Something about the nature and folklore of the tree species in Southleigh Wood, Sutton Veny, near Warminster, as penned by K.J. McEnnes in his Gleanings In Natural History series, the following notes were first published 1st November 1862:
Suppose we visit Southley Wood [Southey Wood, a variant spelling for Southleigh Wood] again, under totally different aspects from the last, purposely to witness the changed appearance of vegetation. Not now to view the rich and varied hues of summer flowers, but inspect the many rich and glowing mantles with which the trees are now arrayed. Although partly divested of its leaves, the Hawthorn stands conspicuous, from its rich and often pendant cluster of dark red berries. Who can have forgotten the same tree when covered with its gay white blossoms? when
“From the white Thorn the May flower shed
Its dewy fragrance round our head.”
For it is not in the Spring alone that the Thorn charms us with its blossoms, or regales us with its scents, for its light and cheerful foliage lines our rural banks during the summer months, and then its autumnal fruit hangs in rosy clusters, giving a large amount of food to numerous birds in Winter. No tree is so picturesque as the Thorn when old, such specimens as may be seen ornamenting hill tops and mountain sides, or barren moorland, or forest waste – rugged and time-worn; these have been well portrayed by Wordsworth, when he says –
“There is a Thorn – it looks so old
In truth, you’d find it hard to say,
How could it ever have been young,
It looks so old and gray.
Not higher than a two years’ child
It stands erect – this aged Thorn;
No leaves it has, no thorny points;
It is a mass of knotty joints,
A wretched thing forlorn.
It stands erect, and like a stone
With lichens it is overgrown.
Up from the earth these mosses creep
And this poor Thorn they clasp it round
So close, you’d say that they were bent
With plain and manifest intent,
To drag it to the ground,
And all had joined in one endeavour
To bury this poor Thorn for ever.”
Looking around us along the slopes of Southley Wood, or the Woods of Longleat on the opposite side of the valley, how rich are the tints shewn by the decaying leaves. Amongst the most conspicuous are the Beech, Oak, Ash, Elm, Hazel, Birch, Hornbeam, and Mountain Ash.
The Beech (Fagus Sylvatica), can be distinguished by its symmetrical oval outline, and dense mass of a soft yellowish tinted brown, and bright burnt-sienna coloured leaves. The bark of this tree is remarkably thin, and tough, and, taken off in large sheets, is used for making baskets, bandboxes, &c. The nuts abound in a thick kind of oil, expressed and used as butter by the poor people in Silesia; and the nuts, called mast, were used by the ancients as food.
The Oak (Quercus Robur), or Monarch of the Forest, outstrips all others in its historical associations, and usefulness. These venerable characters of antiquity, spreading wide its wreathed and contorted branches, resisting the chilling blasts, and raging elements for centuries. Numerous excrescences, or as they are popularly called, Oak Apples, are formed on these trees, caused by the puncture of the bark by a small insect when depositing its egg. The Oak-galls, produced from a small species of Oak growing in Asia Minor, and containing a great quantity of an astringent substance called Tannin, has long been used as a black dye, and in the manufacture of black ink.
The general outline of Oak trees is not so compact as the Beech, but its decaying leaves form a pleasing contract to Autumn scenery, by its changing tints of brown and sienna. The famous Cowthorpe Oak measures in circumference 78 feet, in its hollow trunk having assembled seventy persons at a time, and is believed to be from sixteen to eighteen hundred years old. The Oak of Allonville, in Normandy, has formed within its trunk a Chapel, and an upper chamber for the officiating Priest. In Welbeck Park a road is formed through the centre of a tree, allowing the passage of carriages and persons on horseback. The highest reward the Romans could bestow was the Corona civia, made of Oak leaves.
The Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), a noble and useful tree, the bark slightly tonic, the leaves cathartic, but very much inferior to those of senna, and have been employed to adulterate China tea. The ancients believed that a snake could not endure the shade of the Ash, and used to hang branches round their childrens’ necks, to keep off gnats. In warm climates the “Manna of the Shops,” which is a peculiar saccharine substance, differing from sugar by its not fermenting with water and yeast, for which reason it is considered a distinct principle, and called “Mannite,” is procured from several species of Ash, exuding spontaneously in warm weather, collected and sold as “Manna in tears.” It is also obtained by cutting the bark, when the juice exudes and concretes in flaky masses. The fruit of the Ash is now conspicuous, brown and pendulous, with a leaf at the end of the capsule. The leaves change to a grey, and yellow, but do not form quite so prominent a feature in the landscape as many others.
The Elm is represented by several species, (Ulmus campestris, montana, &c.) in the district, and is highly ornamental and useful, and of rapid growth, and has oft been associated with many griefs and sorrows.
