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LETTER VIII. 
[Marsham to White.] 
Stratton: July 8. 91. 
1791. 
Dear Sir, 
My thanks are justly clue to you for the favour of 
your pleasing letter of the 8 th of June. If i am not the wiser for 
every letter of yours, ’tis my own fault, or want of memory. In 
no.t seeing Herstmonceux, you lost not only the sight of the tall 
Beeches &c in the park, but also one of the most entire old Castles 
in England. I find hy my notes, ’tis 77 of my steps (suppose 
yards) long, & 72 deep. & the moat 20 yards broad. The great 
staircase 40 feet square, & 22 back stairs, so like each other, that 
i chalked my door, to prevent my going into rooms that i should 
not ; they being 48 on a floor as my friend told me. Your letter 
made me look over my old journal, which i believe i had not done 
of 50 years, & i find no mention of Beeches in Italy ; nor does my 
memory supply me with any. I remember some in Switzerland 
near Bern, that were mixed with Firs, that i think were very tall 
but not large. The poplars in Lombardy, are lost to my memory, 
& are not mentioned in my journal : but in the public walks by 
Florence a part was felled, & i find some were above 100 feet long, 
& very slender. I greatly dislike the Tree in England. I noticed 
a wood of Oakes betwixt Rome & Naples, being very tall but not 
large, & the leaf more indented than ours. So i send you a leaf. 
I am obliged to you for engaging your Nephew at Salisbury to 
gain intelligence of M r Archer’s Oakes : but i believe ’tis unneces- 
sary. A friend was with me lately, to whom i told the account. 
He said he had been at M r Archer’s, & “ remembers some Trees by 
“ his house, which appeared nothing extraordinary ; like some of 
“your best.” Now my best was but 25 guineas. — I got a peep 
at M r Rook’s sketches of the Duke of Portland’s Oaks. 1 But 
i fear ho is a bad calculator of the age of Trees from their size. 
1 A plate giving “A North West View of the Green Dale Oak near 
Welheck,” no doubt one of those to which reference is intended, is given 
in Hunter’s edition of Evelyn’s work (vol. ii. to face page 200) and bears in 
the corner “A. Rooker Sculpsit.” — A.N. 
