540 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



tree. Yet it is a grand object in its richest of dark green, its no- 

 ble aspect, and its powerful, defiant attitude. This is quite the best 

 specimen that I have seen, and stands in a light, sandy soil on a 

 gravelly bottom on which soil, I was told, it only grows luxuriantly. 

 I do not know how well this fine evergreen will succeed at home. 

 It is now on tria^ but I would hint to those who may fail from 

 planting it in rich damp soil, that even here, it completely fails in 

 such situations. 



After leaving what I should call the Pinetum in full dress i. e. 

 in the highly-kept part of the grounds near the house, you emerge 

 gradually into a tract of many acres of nearly level surface, which 

 reminded me so strongly of a scattered Jersey pine barren, that had 

 it not been for tufts and patches of that charming little plant the 

 heather in full bloom, growing wild on all sides, I might have fan- 

 cied myself in the neighborhood of Amboy. The whole looked, 

 and much of it was, essentially wild, with the exception of carriage- 

 drives and foot-paths running through the mingled copse, heath and 

 woodland. But I was soon convinced of the fact that it was not 

 entirely a wild growth, by being shown, here and there, looking 

 quite as if they had come up by chance, rare specimens of pines, 

 firs, cedars, etc., from all parts of the world, and presently I came 

 upon a noble avenue, half a mile long, of cedars of Lebanon (a tree 

 to which I always feel inclined to take off my hat as I would do to 

 an old cathedral). The latter have been planted about twenty-five 

 years, and are just beginning to merge the beautiful in the grand. 

 Every thing in the shape of an evergreen seems to thrive in this 

 light sandy soil, and I suggest to the owners of similar waste land 

 in the middle and southern States, to take the hint from this part 

 of Dropmore- plant here and there in the openings the same ever- 

 green trees, protecting them by slight paling at first, and gradually 

 clearing away all the common growth as they advance into beauty. 

 In this way they may get a wonderfully interesting park in soil 

 where oaks and elms would never grow at a very trifling outlay. 



I cannot dismiss Dropmore without mentioning a superb hedge 

 of Portugal laurel, thirty-one feet high and the beautiful " Burnam 

 beeches," almost as fine as one ever sees in America, that I passed 

 on the way back te the railway station.. 



