At Slindon Wood, near Petworth, Sussex, between the South Downs and the sea, which is seven miles distant, on the property of Major Leslie, there was in 1903 one of the finest beech woods in England, growing on chalk soil, of which I have particulars from Mr. C.H. Greenwood, and of which I give an illustration from a photograph sent me by him (Plate 6). Mr. Greenwood states that 634 trees were recently cut and sold in this wood, many of them being 70 and several 80 to 90 feet long to the first limb, and quarter girthing 20 inches in the middle. One tree now standing measures, without the top, 70' x 26" = 320 feet, and on one acre at the east side of the wood are standing 60 which would average 150 feet each, making 9000 cubic feet to the acre. The tallest tree is 90 feet to the first bough, with 21 inches ¼ girth = 275 feet. This is perhaps the largest yield of beech per acre of which I have any record in England.
In Windsor Park there are some fine old beeches, of which three are figured by Menzies.[1] His plate 4 shows a remarkable old pollard at Ascot Gate 30 feet in girth, which he supposed to be 800 years old, and another, his plate 6, on Smith's lawn, of similar age and 31 feet 9 inches in girth. The third, Queen Adelaide's Beech, is a tree of no great size or beauty. It measured in 1864 8 feet 6 inches in girth, when supposed by Menzies to be 140 years old. In 1904 it had only increased 10 inches in girth. The finest beech now growing at Windsor—Mr. Simmonds, the deputy-surveyor of the Park, who was good enough to show it to me, agrees in this—is a tree near Cranbourne Tower, which in March 1904 measured 125 feet by 15, with a fine clean bole, but not equal to that of the Queen Beech at Ashridge.
The two largest beech trees, of whose measurement I have exact particulars, were both blown down in the heavy gale of September 1903, I believe on the same night. One of these was at Cowdray Park in Sussex, the property of the Earl of Egmont, and grew on sandy soil near the top of the great chestnut avenue at a considerable elevation, perhaps 400 feet. I saw it lying on the ground not long after, and obtained from Mr. Barber, steward on the estate, the following careful measurements:—
The other was the great beech at Cornbury Park, of which I give a photograph taken after its fall (Plate 7), that gives an idea of its immense size. I saw the stump of this tree two years afterwards, and counted about 230 rings in it, which justify the belief that it may have been planted by Evelyn. Mr. C.A. Fellowes, agent for the property, had the tree carefully measured after its fall, and gives its height as 120 feet, girth 21 feet 4 inches. Cubic contents 1796 feet (nothing under 6 inches quarter girth being measured).
A magnificent beech growing in Studley Park, the seat of the Marquis of Ripon, was figured by Loudon, iii. 1955, and is there stated to have been 114 feet high.
- ↑ History of Windsor Great Park and Windsor Forest, 1864.
