238 BOTANICAL SKETCHES PROM CHESHIRE. [AugUSt, 



Eaton Hall^ the noble mansion of the Marquis of Westminster, 

 with its grand park, is the last attractive view on the line from 

 London to Chester, 



The Avhole country from Chirk to the ancient city, through 

 which the railway passes, is of exquisite beauty, variety, and in- 

 terest, both to the lover of the picturesque and to the local histo- 

 rian and antiquarian. It is totally unlike any other tract tra- 

 versed by this line, and probably surpasses in charming views 

 any line of equal extent, either in England or in Wales, 



If there be any readers of the 'Phytologist' who carp at such 

 descriptive notices of the road by which the botanist travels to 

 the scene of his ultimate and professional operations, to them^I 

 say that my esteem of the proprieties is not less than theirs. I 

 hope there are few to whom any justification will be needed. In 

 deference, however, to these few, I beg to observe that physiolo- 

 gists and the most intelligent medical professors assume as an 

 established fact, that the mere essences of meat and drink are 

 not so nutritious, j9er se (when used alone), as the same quantity 

 of alimentary substance is when diffused through a considerable 

 amount of grosser and innutritions elements. I am not a physi- 

 ologist, and therefore I take this on trust. 



Naturalists are generally prone to assume analogies as existing 

 between the two kingdoms of Nature, the vegetable and the ani- 

 mal ; therefore, as a naturalist, I assume that there is a not very 

 remote analogy between the body and the mind of the human sub- 

 ject; and I infer that vaentdl pabulum, or knowledge, cannot be 

 conveyed — to speak metaphorically — in a nutshell; it must, to 

 render it agreeable, suffer some dilution. Few would relish the 

 mere facts of botanical science, unaccompanied with certain ac- 

 cessories, which help to fix on the memory the dry fact. My 

 object, after all, is utilitarian, the only object worth entertaining. 

 My objects are not sesthetical, which I do not despise, although 

 I know but little about such matters ; these are also utilitarian. 

 My desire is to convey useful information, and to allure to the 

 study of Nature, the beautiful, and the true, those who are 

 wearied with the artificialities of modern life, and thirst after 

 novelties as the traveller in a hot, sandy desert desires the re- 

 freshing drink from the cool spring. 



The science of botany in particular, and that of all natural 

 objects in general, have long lain under the opprobrium of being 



