SYLVAN or ANTS. 289 



forty -two feet eight inches. It was then reckoned 

 to be 500 years old. Another, mentioned by Mr. 

 Beevor, at Writtle in Essex, was, at thirty-two feet 

 from the ground, forty-two feet five inches in 

 girth J at five feet it was forty-six feet one inch, 

 and at six feet, forty-nine feet five inches and 

 seven-eighths. 



A reference to the famous Tortworth Chestnut 

 must not be omitted amongst this notice of 

 sylvan giants. Gilpin remarked of this tree : ' In 

 the garden at Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, an 

 old family-seat belonging to 'Lord Ducie,- grows a 

 Spanish Chestnut of great age and dimensions. 

 Traditional accounts suppose it to have been a 

 boundary-tree in the time of King John ; and I 

 have met with other accounts which place it in 

 the same honourable station in the reign of King 

 Stephen. How much older it may be we know 

 not. Considerably older it probably was, for we 

 rarely make boundary-trees of saplings and ofi^- 

 sets, which are liable to a thousand accidents, 

 and are unable to maintain, with proper dignity, 

 the station delegated to them. This tree is at 

 present in hands which justly value and protect 



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