The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 



151 



for ten or twelve feet, and the larger ones which are thrown out 

 at that height, sweep down to the ground or within a foot or two 

 of it, and then rise again with a slight but graceful curve to a 

 considerable distance, — some of them, where they have had space 

 to grow and have not been broken or shortened, extending to a 

 distance of forty-five feet or more from the bole, Thus had either 

 of them stood alone with sufficient space around it, there is very 

 little doubt but that the circumference of the spread of the branches 

 might have been nearly, if not quite three hundred feet. Each 

 tree is fully fifteen feet in circumference at between three and four 

 feet from the ground, where the trunk is clear of those swellings 

 that are so often found at, and just above the roots. At the ground 

 one of them measured twenty-one feet in circumference. On the 

 whole these two larch firs are the most worthy of notice of any the 

 writer has seen. On the south side of Nonsuch House are the 

 remains of an avenue of Scotch firs : good, tall, clean, straight 

 trees, and of fair size ; one of them measuring ten feet in circum- 

 ference at a foot from the ground. There is also a larch in the 

 gardens at Tottenham Park, with the same history attached to it. 

 It is from eighty to ninety feet in height ; the trunk is straight 

 and sound, and at five feet from the ground measures eleven feet 

 in circumference. Its branches sweep down to the ground, and 

 then curve up again in the same manner as those at Nonsuch, — a 

 graceful habit common to almost all larches of considerable age. 

 The spread of its branches is nearly three hundred feet in circum- 

 ference. As a single tree, this is the handsomest larch the writer 

 has seen. 



The Silver Fir. — Longleat, as has been before stated, is the 

 place where the most notable examples may be found. Besides 

 individual trees scattered about in various parts of the grounds, 

 there is a " grove of them " so called ; but apparently from their 

 standing in lines, they are part of what once was an avenue. 

 Several of them are fine, perfect trees ; others much broken by the 

 wind, some of them snapped off short at twenty or thirty feet from 

 the ground. Before they were so broken and disfigured, they 

 must have presented a very grand appearance. Not many years 



