At Laverstoke Park, Whitchurch, Hants, the residence of Mr. W. W. Portal, there is a fine well-shaped walnut, which was measured by Henry in August 1905, as 80 feet high by 13 feet 8 inches in girth, with a bole of 12 feet, dividing into two stems above.
In the eastern counties there must be many fine walnuts, but the only one of which I have any exact record is a tree which was figured by Grigor[1] at Ketteringham Park, Wymondham, Norfolk, the seat of Sir M. Boileau, Bart., and is said to have been planted at the restoration of Charles II. This tree was one of the best shaped as regards its branches that has been figured, and measured in 1841 68 feet high with a girth of 12 feet.
At Rickmansworth, Herts, Sir Hugh Beevor measured in 1901 a tree 98 feet high by 11 feet 9 inches in girth, the first limb coming off at 18 feet up, the second limb at 36 feet from the ground. At Gayhurst, near Newport Pagnell, Mr. W. W. Carlile showed me a tree growing on a clayey limestone, which, though of great age, is absolutely sound and has lost hardly a branch. It measures no less than 80 feet by 17 feet, and is very perfect in shape. At Ware Park, Herts, Mr. Baker tells us of a tree 16 feet 4 inches in girth, and this seems to be a district where the walnut comes to great perfection. He showed me another of the thin-shelled French variety growing close to the bank of the Lea at Roxford, which, though much cut by frost, was 16 feet in girth.
At Castle Howard, Yorkshire, there is a large tree in the park near the stables, growing among beech and oak which have drawn it up to a height of 80 or 90 feet, though it leans very much to one side. It has a clean bole about 20 feet long by 11 feet 8 inches, dividing into two long straight clean stems, a very unusual form in this tree.
In Scotland the walnut is not so much at home as in England, but in the warmer parts of the east and in Perthshire it attains considerable dimensions. The best that I have seen myself is a tree at Gordon Castle (Plate 75) which in 1904 measured 60 feet by 10 feet, and is, considering the exposed position and latitude, a remarkable tree. But there must have been a still finer one here in 1881, when Mr. J. Webster, father of the present gardener, recorded in the Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. ix, 63, a tree of equal height and 13 feet 4 inches in girth at 5 feet. Col. Thynne has given me a photograph of a fine tree at Cawdor Castle, Nairnshire, which measures 65 feet by 15 feet 7 inches.
Hunter records several very fine trees in Perthshire as follows: "At Gask the largest tree in the policies is a walnut, a little west of 'The Auld House.' It measures 17 feet 5 inches at 5 feet and then swells to a girth of 21 feet at 8 feet from the ground, and at Blair Drummond there is a fine tree," which Mr. A. Morton, the gardener, informs me is now about 80 feet by 13.
Though the walnut is not uncommonly planted in Ireland, we have seen none remarkable for size. The largest one is reported to be growing at Kilkea Castle in Kildare.
- ↑ Eastern Arboretum, 279 (1841).
