58 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I, 



his will is given in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxi. p. 206., 

 in which the duke gives one year's wages to each of his servants 

 in London, and to Daniel Craft, his gardener at Whitton, and 

 to his housekeeper there, except, says His Grace, " my cook, 

 whose wages are too high." The duke, who succeeded to that 

 title in 1742, collected all the foreign trees and shrubs which, at 

 that time, were to be procured either at home or abroad : many 

 of the former still remain at Whitton, but all those removable 

 were sent to the Princess Dowager of Wales's garden at Kew, 

 in 1762, after the duke's death, his paternal property and duke- 

 dom going to a distant relative. The grounds were sold and 

 divided, and now form three distinct villas, which are remarkable 

 for their fine specimens of cedars, Weymouth pines, silver firs, 

 deciduous cypresses, walnuts, hickories, and American oaks. 



In February, 1835, through the kindness of the Misses Gost- 

 ling, the present proprietors of W T hitton Place, and the assistance 

 of Mr. Castle, of the Twickenham Botanic Garden, and of 

 Mr. West, gardener at Whitton, a number of the trees were 

 measured for us. Among these are, a Lombardy poplar 115 ft. 

 high, and 19 ft. 8 in. in girt at 2 ft. from the ground; a cedar 

 of Lebanon 71 ft. high and 14 ft. in girt; a silver fir 95 ft. high, 

 and 10 ft. 6 in. in girt; a Weymouth pine 81 ft. high, and 

 11 ft. 8 in. in girt; a Quercus Phellos (the willow oak) 70 ft. 

 high ; and a black hickory 60 ft. high. There are a number 

 of other fine trees, larches, firs, pines, oaks, robinias, gleditschias, 

 &c, on this and other portions of the estate, of which notices will 

 be found in the Gard. Mag., vol. xi. 



The seat of the Lord Petre so highly eulogised by Collinson 

 was at Thorndon Hall in Essex ; and that place still contains 

 some fine old exotic trees. Speaking of Robert Lord Petre, 

 Collinson, in a letter to LinnaBus, dated Jan. 18. 1743, observes 

 that " the death of the worthiest of men, the late Lord Petre, 

 has been the greatest loss that botany or gardening ever felt in 

 this island. He spared no pains or expense to procure seeds 

 and plants from all parts of the world, and then was as ambitious 

 to preserve them." After speaking of his stoves as such " as 

 the world never saw, and may never see again," and giving the 

 dimensions of the more remarkable plants grown in them, he 

 says, " the collections of trees, shrubs, and evergreens in his 

 nurseries at his death, I had told over; and they amounted to 

 219,925, mostly exotic. As this young nobleman was the 

 greatest man in our taste that this age produced, 1 thought it 

 might not be unacceptable to give you some account of the 

 greatness of his genius; but his skill in all the liberal arts, par- 

 ticularly in architecture, statuary, planning, and designing, 

 planting, and embellishing his large park and gardens, exceeds 

 my talent to set forth." (Smith's Linncean Correspondence, vol. i. 



