250 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



Beeches must be excluded, for nothing will grow 

 under or near them, and though the copper beech is 

 much admired by many, I could never like it. There 

 are many different shades of copper beeches, of which 

 some may be less ugly than others, and for a few days 

 in the spring the colour of the young leaves is very 

 brilliant, quite equal to the Japanese maples, but a 

 black tree is to my eyes a monstrosity, and sufficiently 

 ugly to justify Wordsworth's complaint, that there 

 were only two blots in his beautiful vale, a copper 

 beech and Miss Martineau. There is, however, one 

 beech, the fern-leaved, which makes a beautiful lawn 

 tree, and has lovely tints both in spring and autumn. 



I dismiss at once the horse-chestnut, the sycamore 

 (though, for a few days, when the flowers come out 

 before the leaves, the whole tree is of a rich gold 

 colour), the lime, the plane, and even the Spanish 

 chestnut and the ash, as all better outside the garden 

 than inside; but I would admit one upright poplar 

 (and not more), for its unlikeness to everything around 

 it, and a birch for its exceeding lightness and pretty 

 bark. Of the other native deciduous trees I should 

 be inclined to admit only the hornbeam. Though 

 little grown as an ornamental tree, it makes, when not 

 disturbed or clipped, a very beautiful lawn tree, with 

 a very wide spread of branches which give a pleasant 



