5<3 January — Improvements, 



X. 



Improvements — Wood-cutting — Importance of fine Trees in Scenery 

 — Giant Brethren — Spenser's Conception of the Forest. 



MY presence in the Val Ste. Veronique had the good 

 effect of saving some trees from the woodman's 

 axe, and by way of compensation I gave myself the 

 pleasure of making an opening here and there to obtain 

 glimpses of scenery, where the brushwood was as impen- 

 etrable as a jungle. Of all country occupations I think 

 this is the most interesting, whilst planting is perhaps 

 the most satisfactory. It is flattering to the vanity of 

 a creature so ephemeral as man to feel that he is settling 

 the fate of oaks that might live for a thousand years. 

 No sentiment can be more foolishly thrown away than 

 that which would preserve all trees until they were rot- 

 ten : it is best to cut them in their fullest maturity before 

 decay begins. Still there are exceptions to this rule, 

 and the chief of these are the cases where a tree is valu- 

 able in life, either from its position as an ornament of 

 scenery or else from association with past generations of 

 men. How much of the beauty of the scenery we love 

 best may be dependent upon the magnificence of a few 

 trees which, once gone, a hundred years would not re- 

 place, we do not adequately realize until accident or 

 avarice has removed them. All scenery that is not 



