Another freak of nature is the Marriage Oak in Eridge Park, Kent, which Lord H. Nevill was good enough to show me. Here a yew and an oak have grown up together, though the two trunks, which measure 16 feet 3 inches in girth, have not combined, the yew having spread its branches widely over the top of the bole of the oak. A similar case is recorded by Mr. A.D. Webster[1] in the South Park at Holwood, Kent. Here the two trees have combined their stems into a normally shaped trunk, which girths 7 feet 10 inches at 5 feet, the yew being only 15 feet high, and spreading 36 feet, while the oak is 35 feet high with a spread of 54 feet.
Pollard oaks, when they are hollow at the top, sometimes support other trees of considerable size, which originate from seeds dropped by birds or brought by the wind. The best living instance of this that I know, is on an oak of no great size at Orwell Park, the seat of E. G. Pretyman, Esq., in Suffolk. This grows in a wood near the Decoy Pond, which is full of large self-sown hollies mixed with oaks, and looks as if it might be part of an original forest. Here a birch about 30 feet high, 20 inches in girth, is growing on the top of the oak, and has formed inside its hollow trunk what on one side seems to be a woody stem, whilst on the other side the roots are still in process of formation within the bole of the oak, which on that side is dead, but on the other has living branches.[2] Henry has seen a similar example on the road between Byfleet and Cobham, on Lady Buxton’s property, where the birch, growing out of a stout oak bole, is 49 feet high and 8 inches in diameter.
Wistman's Wood.—After having said so much of big oaks, I must now mention one of the most remarkable oak woods in Britain, called Wistman’s or Welshman’s Wood, which is on Crockern Tor, Dartmoor, at an elevation of about 1400 feet. It contains a number, perhaps a thousand, of the most stunted and dwarf oaks in existence, growing among granite boulders in a very exposed and windy situation.
Wistman's Wood was described by Burt in his Notes to the second edition of Carrington’s Dartmoor, p. 56, and also by Mr. W. Borrer.[3] I am indebted to Mr. E. Squarey of Downton, Wilts, for information in a letter to him by Mr. P.F.S. Amory of Druid, Ashburton, which brings our knowledge up to date, with photographs showing the curious appearance of these trees. The Journal of Forestry, v. 421, in a description of them, says that no acorns are produced ; but Mr. J.B. Rowe, editor of the Perambulations of Dartmoor (ed. 1896), in 1895 found two acorns after a long search, one of which, planted at Druid on gth November 1902, is over 4 feet high.
In September 1868 Mr. Wentworth Buller obtained leave from the Prince of Wales to cut down one of these trees in order to find out its age. One section was sent to Kew; and another now in Mr. Amory’s possession is 9 inches by 7 in diameter, and shows 163 years’ growth, with distinctly marked medullary rays and several deep shakes. The bark is extremely thin, probably owing to the thick coat of moss and lichen which covered it. The slowness of growth in this tree is remarkable, no less than forty years to the inch.
