419 



picture on canvas, instead of creating an original. When iho difficulty 

 of the task, which had hitliorto amounted to an imitosssihility, is <hily 

 considered, with the extreme beauty of the effects produced, it cannot 

 be thought extravagant, that the planting of grove and copse -wood on 

 the two acres already montioncd, sliould amount (as ajipoars from Sir 

 Henry's memoranda) to about 30/. per acre. On the contrary, the com- 

 mittee believe, that no visible change on the appearance of nature, how- 

 ever trivial in comparison, could have been effected by the landscape 

 gardener in any other manner, under three times the sum. 



This is so obvious, that the committee conceive it to be only the pur- 

 pose of the Society to ascertain, whether there is such, and so great 

 an expense attending the process of transplanting, as to interdict its being 

 practised by country gentlemen of ordinary fortune, who are neither 

 willing nor able to bestow very large sums, merely, or at least chietly, 

 to attain external beauty. In this point of view, the committee are 

 strongly encouraged to hope, that the Transplanting system can be 

 adopted, with advantage in most circumstances, and at no extravagant 

 expense. There are, upon most properties, strips and clumps of plant- 

 ing, in the taste which prevailed thirty or forty years ago, which have 

 been thinned out, and they now furnish trees, at eighteen or twenty feet 

 distance from one another. It is usually desirable to break the formality 

 of such clumps or strips, and in such a case, the subjects for removal 

 may be selected with advantage, both to the grounds which are to be 

 clothed, and to the plantations, from which these individual trees are to 

 be removed. Many of Sir Henry's subjects have been selected from 

 such plantations as we have described. Where such do not occur, he 

 proposes to raise nurseries, where trees shall be trained, for the special 

 purpose of transplanting. But this mode of rearing subjects for future 

 removal, your committee do not pretend to report upon, as they had not 

 time to examine its advantages and disadvantages. 



They cannot conclude this part of the subject better, than by an ex- 

 tract of a letter to their convener, from their experienced colleague, Mr. 

 Laing Meason, who had an opportunity of witnessing the transplantation 

 of several trees at Allanton House, and of forming a calculation, as to 

 the expense of their removal. 



"I regret very much (says he), that it will not be in my power to 

 attend, as one of the committee appointed by the Highland Society, to 

 report upon the system and practice of transplanting trees of a large 

 size, as adopted by Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton. 



" As I, however, passed some days at Allanton, in the planting season, 



