155 



arranged in all the rectilinear dignity of a former day, it\ 

 which here and there was an open and cheerful vista, from 

 which we may suppose his ancestors delighted to look out. 

 All these, however, from a rooted abhorrence of wind, he 

 some years since diligently planted up; so that his mansion, 

 when viewed from without, is rather like a bird's nest in a 

 thicket, than the grand and central object, in an extensive 

 and well wooded park. 



It was in vain that I pressed on my friend the necessity of 

 his freely, but gradually thinning and opening up his woods. 

 It was in vain that I expatiated on the striking similarity 

 of the two kindred elements of air and water, and on the 

 extreme caution that is requisite, in the management of 

 trees nearly at their best, so as to break and dissipate the 

 wind, thereby not only improving the trees, but making a 

 beneficial use of so uncertain an element. It was to no 

 purpose that I explained to him the wise economy which 

 nature displays, in modifying the influence of heat and cold 

 on the vegetable kingdom, and that if heat, during the in- 

 fancy of trees, is necessary to the full development of their 

 parts, cold in a due proportion is just as necessary, at an 

 after period. That, therefore, it must follow, in all large 

 masses of wood, where heat is superabundant, and light 

 insufficiently supplied, that a progressive elongation of stem, 

 and a progressive delicacy of constitution, must be the con- 

 sequence, and in time all admission of air be rendered dan- 

 gerous or impossible. That, in these circumstances, were so 

 unnatural a state of things suflfered to continue, and were 

 he to persist in an unavaihng warfare with his old enemy 

 the wind, instead of prudently conciliating that boisterous 

 element; it was clear, that erelong it would find, or make 

 for itself more than one entrance into his premises, however 

 closely secured, and to a certainty blow down his woods. 

 Yet notwithstanding, I am sorry to observe, that these dense 

 masses and barricades are still continued, and that his woods 



