Spanning Time

The clergyman Richard Pococke was an inveterate traveller. Between 1737 and 1741, he visited Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon & Syria, Asia Minor and Greece. These travels were later published in his “Description of the East “of 1743 and 1745 and he became something of celebrity as he told stories of what he had seem.
 
His mother was Elizabeth Milles born here at Highclere. Meanwhile his grandfather Isaac Milles  was a much-admired theologian and English cleric, often described as the model parish priest of that day.  The parish register of Highclere describes him as  being here ‘for 39 years 2 months and 7 days ..the constant resident rector and pastor of this parish,’ and records his ‘integrity and piety’ and his charity to the poor. 

His grandson Richard Pococke also had the reputation for being conscientious despite the time he spent travelling!

Richard Pococke returned to England (and Highclere) not just with extensive journals but also with cones he had carefully collected from the extraordinary trees he had seen – the cedars of Lebanon. The trees he described were broad of girth and grand in presence, some of which were estimated to be 1,000 or even 3,000 years old meaning that the cones he collected had links back to the time of Christ or even Tutankhamun.

 He described the trees from a distance  that looked "like very large spreading oaks."  but on closer inspections the  trunks of the trees  were  short, splitting near the bottom into three or four massive limbs which  "appear something like Gothic column yet composed of several pillars,"

Some of these cones were planted here at Highclere, carefully grown to sapling height in a protected environment by the gardeners before being planted out in the park. 

My youngest sister Georgie and her husband, who is from Lebanon, gave me one of my favourite books which is about cedars of Lebanon, with the subtitle “Pledge of Eternity”.  They are truly exceptional trees, majestic and enduring, mentioned many times in the Bible, coveted by Alexander the Great, Antigonus, the Romans, and the Arabs to build fleets of ships, and before that an important symbol for the Egyptian Pharaohs who valued the wood which was deemed incorruptible.

Cedar wood had to be imported into Egypt, and was much prized for its distinct aroma, beauty, and workability. For example, it was used in many of the valuable artifacts found in Tutankhamun's tomb including the huge golden shrines in the Sarcophagus Chamber and various chairs and boxes. Cedar of Lebanon was also essential for producing the long, sturdy planks needed for large ships and royal funeral barques, for example the reassembled 43metre long solar boat of Pharaoh Khufu, now moved to the new Grand Egyptian Museum.

It was, and still is, used for panelling and musical instruments and the robing room at Highclere is lined in linenfold cedar wood to help preserve the fabrics from moths and other bugs.

These days, most of the audience of Downton abbey would recognise the outline of these trees within a heartbeat. Thanks to the TV series and the films, their unique silhouette has become almost iconic along with the elegant carved stone turrets and central tower of the Castle as it rises up and out of the landscape. The trees flank the Castle. and provide structure and beauty throughout the year in the park.

The cedars at Highclere have only witnessed some 250 years of history, not very long compared to some of their counterparts in Lebanon. However, every year we plant some more, as old friends are brought down in gusting gales, or branches overloaded with snow crack and break. We replant today to give pleasure to those who succeed us 150 years hence and are so grateful for the vision of those who planted them in previous centuries.  

Sadly, the fate of the forests of Cedars in Lebanon is now under threat. Some of the trees there have now been renamed ‘the survivors’ as thousands of them have been felled, reducing them to groups of a few hundred. Whilst we are able simply to admire them at Highclere, they are needed for shelter and firewood in the war-torn hills around Syria and Lebanon.

The trees are just another link to these countries in this extraordinarily fragile yet interconnected world.