850 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



At Euston Park, Suffolk, the property of the Duke of Grafton, Mr. Marshall 

 showed me, in 1905, in a wood called Barnham Springs, a remarkable growth of 

 chestnut from a stool cut forty-two years previously. Sixteen straight stems about 

 60 feet high, and 2J feet in girth, had sprung up from the outer edge of the 

 stump, and collectively measured 30 feet in circumference. This growth seems 

 to show how such trees as the one on Mount Etna have been originally formed, 

 as in another 50 or 100 years these stems will probably seem like one tree. At 

 Merton Hall, Thetford, Norfolk, a chestnut, planted about 1660, is 87 feet high, 

 with a clean bole, 40 feet in length and 1 1 feet 4 inches in girth. 



At Shrubland Park, Ipswich, the property of Ladyde Saumarez, there are some 

 very large chestnut trees in the grounds. The largest of these, according to Mr. 

 Taylor, measures at ground line 47 feet; at 3 feet 31 feet; at 6 feet 27J feet. 

 Having had its top blown off some years ago, it is now only 55 feet high. 



The finest existing chestnut, if height and girth together are considered, that 

 I have seen, is a tree in a valley called Mackershaw, near Studley Royal, which 

 seems to be the one figured by Loudon, p. 1986, of which he gives the height as 1 12 

 feet and the girth at i foot as about 23 feet. When I measured this splendid tree in 

 1904 I made it 112 feet by 20 feet at 5 feet from the ground, and it seemed to be in 

 perfectly sound condition. 



At Rydal Hall, Westmoreland, there is a very fine tree, girthing 26J feet at 

 5 feet and 2>1 feet at the ground, of which the owner, Mr. S. H. le Fleming, has 

 kindly sent me a photograph (Plate 235). 



In Wales the finest tree I have seen is one which grows just outside the garden 

 at Dynevor Castle, and measured in 1908 about 113 feet by 162- feet, with a clean 

 bole about 30 feet high. A photograph which was taken proved unsuccessful owing 

 to its being surrounded by other trees. 



Notwithstanding its southern origin, the chestnut grows with great vigour in 

 many parts of Scotland, and, according to Loudon,^ who quotes from Walker's 

 Essays, p. 29, the first exotic tree planted north of the Tweed was a chestnut, of 

 which in 1760 a part of the trunk remained, at Finhaven, an ancient seat of the 

 Earls of Crawford. This was measured in 1 744, and, as attested before two justices, 

 was 42 feet 8^ inches in circumference close to the ground. 



The largest tree I have seen myself is in the Cherry Park, near the stables at 

 Inveraray Castle, and measures about •j'j feet by 20 feet, with a bole about 16 feet 

 long. This tree was said in the Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland to have 

 been in 1867 the largest in Scotland, though one at Tyninghame was as tall; and 

 there are two fine ones, both over i6 feet in girth, at Ardkinglas, in the same 

 neighbourhood. Lord Kesteven informs us that there is a chestnut 25 feet in girth, 

 growing at Stonefield, near Tarbert, Argyllshire. At Kirkconnell, south of Dum- 

 fries, Henry measured in 1904 a fine tree, 73 feet high and 18 feet in girth, with a 

 bole of 25 feet. At Kirkmichael House, Ayrshire, a tree measured i8| feet in girth 

 in 1892 ; and at the Auld House, near Glasgow, two trees, about 60 feet high in 1904, 

 were 16 feet 3 inches and 14 feet 1 1 inches in girth respectively. 



' Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 34, 90 (1838). 



