276 OCTOBER. 



countrymen it would be easy to mention, that 

 have been written, and more than one of our 

 most distinguished living authors, who delights 

 to compose amid the inspiring grace and fresh- 

 ness and purity of trees. John Evelyn spent a 

 considerable portion of a valuable life in endea- 

 vouring to communicate his admiration of trees 

 and forests, and besides immediately effecting a 

 great national service, by turning the attention 

 of government to the importance of planting, 

 has left a fine monument of his taste and labour. 

 Well might this venerable and enthusiastic apos- 

 tle of woods exclaim: "Here then is the true 

 Parnassus, Castalia and the Muses; and at 

 every call in a grove of venerable oaks, methinks 

 I hear the answer of a hundred old Druids, and 

 the bards of our inspired ancestors. In a word, 

 so charmed were poets with those natural 

 shades, that they honoured temples with the 

 names of groves, though they had not a tree 

 about them. In walks and shades of trees poets 

 have composed verses, which have animated 

 men to heroic and glorious actions. Here ora- 

 tors have made their panegyrics, historians their 

 grave relations ; and the profound philosophers 

 have loved to pass their lives in repose and con- 

 templation." 



Who has walked in woods, that has not felt 



