140 



SYLVA SCOTICA. 



THE WYCH ELMS AT POLLOC. 



This graceful group of Wych Elms stands on the 

 banks of the river Cart, at Polloc, in Renfrewshire, 

 just beneath the site of the castle, occupied by the 

 ancestors of Sir John Maxwell, Bart., the present 

 proprietor, since the forfeiture of the Earl of Niths- 

 dale, about the middle of the thirteenth century, 

 chief of the family of Maxwell. 



The principal tree in this group is of extraordi- 

 nary health and vigour, and does not exhibit the 

 slightest appearance of decay ; it is completely 

 covered with foliage, and its leaves, instead of being 

 small, as is generally the case in old trees, are large 

 and luxuriant ; it still sends forth its tribute of new 

 shoots annually to the spring, and continues to in- 

 crease both in height and girth. In 1812, it was 

 ten feet ten inches in circumference at five feet 

 from the ground ; in 1824, it measured eighteen feet 

 one inch in circumference, at the surface of the 

 ground, and eleven feet ten inches at five feet from 

 the ground : its height is eighty-eight feet, and it 

 contains six hundred and sixty-nine feet of solid 

 timber. 



