifty feet from the ground was still 9 feet in 

 girth. 



Almost equal to these are the trees in the Ladieswell Drive, near Alnwick 

 Castle, Northumberland, which I saw in 1907 ; though not much exceeding 100 feet 



1 Loudon states that the tallest silver fir known in England in his time was believed to be at Longleat, and measured 

 138 feet high by 17 feet in girth ; but this tree cannot now be identified. 



