OF SELBORNE. 
531 
indeed to have been noticed in my book, and especially as 
it contains some account of that forest/ You have been 
an early planter indeed ! and may safely say, I should 
think, that no man living can boast of so large an oak 
of his own planting !^ As I had reason to suppose that 
actual measurement would give me the best idea of your 
tree, I first took the girth of my biggest oak, a single tree, 
age not known, in the midst of my meadow : when though 
it carries a head that measures twenty-four yards three 
ways in diameter ; yet is the circumference of the stem only 
10ft. Gin. I then measured an oak, standing singly in a 
gentleman's outlet at about two miles distance, and found it 
exactly the dimensions of yours. After such success you 
may well say with Virgil, 
"Et dubitant homines serere, atque impendere cnras?" 
In an humble way I have been an early planter myself. 
The time of planting, and growth of my trees are as follows : 
■ — Oak, in 1731, 4 ft. 5 in. ; ash, in 1731, 4 ft. GJin.; spruce 
fir, in 1751, 5 ft.; beech, in 1751, 4 ft.; elm, in 1750, 5 ft. 
3 in.; lime, in 1756, 5 ft. 5 in."^ Beeches with us, the most 
lovely of all forest trees, thrive wonderfully on steep, 
sloping grounds, whether they be chalk or freestone. I am 
in possession myself of a beechen steep grove on the free- 
stone, that I am persuaded would please your judicious eye; 
in which there is a tree that measures fifty feet without 
bough or fork, and twenty-four feet beyond the fork ; there 
are many as tall. I speak from long observation when I 
assert, that beechen groves to a warm aspect grow one- 
third faster than those that face to the IN", and IN'.E., and 
^ See Letter IX. to Pennant, pp. 29-32, and the " Observations on 
Vegetables," pp. 356-357.— Ed. 
2 This oak of Marsham's will be found noticed in the " Observations 
on Vegetables," p. 356, where White has quoted a letter from Marsham 
on the subject, dated " Stratton, 24 July, 1790," to which it would seem 
the present letter is a reply. — Ed. 
^ These dates and measurements, Avith a slight discrepancy, have been 
published in the " Observations on Vegetables " p. 356, above referred 
to. — Ed. 
