At Barton, Suffolk, there are three trees, which measured in 1903, (a'Italic text') in the Arboretum, 50 feet by 5 feet 5 inches, dying; (b) a smaller tree beside it, in a worse condition; (c) on the lawn, 56 feet by 4 feet 3 inches. The latter tree[1] was planted in 1826, the other two in 1831. It is evident that the dry though deep soil at Barton is not favourable to the growth of this species.
At Frogmore, Windsor, there are two specimens very different in habit. One, a clean-stemmed tree, growing near water, but without knees, is 80 feet by 8 feet 6 inches. The other, not so large, has a weeping habit, and is branched to the ground.
At Strathfieldsaye there is a tree, mentioned by Loudon as being 46 feet in height by 3 feet 4 inches in diameter, which I found in 1903 to be 63 feet high by 9 feet in girth. It is growing in stiff clay soil and has no knees; the stem is deeply furrowed.
At Dropmore there is a tree beside a pond, planted in 1843, and now measuring 60 feet by 5 feet 9 inches.
At South Lodge, Enfield, a tree is growing near water, with small knees, which, measured by Henry in 1904, was 77 feet by 11 feet 10 inches.
At Combe Abbey, Warwickshire, Mr. W. Miller[2] reports that a tree, mentioned by Loudon as 47 feet by 2 feet 3 inches in 1843, had attained, in 1887, 75 feet by 11 feet 6 inches at 3 feet from the ground.
At Longford Castle,[3] Salisbury, there are two trees, growing within a few yards of the river Avon. One, very tall, has a straight trunk free from branches for about 30 feet, and a girth of 8 feet 10 inches at 4 feet from the ground. The other is 6 feet in girth, and branches at 7 feet up.
At Brockett's Park, near Hatfield, the residence of Lord Mountstephen, there are many trees planted along a walk on the banks of the Lee, and forming an irregular line in which the trees vary very much in size. In the sheltered part of the valley, where the soil and situation are very favourable, they average 70 to 80 feet high, the best I measured being 80 feet by 10 feet and 86 feet by 9 feet. But lower down the stream, where the valley is more exposed to the wind, they are stunted, and not more than half the height of those above. There are knees on some of the trees overgrown with moss and meadowsweet, but not so large as those at Syon.
At Upper Nutwell, near Exeter, there is a tree which Mr. G.H. Hodgkinson informed me in June 1904 was 84 feet high by 11 feet 9 inches in girth.
Large trees have been reported at many other places, especially in the south of England, viz.:—
Connington Castle,[4] Huntingdonshire, a tree 70 feet by 7 feet in 1877; Watford,[5] Herts, 85 feet by 14 feet in 1884; Stanwell,[6] Surrey, a tree 13 feet in girth in 1904; Embley,[7] near Romsey, Hampshire, a tree 8½ feet in girth in 1872, standing on the top of a hill.
