London to John O* Groat's. 259 



firs, larches, white birches and soft maples, with a little 

 sprinkling of the sumach. An early frost had touched 

 the group with every tint of the rainbow, and there 

 it stood in the ruddy glow of the Indian summer, look- 

 ing at its face in the liquid mirror that smiled, still as 

 glass, under its feet. 



I was much pleased to notice what honor was put 

 upon one of our humble and despised trees in Burghley 

 House park, as in the grounds of other noblemen. 

 There was not one that spread such delicate and 

 graceful tresses on the breeze as our White Birch ; 

 not one that fanned it with such a gentle, musical 

 flutter of silver-lined leaves ; not one that wore a 

 boddice of such virgin white from head to foot, or 

 that showed such long, tapering fingers against the 

 sky. I was glad to see such justice done to a tree in 

 the noblest parks in England which with us has been 

 treated with such disdain and contumely. When I 

 saw it here in such glory and honor, and thought 

 how, notwithstanding its Caucasian complexion, it is 

 regarded as a nuisance in our woods, meadows and 

 pastures, so that any man who owns, or can borrow 

 an axe, may cut it down without leave or license 

 wherever he finds it when I saw this disparity in its 

 status in the two Englands, I resolved to plead its 

 cause in my own with new zeal and fidelity. 

 s 2 



