high by 12 feet 7 inches in girth, with an estimated cubic contents of timber of 223 feet. When I measured it in 1905 it was 95 by 13 feet, but the top and trunk were decaying.
At Erlestoke Park, Wiltshire, a tree,[1] growing near the bank of a lake, was 80 feet high by 14 feet in girth at 4 feet from the ground in 1902.
The following records from Hampshire were reported in Woods and Forests:[2]—North Stoneham Churchyard, near Southampton, a tree 12 feet 10 inches in girth; Cranbury House, near Winchester, a tree 11 feet 9 inches in girth; at Gramwell's Meadow, east of East Tytherley Manorhouse, near Romsey, a tree 85 feet high by 10 feet 5 inches in girth, with a stem free from burrs, planted in 1780. These measurements were taken in 1884. At Hale Park, in 1879, there was a tree 75 feet high with a short bole of 4 feet, girthing 18 feet 3 inches.
The finest tree at Kew, 70 feet high in 1844, is gone, but there still exists a well-proportioned specimen[3] which stands at the end of the rhododendron dell. It is now (1905) 79 feet high by 9 feet 9 inches in girth. It produces fruit freely every year, but the seeds are always poorly developed and infertile.
In Scotland a tree was mentioned by Loudon as growing at The Hirsel, Coldstream, the seat of the Earl of Home, which was at that time 100 years old and 20 feet in girth 3 feet from the ground. I was informed by Mr. Cairns, head gardener at the Hirsel, that in 1903 it was slowly decaying, some of the larger branches being gone, but that what remained carry a large amount of healthy foliage, and flowers more or less every year.
At Drummonie Castle, Perthshire, formerly a seat of the Lords Oliphant, Hunter[4] mentions a tree 8 feet in girth at 5 feet, and another at Gorthy Castle,[5] girthing 9 feet 7 inches at 3 feet, which had been a good deal injured by cattle grazing in the park. He also (p. 400) speaks of a large tree at Castle Menzies, 10 feet in girth, but I did not see it on either of my visits to this interesting old place.
The tulip tree is not mentioned in the Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland, but it grows at Gordon Castle, and even as far north as Dunrobin Castle in Sutherlandshire.
In the south-west of Scotland there do not appear to be any large trees, the biggest mentioned by Messrs. Renwick and M'Kay[6] being one at Auchendrane House, Ayrshire, which was, in September 1902, 53 feet by 5 feet 8 inches, and one at Doonside, Ayrshire, which was 46 feet 9 inches by 8 feet 1 inch.
At Jardine Hall, Lockerbie, a tree[7] measured in 1900 60 feet in height by 9 feet in girth.
At St. Mary's Isle, Kirkcudbright, a tulip tree[8] was, in 1892, 10 feet 9 inches in girth.
- ↑ Gard. Chron.1902, xxxii. 61.
- ↑ Issues of April 16 and 23, 1884.
- ↑ Figured in Gard. Chron. 1890, viii. 219, where it is stated in the text that the tulip tree bears pruning well, and that there is an avenue of clipped trees in one of the courts at Chatsworth.
- ↑ Hunter, Woods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire, 145 (1883). This is apparently the tree mentioned in Gard. Chron. 1890, viii. 388, as being 60 feet in height then, and having recently flowered.
- ↑ L.c. p. 371.
- ↑ Renwick and M'Kay, Brit. Assoc. Handbk. 131 (1901).
- ↑ Garden, 1890, xxxviii. 178.
- ↑ M'Kay and Renwick, Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasg. Sept. 4, 1894, p. 17.
