88 



SYLVA BRITANNICA. 



Cecils and the Burleighs of former ages, render it an 

 object not to be looked ujjon without exciting feel- 

 ings in which tranquillity and admiration are most 

 pleasingly united. 



The height of this fine tree is sixty feet, its cir- 

 cumference at four feet from the ground is ten feet ; 

 it contains three hundred feet of solid timber, and 

 its branches extend over an area of sixty-one feet in 

 diameter. 



ANCIENT CHESNUT AT COBHAM. 



This tree, called the Four Sisters, from its four 

 branching stems closely combined in one massive 

 trunk, stands in the Heronry, in the finely wooded 

 Park at Cobham Hall, the ancient seat of the 

 illustrious family of that name, so well known 

 in English History, and now the property of John 

 fourth Earl of Darnley. It is the noble remains 

 of a most magnificent tree ; and though its head 

 has paid forfeit to the " skiey influences" during a 

 long succession of revolving seasons, yet it is not 

 left entirely stripped of ornament in its old age ; as 

 a number of tender shoots spring out of its topmost 

 branches, and still give it, by the lightness of their 

 foliage, an appearance of freshness, of which its aged 

 trunk would almost forbid the expectation. It is 

 thirty-five feet two inches in circumference at the 



