200 NATURE NEAR LONDON, 



which do not fear cities. On such a site the experi- 

 ment would have been worth making. 



If in the semi-country seats fast-growing trees are 

 needed, there are, as I have observed, the lime and 

 horse-chestnut; and if more variety be desired, add 

 the Spanish chestnut and the walnut. The Spanish 

 chestnut is a very fine tree; the walnut, it is true, 

 grows slowly. If as many beeches as cedar deodaras 

 and laurels and planes were planted in these grounds, 

 in due course of time the tap of the woodpecker would 

 be heard : a sound truly worth ten thousand laurels. 

 At Kew, far closer to town than many of the semi- 

 country seats are now, all our trees flourish in per- 

 fection. 



Hardy birches, too, will grow in thin soil. Just 

 compare the delicate drooping boughs of birch — they 

 could not have been more delicate if sketched with a 

 pencil — compare these with the gaunt planes ! 



Of all the foreign shrubs that have been brought to 

 these shores, there is not one that presents us with so 

 beautiful a spectacle as the bloom of the common old 

 English hawthorn in May. The mass of blossom, the 

 pleasant fragrance, its divided and elegant leaf, place 

 it far above any of the importations. Besides which, 

 the traditions and associations of the May give it a 

 human interest. 



The hawthorn is a part of natural English life — 

 country life. It stands side by side with the English- 

 man, as the palm tree is pictured side by side with 

 the Arab. You cannot pick up an old play, or book 

 of the time when old English life was in the prime, 

 without finding some reference to the hawthorn. 



