50 



lemaikable circumstance is, thai it lias not been bioughi 

 about before, amidst the advancement of the other arts : and 

 thus England, which, a century and a half ago, was the 

 birth-place, and the cradle of vegetable physiology, will soon 

 give lessons in planting as well as agriculture, to the rest of 

 Europe. 



Although, I trust, I am not too sanguine in these pleasing 

 anticipations, yet I own, that I did not at first contemplate 

 so important and extensive an application of the principles 

 about to be laid down in this Essay. Neither was it in the 

 contemplation of the committee of the Highland Society, or 

 General Society for the Encoiuagement of the Arts in this 

 Kingdom, which, some years since, examined my woods, 

 because their attention was turned merely to the facts before 

 them. The able report, at that time drawn up (and which 

 will be found in the Appendix) relates solely to my jJractice ; 

 and they knew that it was deduced from experience, and 

 from observations made on woods, for more than forty years. 

 Yet it is with both pride and pleasure that I appeal to this 

 report, for tlie correctness of the statement above given, of 

 the powerful effects which the art in question is capable of 

 producing ; a statement that otherwise might appear un- 

 founded in its facts, as well as extravagant in its pretensions. 

 In the committee will be seen names of the fii-st class, in the 

 rank, literature, and general intelligence of the country ; and 

 the report itself is drawn up by the individual, the most 

 highly gifted and distinguished of those persons, who is 

 himself well acquainted with the subject of Wood.* 



At the place from which these pages are dated, they found 

 a Park of limited extent, and possessing no particular claim 

 to beauty, but visited from curiosity by many persons, within 

 the last ten years. It consists of about a hundred and 

 twenty English acres, abundantly clothed with trees and 



* Note VI. 



