OLDEST TREES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20290, 24 December 1927, Page 3

OLDEST TREES.

Which is the oldest tree in Britain I (asks J. Noble in the Daily News). His Majesty/’ the famous king of the beautitul Burnham beeches, now to be protected by a fence from the indignities of small boys and fire-lighting picnic parties, is said to be 800 years old. But its tale of years shrinks into insignificance beside the record of the oak cut down during the demolition of Wingerworth Hall, Derbyshire, at the age of over 1000. This arboreal monster weighed 15 tons, measured 18ft round the butt, an dhad a first branch 6ft in girth. This record is surely unique —and in spite of it we are content to include in the “brotherhood of venerable trees ’’ such youngsters as the 500-year-old trees in the forest at Richmond Park, or the famous Sussex oaks on the Whihgh estate, reputed to be over 600 years old. It is interesting to remember that sonic of the last-named were sacrificed during the restoration of Westminster Hall, and they are now beams in the roof that was made originally by William Rufus. The elm trees of Kensington Gardens arc 300 years old, and if the ragged group of Constable firs on Hampstead Heath arc not as old as that they are at least as famous, for thev arc almost the last of their kind left to us. Firs io not flourish in London soil —nor docs our low altitude suit them. But whatever trees may languish in the grimy London air, the plane tree will always be with us —the Londoner’s own tree —and it would be ungracious to conclude without vouchsafing it a passing tribute. Hidden away in a little graveyard of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East there is the patriarch of its kind. Planted shortly after the Groat Fire, it stands 40ft high in its fresh green dress—a kindly home for innumerable sooty sparrows, a welcome shade under which the tired city worker may rest.