49 



seldom to be met with, in allowing these noblest of 

 nature's productions to fall into decay, when a very 

 little work and attention would be the means of pre- 

 serving them in all their grandeur for another century. 

 The first and sixth on the right, approaching to the 

 gate, have each lost the top of the trunk; these should 

 be cut over, and if found decaying in the heart, should 

 be covered over with a piece of lead or other substance; 

 they would thus send out most vigorous shoots, gain a 

 new top as a pollard, become as beautiful as ever in a 

 few years, and stand so for generations, while their 

 trunks are preserved ; this may be seen by the fine, 

 fresh, and healthy shoots they are at present sending 

 out, notwithstanding the decaying and decayed state 

 of their boles. No plan could more efficiently have 

 been taken to destroy and hasten to decay these trees, 

 than the method in which they have been pruned, by 

 cutting the large branches at a distance from the 

 trunk of the tree, and allowing them to rot off) which 

 never fails to leave a hole to admit of water, &c. and 

 which ultimately rots the whole tree. All these 

 branches and places should be most carefully and 

 properly dressed up, smoothed into the body of the 

 tree ; and if there is already a hole or symptom of 

 decay, it should be covered over as aforesaid ; and if 

 the place is sound when dressed up, it should be 

 covered over with coal-tar paint, or a balsam prepar- 

 ed for the purpose of preserving the wet from getting 

 in, or the sun from opening the pores of the timber 

 to admit the wet. Is not Shakespeare's fine lines very 

 appropriate to those trees : 



" Their boughs are moss'd with age, 

 And high tops bald with dry antiquity," 



