TWO CEDARS REMOVED 67 



must have been fierce opposition. Even 

 reasonable people must have protested against 

 destroying such rare and interesting trees ; 

 but there must have been a louder outcry from 

 all those who thoughtlessly insist on keeping 

 trees in the wrong places, allow them to over- 

 shadow and ruin cottage gardens, keep precious 

 sunlight and air from windows, and with little 

 appreciation of the real beauty of trees or land- 

 scape, allow them to blot out beautiful views 

 people who " would not cut a branch," even if 

 it were fretting a Norman doorway. They 

 must have all been in opposition, as well as 

 those who contribute the inevitable remark 

 that " although you can cut a tree down, you 

 can never put it back again." 



It must have been no easy matter to face such 

 protests. But the Garden Committee were 

 wise. Philip Miller must have taught them 

 much. He had already cut the lower boughs 

 of the cedars, and it was evident that if 2,000 

 different species of plants were to be grown, 

 during forty years, in a garden of less than four 

 acres, it would be better not to keep four ever- 

 green cedars of Lebanon to overshadow the 

 borders. 



So two of the Chelsea cedars were cut down, 

 and the two remaining trees, in exactly the 

 right place one on each side of the water 

 gate stood up against the sunset sky, in their 

 old age like stone pines in a Turner landscape 

 a famous and a pleasant landmark. Both 

 lived until 1878 the survivor until 1903. 



It is to be hoped that the timber merchant 

 who paid 23 for the trees did not lose by his 



