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XVIII. — On, the System of Planting and the Management of 
Plantations at Welbeck. By J. E. Denison, M.P. 
It has often been matter of reufret, that so little is known of the 
early history of our old and most famous trees. This is perhaps 
little to be wondered at, from the great age to which some attain, 
requiring, to mark them throughout all their stages of progress 
and decay, the observation of many successive generations of 
men. But it happens not unfrequently that correct accounts of 
the early management of our modern woods and plantations are 
allowed also to pass away with the lives of those who planted them. 
This increases the value of experiments carefully made, and 
of observations accurately noted. Such records have been for 
many years kept at Welbeck, where planting operations have 
been carried out on a very large scale. It is from these records, 
and with the assistance of the Duke of Portland's personal ob- 
servations, that this paper has been prepared. 
A hundred years ago there can have been no great quantity 
of wood at Welbeck, or through the adjoining parks of Worksop 
Manor, Clumber, or Thoresby. Now there are on the property 
of the Duke of Portland alone, in Notts 4334 acres of plantation, 
and 473 in Derbyshire. 
Of the great oak trees at Welbeck, among the most remark- 
able in England, the Greendale Oak, the Great and Little 
Porters, the Seven Sisters, or of the magnificent trees, forming 
the wilderness before the house, varying from 12 to 19 feet in 
girth, and from 70 to 100 feet in height, nothing is known as to 
their age or early history. 
They are probably of the wild and original growth of the 
forest of Sherwood. 
The Greendale Oak was described as follows by Evelyn in 
his ' Sylva,' published in the year 1662. 
"The oak which stands in Welbeck-lane, called Greendale 
Oak, hath at these several distances from the ground these cir- 
cumferences : — 
Feet. Feet. in. 
At 1 . . 33 1 
2 . . 28 5 
6 . . 25 7 
There are three arms broken off and gone, and eight very large 
ones yet remaining, which are very fresh and good timber." 
In 1724, the centre was hollowed out into an arch, to allow a 
carriage to pass through ; and it became the common object of a 
drive from Thoresby and the neighbourhood to drive to the Green- 
dale Oak, to drive through it, and return home. 
In 1775 an engraving of the tree, in its then state, was inserted 
in Hunter's edition of the ' Sylva one large arm alone then 
