145 
got a peep at it, & make my bow to you; but all the pleasure of 
rambling is endetl with me; I having been lame now near two years, 
& not once out of the Village in that time. For i have a stony 
complaint also, which keeps me from a carriage. — Mr. Drake has a 
charming Grove of Beech in Buckinghamshire, 1 2 3 where the handsom- 
est Tree (as i was informed by a friend to be depended on) runs 75 
feet clear, & then about 35 feet more in the head. I went on 
purposo to see it. Tis only G F. G 1. round, but straight as 
2 >ossible. Some Beeches in my late worthy friend Mr. Naylor’s* 
Park of Hurstmonceux in Sussex, ran taller & much larger; but 
none so handsome. — Norfolk is too flat a Country to try the 
difference of the growth of Trees on y* cold or warm sides of hills; 
but i entirely agree with you in the great advantage of warmth. 
This County is very ungenial to Elms, which are generally hollow 
before they arc a foot square, & Ash does not thrive with me. 
1 have left off planting Chesnuts ; but they grow quick, and i 
conclude, to the largest size of any Tree in this Island. I have 
one i raised from the nut, which was 2 feet round at 55 high in 
1781. ’Tis a very handsome plant, & holds clear above eleven 
yards, with a fair head. I have seen several Chesnut-trees above 
ten yards round; & Lord Dude's* i measured above 15 yards; 
1 Probably at Shardeloes near Amersham. — A.N. 
2 Francis Hare (son of a Bishop of Chichester) was born in 1713 and 
assumed the name of Naylor in 1734 on succeeding to the estate of his uncle 
George Naylor, who had bought Hurstmonceaux. In his youth he is said 
to have been guilty of extravagance and dissipation of every description; 
joining the notorious “ Medmenham Brotherhood.” He died in 1775, when 
the estates passed to his half-brother, Robert Hare, whose grandsons were 
the accomplished Francis, Augustus, Julius and Marcus Hare. Hurstmon- 
ceaux Castle was destroyed by Wyatt in 1777, and now remains a ruin. — A.N. 
3 This magnificent Spanish chestnut at Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, has 
been mentioned by nearly all writers on trees from Evelyn’s time to 
our own. The particulars of it given in the text a few lines lower down 
seem to be taken from Ducarel’s paper (Phil. Trans. 1771. p. 1(38), where they 
are quoted from the ‘London Magazine’ for 1758 (p. 482). A very fair 
representation of it, taken in lt>24, is given by Strutt (Sylva Britannica, pi. 
xxix.), and Loudon says (Arboretum Britannicum, p. 1!)S8) that “it may, 
indeed, possibly have been one of those planted by the Romans.” I saw it in 
August, 1873, and Lord Ducic kindly informs me that its “ present girth is 
about 17 yards ; but each measurement will vary, as the trunk is covered 
with ligneous warts, and a tape may either cover or miss one of these— 
thus altering its dimensions.” — A.N. 
