Book Description

Excerpt from Transactions of the Watford Natural History Society and Hertfordshire Field Club, Vol. 2: October, 1877, to July, 1879 The President, on taking the Chair, stated that the meeting had been deferred from the second Thursday in the month, the 11th inst., owing to the Rev. Dr. Gee, who had consented to give the opening lecture of the session, having had an engagement on that evening. Mr. Henry Adcock, Queen's Road, Watford; Mr. Oscar Clayton, Grove Cottage, Heathbourne, Bushey Heath; Mr. William Ransom, Fairfield, Hitchin; Mr. George Stone, Cassio Bridge, Watford; and Mr. George Turnbull, F. R. A. S., F. R. G. S., M. I. C. E., Rose Hill, Abbots Langley, were elected Members of the Society. The following lecture was delivered: - "Famous Trees in Hertfordshire." By the Rev. Canon Gee, D. D. (Vide page 1.) Mr. Matthew Moggridge said that he had always taken a great interest in trees, had long practised both modes of measuring their height now Laid before them, and could vouch for the accuracy and ease with which they could be carried out without any abstruse calculations. The case of beheading trees that had been alluded to recalled to his mind those beautiful oaks in Richmond Park (Surrey). They were beheaded by order of George the Third, early in his reign, to give them eventually a more picturesque appearance. They were beautiful trees certainly, but the few which had escaped beheading were, to his mind, much more beautiful, and for this amongst other reasons, that they were more true to nature. The President said that he had requested Mr. Heather to measure the lime tree at Cassiobury which Lord Essex had told him was the first lime tree planted in this part of the country; and he had found the circumference, at three feet above the ground, to be 17 feet 10 inches, and the height about 100 feet. He suggested that the word "wych" in wych-elm might have been the name for a coffin, as elm was used for making coffins, and he inquired as to the position of the King and Queen beeches at Ashridge. Dr. Gee said that the beeches at Ashridge were on the right front of the house. They might easily be identified, as they had a number of names cut on them. With regard to "wych" being a box for the dead, he could only say that in the oldest quotation in which the word was mentioned it was as a box for cheese. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.