94 



The largest sound tree I have ever 

 measured is " the grindstone oak" in the 

 Holt Forest. It is thirty-five feet in 

 girthing at three feet from the ground. 

 It is dead, and was apparently lately dead 

 when I first saw it, since the bark was 

 still on it. I think it has been originally 

 a pollard [polled or headed) ; and the 

 largest sound timber I have ever seen in 

 England has been old pollards, allowed 

 to grow up in our forest grounds, after 

 the pollard system had ceased. They 

 were probably allowed to grow because, 

 being many-headed, their timber was not 

 valuable. 



The great secret of large timber is cen- 

 turies of non- cutting down, good soil, room, 

 and sheltered situation. These condi- 

 tions rarely come together in cultivated 

 countries, though they do sometimes in 

 our old family places. The free growth 

 and the enormous measurements of trees 

 in the forests of uncultivated countries 



