BOX TREE. 75 



and saw-dust boiled in lye will change the hair to an auburn 

 colour. 1 ' 



When it was the fashion to clip and cut trees into the 

 shapes of beasts, birds, &c. the Box was considered as second 

 only to the yew for that purpose ; for which, Pliny says that 

 nothing is better adapted. Martial notices this quality in 

 speaking of Bassus's garden : 



" otiosis ordinata myrtetis, 



Viduaque platano tonsilique buxeto." 



" There likewise mote be seen on every side 

 The yew obedient to the planter's will, 

 And shapely box, of all their branching pride 

 Ungently shorne, and with preposterous skill, 

 To various beasts, and birds of sundry quill 

 Transformed, and human shapes of monstrous size ; 

 ***** 



" Also other wonders of the sportive shears 

 Fair Nature mis-adorning, there were found 

 Globes, spiral columns, pyramids and piers 

 With sprouting urns, and budding statues crown'd ; 

 And horizontal dials on the ground 

 In living box by cunning artists traced ; 

 And gallies trim, on no long voyage bound, 

 But by their roots there ever anchored fast, 

 All were their bellying sails outspread to every blast." 



G. WEST. 



This preposterous taste in gardening was at last reformed 

 by the pure and classical taste of Bacon ; who, though no 

 enemy to sculpture, did not approve of this absurd species 

 of it : at once disfiguring art and nature. 



" In several parts of the north of England, when a 

 funeral takes place, a basin full of sprigs of Box-wood is 

 placed at the door of the house from which the coffin is 

 taken up ; and each person who attends the funeral ordi- 

 narily takes a sprig of this Box-wood, and throws it into 

 the grave of the deceased. 11 (See Note in WORDSWORTH'S 

 POEMS, 8vo. vol. i. p. 163.) 



