photographs were taken (Plates 86 and 87), which give a good idea of the remarkable size and height of the trees. The soil is a good deep loam on the red sandstone formation. The grove is unfenced and has been open to cattle for many years, and there is no visible evidence of the trees having been drawn up by beech. The majority of them are of the sessile variety, though some are pedunculate oaks, as proved by specimens kindly sent me by Mrs. Baldwyn Childe and by the observation of her very obliging agent, Mr. J.W. Openshaw, who found six trees of the pedunculate to about twenty-four of the sessile form. Sir Hugh Beevor speaks of them as sessile, and at the time I was there it was difficult to distinguish one from the other. As to their age, Mr. Openshaw writes that he could not count the rings because they were so minute, but from the evidence of Habingdon's History of Worcestershire, written in the time of Queen Elizabeth, they must be very old. Habingdon says:—"The Parcke of Cure Wyard is not to be shutt up in silence, for it is adorned with so many tall and mightie oakes as scarce any ground in England within that quantity of akers can showe so many." Most of these trees do not show decay in their tops like so many of our great park oaks, and may thrive for centuries to come.
Sir Hugh Beevor's measurements of their height agree very fairly with my own, but exact measurements of the heights of such trees are difficult to obtain, and they are not so remarkable for their girth as for the way in which they run up with clean stems to a great height. The two tallest are certainly over 130 feet by my own measurements in 1907. Sir Hugh Beevor gives 78 and 79 feet as the first length of two, and one which was blown down in 1897 was 82 feet to the first limb, though only 16 inches in quarter-girth, and with no measurable tops. These trees show very few burrs, but some have large buttresses at the base.[1] The largest, according to Mr. Openshaw, has a stem 83 feet long by 17 feet 8 inches in girth at 5 feet, and contains 1031 cubic feet of timber. Fourteen of them contain over 600 feet, and the smallest tree in the grove has 97 feet, which is considered a big oak in many districts. The tree I] have figured (Plate 86), with Kyre House in the background, is on the outside of the grove, and of different type from most of them. It is the third largest tree in contents, having 694 cubic feet in the butt and 150 cubic feet in the tops. I made it 115 feet high by 18 feet 6 inches at 5 feet, and it looks vigorous and is growing fast. The other tree figured (Plate 87) is 85 feet to the first limb, 13 feet 6 inches in girth at 5 feet, and contains 604 feet in the butt, and 112 in the tops. The measurements given below, taken by Mr. Openshaw, may be thoroughly relied on. They were taken in the usual way by strap, and good allowance made for taper. The heights were taken with the help of a long pole; and both Mr. Openshaw and his father, who has probably as much experience in measuring big oaks for sale as anyone in England, are confident that the grove contains more than they have estimated, though no doubt a quantity of the timber would be broken in falling if cut. Of this, however, there is not the least risk in the lifetime of the present owner, who is much interested in, and very proud of her trees.
- ↑ One of these measures no less than 44 feet round the base, and at five feet from the ground is 20 feet in girth.
