English gardens and parkland changed decisively in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as plant hunters brought specimens back from Asia. EH ‘Chinese” Wilson was one of the most famous, bringing around two thousand plants and trees back to Britain and America, while working for James Veitch & Sons in Chelsea and the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.
You may have been to the Ernest Wilson Memorial Garden in Chipping Campden; I haven’t. Behind The Speech House in the Forest of Dean is a magnificent arboretum with more than two hundred species.. It is fenced in to prevent deer and wild boar damaging the trees, so is a popular destination for dog walkers who can safely let their animals off the lead. It is called The Cyril Hart Arboretum.
Cyril Hart was born in Coleford in the Forest of Dean in 1913. The arboretum was started in 1910 and was properly established by 1915. The trees were collected by Ernest Wilson and, until 1999, it was called The Forest of Dean Arboretum. It was never intended to be a pretty place to walk dogs. It had a serious purpose: to see what foreign trees were suitable in the British climate and could be introduced into British forests. The name-change honours Cyril Hart’s service as a forest verderer and his expertise in forestry. The arboretum is still evolving with many plaques recording fresh planting.
The Queen’s Remembrancer is a judicial post invented by Henry II in 1154. Today it is held by the Senior Master of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court. Since 1688 the QR has been responsible for appointing the Forest of Dean verderers.
Now the forest is a combination of commercial forestry run by The Forestry Commission and a pleasure ground for walkers, cyclists, bird watchers, etc. In the 19th century it was a mining centre. Some remnants remain, most obviously the disused railway lines, but its industrial past is not forgotten.
Christopher,
Oh my, ‘Blog Bellew’. How grand, how noble it sounds, how socially distinct, how very Old Etonian, and presented in such an aestheically proper font. I would expect nothing less from such a proud patrician. I am suprised that you did not incorporate the Bellew arms in your Blog Bellew insignia, though perhaps Bru would not have approved its association with something so trivial.
In keeping with this elevated status I suspect followers will now have to address their comments to ‘Sir’, after all it is the proper salutation for one who is ‘Hon’.
I’m not sure “Sir” would be correct. Hons at Eton were addressed as Mister (surname). A chap in Bru’s house was called by his first name (Richard) – he is a royal prince. I don’t remember the grandson of the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Sellassie, being treated any differently to the rest of us untitled folk although he too was a prince.