80
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
"He worked continually on Two Great Plans that for the Gardens
"was
"12 feet long 
100 feet to one Inch
"6 feet 4 In. Wide
"the Other Plan for Plantations Above the Park
"8 feet—Long 
 48 feet to I Inch
"7 feet 2 In. Wide
"His Great Rowler for Rowling the Park
"The Diameter . . 8 foot 7 In.
" Breadth . . 10 feet 2 In.
"Weight .. 11750 pounds
"I have often seen it work on a plain with seeming great Ease.
"Drawn by 2 Horses—but if used all Day when it was Drawn by
"Four Horses."
"P. Collinson."
A. B. Lambert had access to Collinson's books in 1811, and
published an account of various notes, in the Transactions of the
Linnean Society. One on Petre's garden written in 1762 reads :—
"He went from his house at Ingatestone in Essex, to his seat
"at Thorndon-Hall in the same county, to extend a large row
"of elms at the end of the park behind the house. He removed,
"in the spring of the year 1734, being the 22nd of his age,
"twenty-four full-grown elms about sixty feet high and two
"feet diameter: all grew finely, and now are not known from
"the old trees they were planted to match. In the year 173812
"he planted the great avenue of elms up the park from the
"house to the esplanade: the trees were large, perhaps fifteen
"or twenty years old. On each side of the esplanade, at the
"head or top of the park, he raised two mounts, and planted all
"with evergreens in April and May 1740. In the centre of
"each mount was a large cedar of Lebanon of twenty years
"growth, supported by four larches of eleven years growth.
"On the same area on the mount were planted four smaller
"cedars of Lebanon aged twenty years each, supported
"by four larches aged six years; on the sides Virginian red
"cedars of three years growth, mixed with other evergreens,
"which now (anno 1760) make an amazingly fine appearance.
12 An interesting commentary on the political conditions of the time, is seen in an extract
from the London Evening Post of Aug. 13th, 1836, quoted by J. Britten : " The Right Hon. the
Lord Petre having for some time past employed a considerable number of labourers to make canals
and gravel walks in his gardens a t his seat in Essex, on Monday last several of the country people
assembled in a tumultous and riotous manner and assaulted the said labourers suspecting them to
be all Irishmen, so that a battle ensued in which heads were broken and many bruises received,
and his Lordship was forced to order fire-arms to be brought out before the rioters would
withdraw."