by the first severe gale. I measured this tree in 1906 in company with Mr. Roberts, forester to the Earl of Egmont, as carefully as the nature of the ground would allow, and believe it to be still over 130 feet in height; when I first saw it in 1903 it was taller. It is clear of branches to at least 90 feet and 10 feet 2 inches in girth. In the background some spruce which are even taller may be seen in our illustration.
I am informed by Mr. F.H. Jervoise, of Herriard Park, Hants, that there was a silver fir there which probably exceeded this height before its top was broken off about sixteen years ago. A photograph, taken in 1851, shows the height to have been then at least double what it now is, namely 70 feet, and another tree standing not far off measures approximately 140 feet.
In the Shrubbery at Knole Park, Kent, a very large silver fir is now about 110 feet high, with a clean bole about 80 feet by 12 feet; but its top is broken off, and it looks as if it might have been much taller.
At Longleat there are a great number of very fine silver firs near the Gardens, and also in the valley at Shearwater, the largest of which I measured in 1903, and found to be about 130 feet by 16 feet 5 inches in girth.1 Mr. A. C. Forbes estimated the contents of this tree at 550 feet, and in the Trans. Eng. Arb. Soc. v. 399, gives the measurements of a group of twenty-seven trees, 120 years old, growing on an area of ⅓ of an acre at the same place as follows:—Average height, 130 feet ; average girth at 5 feet, 9 feet ; average contents, 180 cubic feet. Total, 5000 cubic feet. I doubt whether any similar area of ground in England carries so much timber, except, perhaps, a group of chestnut and oak in Lord Clinton’s park at Bicton. Silver fir requires unusually good soil to attain these dimensions. Plate 209 shows a part of this grove which stands at an elevation of about 500 feet on a greensand formation.
There is a row of very fine silver firs by the road on Breakneck hill in Windsor Park, one of which I measured as 130 feet by 11 feet, and no doubt many as large, or nearly so, can be found in other parts of the south and west of England; but, as a rule, when the tree attains about 100 to 110 feet its top ceases to grow and becomes ragged.
Near the great cedar at Stratton Strawless (see Plate 133) there are some tall silver firs, one of which in 1907 was 131 feet by 9 feet 7 inches; and Mr. Birkbeck informed me that another, believed to be the tallest tree in Norfolk, and measuring 135 feet, had been blown down in 1895 at the same place.
There are some very fine silver firs still standing at Eslington Park, Northumber- land, which were planted about 1760, though Mr. Wightman, the gardener, informs me that the largest, which could be seen standing above all the other trees, was blown down in a gale in December 1894. It measured 122 feet by 21 feet at five feet from the ground, and at fifty feet from the ground was still 9 feet in girth.
Almost equal to these are the trees in the Ladieswell Drive, near Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, which I saw in 1907; though not much exceeding 100 feet
1 Loudon states that the tallest silver fir known in England in his time was believed to be at Longleat, and measured
138 feet high by 17 feet in girth; but this tree cannot now be identified.
