464 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



It would be an interesting feature in our History of 

 Harting if we could discover in the poetical writings 

 of Pope any evidence that he visited the domain of the 

 Tankervilles and was inspired by its grand beauties. 

 In the principal division of this work we learn that he 

 was a frequent guest of his friend and correspondent, 

 Caryll, at Lady Holt, and it is scarcely to be credited 

 that he did not take many opportunities during his 

 visits there of riding or driving over to Uppark. We 

 are disposed to believe that he did so, but we have no 

 authority for assuming that he was the author of these 

 lines, and we think it is much to be regretted that he 

 did not leave some memorial of the admiration he 

 must have felt during his occasional rambles among 

 these resorts of the " antient Druids." 



There are some fine old clipped hedges of the 

 Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) in the Uppark gardens, 

 forming two avenues that cross each other at right 

 angles, and divide the garden into four equal quarters, 

 but we are not aware that the species is met with in a 

 wild state in the parish. These hedges are eight or 

 ten feet in height, and for more than a century have 

 weathered the heaviest storms, so that they have done 

 good service in sheltering the garden crops from the 

 high winds. 



The Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is pretty generally 

 distributed, and in the Park especially rivals the birch 

 in magnitude, but in our opinion it is not so graceful 

 in outline. It is a valuable underwood in the covers, 



of the tree on which it was afterwards found, but the following, 

 which has been kindly handed to us by the Rev. H. D. Gordon, 

 suggests something more than a doubt on the subject : 



"' In my Great Grandsire's trunk did Druids dwell ; 

 My Grandsire with the Roman Eagle fell ; 

 Myself a sapling when my Father bore 

 The Hero, Edward, to the Gallic shore.' 



" Quoted in connection with the Penshurst Oak in 

 Mrs. Markham's History, Vol. II., p. 290." 



