Anthony Bosanquet loves trees: the red cedar is "lovely, tall and straight", the western hemlock is "very pretty, delicate and light", and the larch is "brilliant - an absolute star".
He's sympathetic to the Prince of Wales's views about plants, and has been known to put his arms around trees. He thinks his innate feeling for them is common among country people and that the long timescale of their life has a humbling message for the human race.
"We are inclined to think we are a great deal smarter than we are," he says. "We think we know all the answers. But trees are a good demonstration that there are other living things on this earth that have been here far longer and actually do rather better than us."
No surprise, then, that his favourite walk is through Penyclawdd Wood, part of his 1,000-acre Dingestow Court Estate between Monmouth and Raglan in Wales. It's a mixture of hardwoods and conifers that he bought from the Forestry Commission 20 years ago, and which he has opened to the public with a grant to make new paths.
Bosanquet spends more time in the Country Landowners Association's office in London's Belgrave Square than on the land his family has owned for 200 years. But if he's at home with a free afternoon, he'll drive up the hill and park where a footpath enters Penyclawdd.
Immediately, there is a stretch of American red cedars, which prompt a general defence of conifers. "I know the feelings people have about the serried ranks and so on," he says. "It's a bit like Animal Farm - hardwoods good, conifers bad.
"But as conifers get older and are thinned out, the shape of the tree emerges, which has its own attraction and character that are different from those of the hardwoods. For me it's a matter of having both, and that's what I like about these woods."
Next on the walk comes western hemlock, also American, which has a delicate grey underside and grows "straight as a gun barrel". There are beech and oak here too, but soon Bosanquet turns off the main path for more conifers: the dark, blue-green Norway spruce on one side, and his beloved larch on the other.
"Although the larch is a conifer, it's deciduous. It has the most wonderful autumn colouring, a lovely orange, and is a beautiful soft green in the spring. It's a real glory, and anyone who says they don't like conifers should remember the larch is one of them."
Then comes a clearing used by red and white admiral butterflies, an uphill stretch past some Douglas firs ("like the pillars of a cathedral"), and a detour off his land to cross a meadow with views across the rolling Monmouthshire countryside to the south.
A footbridge brings him back into Penyclawdd through the best of the hardwood section, where mushrooms flourish, the lesser spotted woodpeckers hammer away and - to Bosanquet's disgust - the grey squirrels do considerable damage to the trees.
The grey squirrel was introduced from North America between 1875 and 1930 by people who thought it would make an attractive addition to Britain's fauna. Since then, it has sidelined the native red squirrel and created a huge headache for the forestry industry.
The latest theory at English Nature is that younger squirrels, unable to vent their aggression on the dominant older ones, have a go at the trees instead. They bite off strips of bark, or sometimes go all round the tree, and the tree dies above that level.
The Forestry Commission says they do an annual £10 million damage to the forestry industry, whose turnover is £110 million a year.
Methods of control include trapping, shooting and poisoning, but environmental objections have led to promising research in immuno-contraception.
Bosanquet doesn't try to control the squirrels in Penyclawdd. "But if people ask me why I hate them, |it's because I frequently see 20 years of growth of ash, beech, chestnut and poplar completely ruined."
A glance backwards from Penyclawdd Wood reveals the romantic profile of Raglan Castle with the Brecon Beacons beyond.
This "therapeutic" two-mile circuit always includes a visit to his two favourite trees, a tall burr oak and a huge beech: "I doubt if I see anyone else here from one year end to the next. There's just me and the Jack Russell and I really get away from everything. Just for a while I'm free."
The practicals
Penyclawdd Wood is two miles east of Raglan and half a mile south of the A40: see OS Outdoor Leisure map (2 inches to 1 mile) 14 (Wye Valley and Forest of Dean). For information about access to Forestry Commission woods, or to privately-owned woods opened to the public with Forestry Commission grants, call 01970 625866 for Wales or 0131-314 6322 for Scotland and England (www.forestry.gov.uk). See also www.woodland-trust.org.uk/woods for access to other woodlands. A free booklet, Ramblers' Access to Public Forests, is available from the Ramblers Association, Camelford House, 87-90 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TW (www.ramblers.org.uk). Wales Tourist Board, Brunel House, Fitzalan Road, Cardiff CF2 1UY (029 2049 9909, www.tourism.wales.gov.uk).
