136 



The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 



in almost every instance whore minute particulars are given — - 

 (excopt where the passage is marked as a quotation) — he has himself 

 seen or measured the trees of which he is speaking. 



The description of Wiltshire by an old author, namely, that the 

 northern parts are the paradise of horned cattle, and the southern 

 the paradise of sheep, would seem to indicate that, in the former, 

 forests and giant trees must be looked for, rather than in the latter. 

 With regard to trees, generally, that appears to be the fact ; but 

 with respect to forests, the south seems at any rate to have been 

 equal to the north. But where, now, are the forests of Bredon, 

 Chut, Gaiternac, Pemshaur, Sanernack and Selwood, mentioned 

 by Sir Henry Spelman, in his list of Wiltshire forests ? Gone ; 

 all gone, as forests, except Sanernack, now spelt Savernake, the 

 glory of the county, and one of the glories of the kingdom, if not 

 its chief glory ; and Selwood, presuming that Longleat, a forest in 

 all but name, formed part of it, which probably it did. Chut, of 

 course is Chute, but whatever remains of a forest may be found 

 there, can hardly be claimed as belonging to Wiltshire. Of the 

 other three, nothing in the shape of a forest is to be seen :— the 

 names even of Gaiternac and Pemshaur not being in any modern 

 list of parishes or places ; and Bredon, which most likely means 

 Bray don, having been disafforested in the reign of Charles II. 



Speaking at large, the Beech, the Elm, and the Oak may be 

 said to be the trees of the county; and in such numbers are they 

 found, and of such a size and age that they may reasonably be 

 supposed to be indigenous. But with regard to the elm, the one 

 which from its undisputed predominance in all the valleys, as well 

 of the adjoining counties as of Wilts ; — from its almost spontaneous 

 growth, a growth so nearly spontaneous that were the scythe and 

 cattle kept out of the rich pastures for some dozen years, every 

 valley would become a dense forest, were not even one single tree 

 to be planted by the hand of man. But with regard to the elm, 

 strange to say, its being indigenous in England is disputed. The 

 Builder assumes that it is not ; that is to say, that the common elm, 

 the TJlmus campestris, is not ; the Wych, or Scotch Elm only being 

 so. Whether, as the Builder asserts, " the common elm is not 



