192 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



tone and sentiment of the building than the 

 grandest oak. Whoever has studied the 

 perfect harmony that subsists between the 

 " antique towers" of Eton College and the 

 stately ehiis which adorn its lawns, will 

 not hastily condemn this preference. The 

 oaks of Blythfield Park could not produce 

 that solemn grandeur which results from the 

 deep tone of colour and the monotonous 

 masses of dense foliage of those elms, whose 

 grand, though simple outline, unbroken by 

 any playful variety, are in unison with that 

 contemplative solemnity, with which the 

 scene, and a consequent train of reflections, 

 cannot fail to inspire the sensitive mind. 



The Scotch fir has, of late years, been 

 planted merely as nurse to the forest tree ; 

 but there are to be seen in many old places 

 specimens which exhibit it in the very first 

 rank of picturesque character, and approach- 

 ing closely even to the grandeur of the cedar. 



Various opinions have been suggested, as 

 to the cause of this obvious declension of a 

 tree, still continued to be planted throughout 

 all the varieties of soil and climate in Great 

 Britain. A very general mode of accounting 

 for this declension is, that the closeness of 



