d&atflen 



elm stand out almost horizontal from the trunk, 

 and from their great weight I fear their doom is 

 also not far off. 



A fine, large, and well-grown ash has also dis- 

 appeared from the strip of ground which I call 

 " The Wilderness," on the other side of our thirty- 

 two feet broad " Drain." It was blown down in a 

 violent gale which swept over the country last 

 October. It had a fine, sound, straight stem, over 

 fifty feet of which were sold for timber, whilst the 

 branches again served for useful domestic pur- 

 poses. The trunk fell right across the stream, 

 and its removal occasioned much hard and inter- 

 esting work; but I would much rather see it 

 flourishing in its old place among its stately 

 fellows, where its presence would be a greater 

 comfort to me than its economic utilization. 



It always seems to me a comparatively easier 

 and shorter matter to build a royal palace than to 

 grow a regal tree, and I am thus correspondingly 

 distressed at the loss of what it is at least impos- 

 sible to replace within a period measured by the 

 ordinary expectation of individual human life. 



The " Wilderness," which I have just men- 

 92 



