354 



CHANGE NOT ALWAYS IMPROVEMENT. 



served a part of the road where the scenery was pa. 

 ticularly interesting. It consisted of large spreadin 

 trees, intermi.xed with thorns: on one side, a vie' 



into Lord • 



-'s parli was admitted, by the pal a«i 

 being smili; and a ladder-stile, placed near an age' 

 beech, tempted me to explore its beauties. On tb 

 opposite side, a bench, and an umbrageous part c 

 an adjoining forest, invited me to pause, and make 

 sketch of the spot. After a lapse of ten years, I wa ,', 

 surprised to see the change which had been madt 

 I no longer knew, or recollected, the same place, til 

 an old laborer explained, that, on the death of th- 

 late lord, the estate had been sold to a very rich man "•• 

 who had improved it; for, by cutting down the timi '' 



CHANGE NOT ALWAYS IMPROVEISIENT. 



In the September number of the Farmer we stated 

 that we were preparing a series of interesting and in- 

 structive articles for this department. We thought 

 it rather better not to commence the series until the 

 January number, as we expect then to more than 

 double the jiumber of our young readeiu The arti- 

 cles we propose to give is a series, say twelve in num- 

 ber, on Gardening for Youth. They 

 will be finely illustrated, and will con- 

 tain all the important and valuable 

 information on the subject, given in 

 the simplest and plainest language, 

 and will be well worthy the attention 

 of the old as well as the young. But 

 we had almost forgotten our heading. 

 Change not always Improvement. 

 Our attention was particularly called 

 to this subject by perusing an English 

 work on Landscape Gardening, by 

 that old and celebrated Landscape 

 Gardener, Repton. The old man de- 

 plored the great rage for improvement 

 in England, which had destroyed so 

 many beautiful walks and jjleasant groves, that had 

 always been open to the poor, and states their eflk^it 

 to be only 



" Adding to riches an increased store, 

 And making poorer those already poor." 



The first engraving shows the forest in its original 

 atate, with all its wild beauty, where the poor and 

 their children could enjoy the lovely 

 forest and its pure health-giving at- 

 mosphere; and the second, the same 

 place improved, with no resting place 

 for the way-farer, and worse than all, 

 that forbidding looking board sign 

 which stares you in the face at every 

 mile in your travels through England, 

 informing you in no very delicate 

 terms, that "spring gnns and man- 

 traps are set in these grounds,'' or that 

 " all persons found trespassing xvill view after the forfst wastf had been enclosed and the geounb 

 he prosecuted according to law." We subjected to agricultural improvement. 



view from a public koad which passes through a forest. 



ber, and getting an act to enclose the common, hi 

 had doubled all the rents. The old mossy and ivy 

 covered pale was replaced by a new and lofty closn 

 paling; not to confine the deer, but to exclude man 

 kind, and to protect a miserable narrow belt of fin 

 and Lombardy poplars: the bench was gone, the 

 ladder-stile was changed to a caution against man- 

 traps and spring-guns, and a notice that the foot-path 

 was stopped by order of the commissioners. As 1 



will fill this page by allowing Mr. Repton to tell his 

 own story. We certainly i eed the hint in this coun- 

 try, as in our improvements we pay altogether too 

 little regard to the beautiful. 



In passing through a distant county, I had ob- 



read the board, the old man said, — " It is very tme^ 

 and I am forced to walk a mile further round, eveiy 

 night, after a hard day's work." 



There are too many who have no idea of improve- 

 ment, except by increasing the quantity, the quality, 

 or the value of an estate. 



