WESTONBIRT ARBORETUM: FROM PRIVATE, NINETEENTH-CENTURY ESTATE COLLECTION TO NATIONAL ARBORETUM

摘要

The National Arboretum at Westonbirt, Gloucestershire, was originally part of a large estate. The estate plantations were initially intended for fox and game cover, but were increasingly employed to accommodate a vast range of newly imported trees andshrubs. The collection was developed, from the 1850s onwards, by Robert Stayner Holford, who was inspired by the picturesque style of planting as advocated by the landscape gardener William Sawrey Gilpin. Under Holford's son, George Lindsay Holford, thecollection continued to expand. Its wider scientific value was confirmed by the publication, in 1927, of the first Catalogue of the Trees & Shrubs at Westonbirt, compiled by the botanist Albert Bruce Jackson. After George Holford's death in 1926, the arboretum was separated from the rest of the estate. The collection continued to develop, however, during the ownership of the 4th Earl of Morley and under the guidance of curator William]. Mitchell, assisted by Jackson. Lord Morley's descendants passed the arboretum to the Treasury, which, in turn, passed it, in 1956, to the Forestry Commission. Since then, the Forestry Commission has had to balance the scientific value of the tree collection with the need to accommodate thousands of visitors each year,while at the same time paying heed to the unique, historic planting style employed by R. S. Holford.