“Beneath those rugged Elms, that Yew-tree’s shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the Hamlet sleep.”
The inner bark slightly astringent and mucilaginous, containing extractive matter with Gallic acid, and a small portion of supertartrate of Potash, has obtained great reputation as a medicine; it has been considered to differ from every other known body, and called Ulmine. It exudes from wounds of the trunk and branches in great abundance, constituting a new and peculiar vegetable principle; decoctions of the bud, leaves, bark, or root have been supposed to be highly useful in beautifying and cleansing the skin. In the northern parts of Europe, the inner bark is used, when dried and ground into a fine powder, to make into bread.
“Now hasten to the Hazel bank,
Where down yon dale, the wildly winding brook
Falls hoarse from steep to steep. The clustering nuts
for you
The lover finds amid the secret shade.”
The Hazel (Corylus evellana), for many domestic purposes very useful, as hoops for casks, fishing-rods, &c., is well known for its production of the nut, and there is probably no period of our youth to which the mind recurs with greater pleasure than the “nutting season,’ when the rich brown clusters hang drooping in their matured garb –
– “It seems a day,
When, in the eagerness of boyish hope
I left our Cottage-threshold, sallying forth
With a huge wallet o’er my shoulder hung,
A nutting crook in hand, and turned my steps
Towards the distant Woods.”
The leaves are now becoming of a beautiful pale yellow, and finally to a reddish brown. The word Hasel-nut is from the Anglo-Saxon Hasel-nuter; Hasel, a cup, alluding to the form of calyx, and Knuter, a nut.
The Birch (Betula alba), upon whose beauties I offered some remarks last Spring, again calls for a few additional comments, forming as it does so graceful an addition to the features of the landscape. It is at once recognised by the light and elegant form and appearance of the tree; the leaves change to a brownish yellow, and show strong contrast to some of the more reddish tints, more especially when the trees are massed in quantity, as may be seen in this neighbourhood.
Among all our native trees there is not one that will better withstand cold, it is a native of the higher and colder parts of Asia and Siberia, and most parts of North America; its boundary line of growth being one thousand nine hundred feet below the line of perpetual snow. It forms immense woods in some parts of Russia. The bark is stripped off in large sheets by the Laplander, and on account of its durability, from the oil and pyroligneous acid which it contains, is applied to numerous useful purposes. They roof their huts as we use slates, form it into capes, legging for boots and shoes, baskets, boxes, mats, twist it into cordage for harness, burn it as candles, tan leather, and dye woollen goods a brownish yellow; when tapped in the Spring the sap is obtained for forming beer and wine. Many species of Lichen grow upon the bole of the tree, upon which the poet writes –
“Sweet bird of the meadow, soft be thy rest,
Thy mother will wake thee at morn from thy nest,
She has made a soft nest little redbreast for thee,
Of the leaves of the Birch, and the moss of the tree.”
The Americans have a species of Birch called the “Canoe-Birch,” the bark being used for making canoes; these vessels are so light, that one large enough to carry four persons would weigh but fifty pounds. Name from Betu, the Celtic name of the Birch.
The Hornbeam (Carpinas betulus), forming a circular headed tree, wood white and tough, much in request by millwrights and engineers; leaves change pale yellow to brown, often continuing upon the tree the greater part of the winter. Name from the Celtic, alluding to the wood being used in making yokes for Oxen.
The Mountain Ash, Quicken tree, Rowan tree, (Pyrus aucuparia), is now very conspicuous, from its pendant bunches of bright scarlet berries, and is, perhaps, the most ornamental of the forest trees in the Autumn.
“Decked with Autumnal berries, that outshine
Spring’s richest blossoms.”
This tree is believed to have been sacred among the Druids, and is now often planted near villages and houses in Scotland, for the supposed purpose of keeping off evil spirits. The wood is hard, and used chiefly by turners and mathematical instrument makers. The bark is astringent, and used by tanners. The berries afford a dye, and when bruised and fermented, yield a strong spirit by distillation, and boiled with sugar, form a pleasant jam. The name is figurative – from the Celtic.
Having scanned the beauties of the scenery around, pass not unnoticed those more humble portions of Creation, the mosses and lichens, as you repass the wooded slopes, and peep into the neighbouring Orchard, where
“The breath of Orchard big with bending fruit,
Obedient to the breeze and beating ray,
From the deep loaded bough a mellow shower
Incessant melts away. The juicy pear
Lies in a soft profusion, scattered around.”
Twilight lingers upon the scene around us
– “I solitary court
Th’ inspiring breeze, and meditate the book
Of Nature, ever open.”
K.J. McEnnes.
