83 



A work of difliculty and dangor triod, 

 Nor oft successful found.* 



From the expressions made use of in this beautiful passage, 

 we are led to believe, that entire decapitation was implied in 

 the process, and that Mason, who was himself a planter as 

 well as a poet, considered the necessity as indispensable. 



Pontey, one of the most extensive and successful planters 

 now living, and also a landscape gardener of no small dis- 

 tinction, gives his testimony nearly to the same effect as 

 Marshall and Mason, In a late Practical Treatise on this 

 pleasing art (a work which was much wanted,)! after stating 

 his anxiety to discover some certain method of giving a 

 Speedy Effect to Wood, he gives up the point as unattaina- 

 ble, and has recourse to the miserable expedient of planting 

 willows and poplars. Respecting the art under consideration, 

 he candidly says ; " I am no advocate for the removal of 

 quantities of large trees, as the business is extremely tedious, 

 and hazardous also. And after all, in cases of success, such 

 trees for several years grow so slowly, as to remind one of 

 the ' stricken deer.' It is, indeed, seldom that they harmo- 

 nize with any thing about them."+ This, we must own, is 

 a judicious not less than an obvious remark, and of which 

 no impartial person will deny the justice. 



From the view, which has been thus taken of the art in 

 Britain, it may probably be said, that it has advanced httle 

 within a century, whether in respect to skill or science. Of 

 late years, however, some successful examples have been 

 given of what may be called horticultural transplantation, 

 that is, the removal of large shrubs and trees of an orna- 

 mental or exotic species. At the Royal Gardens of Kew, 

 during the reign of his late Majesty, this was done on a 



* English Garden, B. I. 318. f See Note IV. on Sect. I. 



\ Poiitey's Rural Improver, p. 87. 



