BAY. 117 



work, but he cannot advise the doing it, lest 

 they should be injured by hard weather." 

 He adds, " the finest bay -trees he has ever 

 seen, either abroad or in England, are now in 

 the Royal Gardens at Kensington, which are 

 of very great value." From Mons. Liger, 

 who wrote in 1703, we learn that these trees 

 were then nursed with great care in the Royal 

 Gardens of France ; for he tells us that they 

 were planted in boxes and pots, and cut into 

 pyramids, or globes, to ornament the gardens 

 at Versailles. The bay-tree seems rare in the 

 vicinity of Paris*, at the present time, as we 

 did not meet with it in any garden excepting 

 the Jardin des Plantes, either in the summer of 

 1821 or 1822; and at Ptre la Chaise 'we only 

 found it at the tomb of Delille, where, should 

 it thrive, our successors will be told we may 

 suppose, that it sprang from his body, as they 

 still tell us in the vicinity of Naples, where, 

 at the tomb of Virgil, they show you a bay- 

 tree that they pretend was produced by the 

 ashes of this great poet, and which is as 

 readily believed as the dream of Maia his 

 mother, who, we are told, dreamt that she 

 was delivered of a branch of laurus, and that 



* Bay-leaves are in considerable demand in Paris, for 

 domestic uses, and for which purpose they are sent from 

 the south of France in great quantities, 



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