64> FLOKA DOMESTICA. 



And horizontal dials on the ground 



In living box by cunning artists traced; 



And gallies trim, on no long voyage bound. 

 But by their roots there ever anchor'd fast. 

 All were their bellying sails outspread to every blast." 



G. West. 



This preposterous taste in gardening was at last re- 

 formed by the pure and classical taste of Bacon; who, 

 though no enemy to sculpture, did not approve of this 

 absurd species of it : at once disfiguring art and nature. 



" In several parts of the North of England, when a 

 funeral takes place, a basin full of sprigs of Box-wood is 

 placed at the door of the house from which the coffin is 

 taken up ; and each person who attends the funeral, ordi- 

 narily takes a sprig of this Box-wood, and throws it into 

 the grave of the deceased.'' — (See Note in Wordsworth's 

 Poems, 8vo. vol. i. p. 163.) 



" The bason of box- wood, just six months before. 

 Had stood on the table at Timothy's door ; 

 A coffin through Timothy's threshold had pass'd. 

 One child did it bear, and that child was his last." 



Wordsworth. 



Gerarde informs us, that turners and cutlers call Box- 

 wood dudgeon, because they make dudgeon-hafted knives 

 of it. The Box-tree is a native of most parts of Europe, 

 from Britain southwards : it also abounds in many parts 

 of Asia and America. In England it was formerly much 

 more common than at present. 



" These trees," says Evelyn, " grow naturally at Boxley 

 in Kent, and at Box-hill in Surrey : giving name to them. 

 He that in winter should behold some of our highest hills 

 in Surrey, clad with whole woods of them, for divers miles 

 in circuit, as in those delicious groves of them belonging 

 to the late Sir Adam Brown of Beckworth Castle, might 

 easily fancy himself transported into some new or en- 

 chanted countrv." 



