252 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



a good age there is not much beauty in it ; but I could 

 scarcely cut down an old one. I am happy in having 

 two old ones on my lawn growing near together, and 

 far beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant they 

 have carried a swing, and it is pleasant to think to 

 how many generations of the children of the village 

 these yew-trees with their swing have been a never- 

 failing delight. They are represented in an old paint- 

 ing quite two hundred years old. Besides these two 

 evergreen conifers there are two deciduous ones, of 

 which single specimens might claim a place. The 

 larch, brought into England from the European Alps 

 about two hundred and fifty years ago, is very beauti- 

 ful in spring, and is almost the first of the deciduous 

 trees that comes into leaf, and an old larch covered 

 with lichen is a pretty sight; it is also one of the 

 fastest-growing trees we have, and will grow anywhere. 

 The Salisburia, or jingko-tree, from Japan (a near ally 

 of the yew), is another deciduous conifer that should 

 be on every lawn. It is very slow of growth in 

 its earlier years, but its foliage (so like the maiden- 

 hair fern) is always pretty and interesting, and in 

 a fine, dry autumn the autumnal tints are magnifi- 

 cent. 1 



I think we are all too shy of planting fruit-trees on 



i See p. 216. 



