A HISTORY OF KENT and best timbered of all the parks of England. It is about 2 miles in length from north to south, and I J in width from east to west. The acreage within the park wall is 923 acres, of which about 400 acres are woodland. The scenery is most diversified, and presents a charming variety of hill and dale, with bold stretches of open land on the higher levels. The timber in certain parts is exceptionally fine, and there are various stately avenues. The park is entered from Sevenoaks by a gateway nearly opposite the church through Knole Avenue, which is a fine grove of beeches. After gaining the park the road crosses a grassy glade or valley, and turning to the left mounts the hill and passes through a stretch of forest trees, chiefly well- grown beeches, a considerable number of which measure about 9 ft. in girth, 3 ft. from the ground, and have remarkably straight stems. On gaining the front of the great house a variety of good sycamores may be noticed, whilst to the right hand is a solitary monarch beech tree of stately proportions ; it has a girth of 27 ft. 6 in., 3 ft. from the ground. From the north-west corner of Knole House is a fine avenue of oaks termed the Duchess Walk, 500 yds. in length, leading in the direction of Godden Green. This and other avenues near the house iould have more dignity had they been planted further apart. The oaks of the Duchess Walk are but 20 ft. apart ; several of the largest have a girth of from 12 to 13 feet. A short distance from the lower end of this walk stands the King Beech, which has a circumference of nearly 28 ft., but it is not so well grown as the great beech by the house, as it is divided into several huge stems a short distance from the ground ; it is of great age and is now on the down grade. In this part of the park may also be seen the Old Oak, now a mere wreck ; it bore this name as far back as 1650, and it is just possible that the writer who considers it ' old enough to have sheltered barons and knights of the era of the early Plantagenets ' may be correct in his surmise. Another fine old tree in much better preserva- tion possesses the misleading title of King John's Oak. The Broad Walk is an avenue nearly a mile long and chiefly of beech, which extends from the Bird House to the most southern part of the park known as the Mount, from which there is a splendid prospect over almost the whole of the Weald of Kent. The approximate number of deer inclosed in this noble park is fallow 320, red 120, and Japanese 70. During the last fourteen or fifteen years, in addition to filling up vacant places in the existing woods, plantations of larch, Scotch fir, Douglas fir, etc., with oak and chestnut, etc., have been formed in the park and elsewhere on the estate and are generally doing very well. At Seal Chart the process of natural regeneration of Scotch fir is going on, but great damage is done from time to time by fires.^ Immediately adjoining Knole is The Wildernesse, a most richly wooded estate in the parish of Seal. Here Lord Chief Justice Pratt, who died in 1714, inclosed a park; but it was disparked after the death of the first Marquis Camden in 1840. Eastvell Park, the seat of Lord Gerard, is of great extent, embracing the greater part of the parish of Eastwell, as well as portions of the adjoining parishes of Challock and Boughton Aluph. It is stocked with about 1,000 fallow deer ; the red deer are now extinct. The old Pilgrims Road to Canterbury passes through the park ; it can be traced by the old yew trees. The deer park of LuUingstone Castle, in the beautiful valley of the Darenth, the seat of the Right Hon. Sir W. Hart Dyke, bart., has an area of 720 acres and is stocked with about 200 fallow deer. It is remarkably well wooded. The deer park at Cobham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Darnley, contains 538 acres and is very well timbered. In it are some of the tallest ash trees in England, many of them over 140 ft. high, also magnificent oaks, Spanish chestnut, hornbeam and sycamore. At the present time there are about 400 deer. The timber is well kept up, and a considerable number of trees are planted every year when felling or thinning takes place. The area of other parks surrounding the mansion but not open to the deer is about 120 acres, while the total area of woodland on the estate extends to some 1,400 acres.^ The park round Chilham Castle, the seat of Colonel Charles Stewart Hardy, which adjoins Godmersham Park, has an area of about 300 acres and is stocked with 100 head of fallow deer. It is well timbered and includes some very fine Spanish chestnut and beech trees ; several of the former grand old trees measure as much as 23 ft. in girth at 4 ft. from the ground. A great feature of the park is the large heronry, the nests of which average from 80 to 100 a
- From personal observation and measurements, but chiefly from particulars kindly supplied by
Mr. G. H. Brougham Glasier, the estate agent.
- From information kindly communicated by Mr. C. H. Scriven.
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