20 THE SYCAMORE. 



with, except from Wales, from whence it is 

 brought to Stockport, Manchester, and all 

 other adjacent manufacturing towns, by rail- 

 way, and I have no doubt that, for the next 

 half century or more, the Manchester and 

 other customers, as I have described, must 

 rely on the Principality for their future sup- 

 ply of this indispensable timber ; for there are 

 none left within thirty or forty miles on any 

 side of Manchester, and beyond that distance 

 southward the tree is seldom seen, and in 

 many counties it is very rarely met with, and 

 if growing, in few instances is its value known, 

 or not duly appreciated, and it shares the 

 fate of every other kind of coppice timber, 

 and sold for faggot wood. I was told a short 

 time ago by some eminent nurserymen and 

 foresters in Suffolk and Norfolk, that they 

 had ceased to raise it among their other nur- 

 sery stock, on account of the little inquiry 

 they received for it from their customers. It 

 would seem that the cold climate of our Low 

 and High Peak districts, and the dry soils of 



