t82 The Journal of Forestry. 



College, Cambridge, associated with the name of Milton, we may yet 

 remind our readers of the rural interval he spent in Horton, where he 

 points out to us that his father's — 



" Cottage chimney smokes 

 From between two aged oaks." 



Is there not a fine affectionateness in his remembrances of the old 

 wooded scenery of Buckinghamshire, where he says in " Comus," — 



" I knew each lane, and every alley green, 

 Dingle or bushy dell of this wild wood ; 

 And every bosky bourne from side to side, 

 My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood ? " 



He was always fond of trees, and had them growing, as it was then 

 possible to have them, beside all his London houses. 



Crawley, an earnest lover of nature, enjoyed the garden and 

 forest retirements of Chertsey, as any one may see who reads his 

 Garden, and specially looked with love on a live tree which on these 

 grounds "spargit odoratam lete et equaliter umbrum." Glorious 

 John Dryden when he resided in No. 43, Gerard-street, the fifth house 

 on the left hand, entering from Little Newport-street, had the windows 

 of his study looking into the gardens of Leicester House, and delighted 

 to see them. There is an embowered alley at Eushton, in 

 Northamptonshire, which still bears the name of Dryden's Walk; 

 Chesterton, in Huntingdonshire, is also associated with Dryden as well 

 as Charlton in Wiltshire, in all of which he rejoiced in the woodland 

 scenery they spread before him. A willow for which Dr. Samuel John- 

 son cherished a special love, and which he visited whenever he returned 

 to his native town stood between Lic^hfield Cathedral and the Vale of 

 Stowe. It is described and an engraving of it given in the Gentleman's 

 Mdgazine, June, 1785. It was shaped, it is stated, in Shaw's Stafford- 

 shire, into vases and other memorials. While speaking of Lichfield, 

 we may mention that near it Dr. Erasmus Darwin had his Botanic 

 Garden, which contained many good specimens of remarkable trees 

 on which he expended loving care. A cork tree was his peculiar 

 favourite, but that his pen lost sight of. Coleridge, while living at a 

 lonely farm house between Porlock and Linton in Devonshire, dreamed 

 his entrancing vision of the garden of Kutla Khan, — 



•' Where blossomed May on incense-bearing tree, 

 And here were forests ancient to the hills, 

 Enfolding sunny spots of greenery." 



The Yardley Oak of Cowper, which grew close by the site of the chief 

 carriage-drive round Yardley Chase, near which is the seat of the 

 Marquis of Northampton, Castle Ashby, is endeared to all lovers of 



