“No branches under 9 inches quarter-girth were included in the above. Twelve men worked twelve hours each in felling this tree.”
One of the tallest oaks which I have ever measured in England is a compara- tively young tree in perfect health and vigour, which, though not shut in by other trees, appears to be still growing, and may even attain a greater height. It stands on the edge of a plantation at the bottom of a steep slope facing north-east in Whit- field Park, Herefordshire, the seat of Capt. Percy Clive, who showed it me in 1906. A careful measurement from both sides made it 130 feet high, or perhaps a little more, by 11 feet to inches in girth, with a straight bole of 55 feet free from branches, though two or three small ones had been cut off four years ago. For symmetry and height combined I have not seen its equal in England, and the photograph of it taken by Mr. Foster, though under the circumstances a very good one, fails to give a correct idea of its great height (Plate 85). The soil is old red sandstone, and the tree is of the sessile type.
At Foxley, near Hereford, the seat of the Rev. G.H. Davenport, are many fine oaks, all of which, so far as I saw, are sessile. The best is about 104 feet high by 20 feet girth, with a bole of 20 feet. In the Nash Wood there is a superb lot of young oaks with the tallest and cleanest stems in proportion to their thickness I have seen in England. They may average 90 feet high, and one which I measured was clean and straight to 62 feet and only 3 feet 4 inches in girth. Mr. Davenport believes them to be sixty to seventy years old, and if well taken care of they should in a hundred years be some of the finest of their type in England. |
The largest oaks now standing in Herefordshire that I know of are at Holm Lacy, one of which, a short-boled spreading tree now much decayed, was in 1905 75 feet by 30 feet 2 inches, and 125 yards in circumference of the branches. The other, 90 to 95 feet high, with a bole 25 feet by 23 feet 9 inches, is vigorous and healthy, though perhaps not quite sound.
In Lord Leigh’s park at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, are many fine old oaks, relics of the Forest of Arden, which grow on a red sandstone soil, and are in many cases long past their prime. The largest stands near the Abbey, and is 28 feet 3 inches in girth; though the top is much broken and decayed, the butt seems sound. Another, just outside the Tantarra Lodge, is a vigorous tree of later date, and measures 22 feet 10 inches in girth, with a fine spreading crown ; a third, near the river, is 27 feet 5 inches in girth. The most interesting, however—of which I hope to give an illustration later—is Shakespeare’s Oak, so called from the tradition that Shakespeare used to sit and write under it. It grows on the top of a low sandstone cliff, over which at least half the thickness of its trunk projects, and is supported entirely by the roots on the other side to which it leans; it measures no less than 25 feet in girth, and though deeply cleft on one side and hollow, has vigorous branches.
The oak grove at Kyre Park, Worcestershire, the property of Mrs. Baldwyn Childe, was first noticed by the Woolhope Club, who visited it in 1893, and described later by Sir Hugh Beevor, who published a short account of it.’ I had the pleasure of visiting this wonderful grove in March 1904, when some
1 Trans. of the English Arboricultural Society, v. 473.
