The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 



141 



alive, by all means let it be cut sloping under, so that neither rain 

 , nor snow may lodge on the cut, as, when that is the case the stump 

 soon decays at the centre and forms a tube which will convey water 

 1 to the very heart of the tree, and consequently cause it to become 

 rotten and worthless. Let it never be forgotten that generally 

 speaking the more branches and leaves a tree has, the quicker and 

 : greater will be its growth ; every leaf being a mouth, and every 

 twig and every branch a throat to convey nutriment to the body 

 of the tree. What so frightful as a tree pruned almost to the top, 

 looking as much like a feather in an oil-bottle as anything else ; 

 or what so absurd as to suppose that a tree so maltreated can thrive 

 like one left to its kind nursing-mother, nature ? To promote the 

 growth of trees in a plantation, give them air and room, not by 

 depriving them of the means of taking food by such foolish prun- 

 ing, but by a judicious thinning of the whole plantation, a weeding 

 of it, removing the small and weakly plants, and not, as is too 

 often the case, b}' cutting down all the best long poles, because they 

 will sell for a trifle more money, thus sacrificing the future, for a 

 miserable present gain. 



The Beech. — This tree standing next to the elm in point of 

 numbers in this county, deserves the second place here. As the elm 

 predominates in the vales, so does the beech on the high grounds. 

 Even on the poorest downs where the chalk is barely covered with 

 soil, it thrives better than almost any other tree, and in many 

 places thrives well. But the part of the county where it may be 

 found in the greatest numbers and of the greatest size and beauty, 

 is neither a vale nor a chalk down. Still it is high ground. It is 

 hardly necessary to say that Tottenham Park is the place indicated. 

 There it is found not only in the greatest numbers, but of the 

 greatest beauty. Well does the writer remember, and never, while 

 memory remains, will he forget the impression which the first view 

 of the sylvan beauties of that park and of Savernake Forest made 

 upon him. The grand avenue through which you enter from 

 Marlborough ; the clumps with which the park is dotted ; the noble 

 single trees which continually present themselves ; the beauty of 

 the forest itself with its lovely glades, its giant oaks, its wide 



