386 Strutt’s Delicie Sylvarum. 
suffered to grow and take their own course, unmolested by 
the axe, and now assume the wildest forms, occasionally pre- 
senting almost a grotesque appearance. Their roots espe- 
cially are in many instances of a very large size, and extraor- 
dinarily picturesque ; the clefts or interstices between their 
separate divisions will be found on admeasurement in some 
cases to exceed a yard in depth. We know of no place that 
we would sooner select for the purpose of taking up our 
abode for a week in the summer, and pitching our camp, 
gipsy-like, “ patulz sub tegmine fagi,? > to ramble about at 
leisure, and enjoy the pure charms of nature, than the Burn- 
ham Beeches. Not only the lover of forest scenery and of 
the beauties of nature in general, but the botanist and the 
entomologist, would each of fica here find an ample field 
for his pursuits and a rich remuneration for his labours. 
Of the two scenes in the Forest of Arden much might be 
said in praise, though the plates are, as we have said, in point 
of brilliancey of etehinie: @, not quite equal to their companions 
in the same anmber. This partial inferiority is owing, we 
apprehend, to a want of equal success in the operation of 
biting in, — an operation which, while it requires much skill 
and experience in the artist, depends, after all, in some 
degree, on chance, or at least on circumstances over which the 
operator has not the entire control. Independently of the 
strength of the acid employed for the purpose, the state of 
the atmosphere, the temperature of the room, and, above all, 
the due admixture of the metals of which the plate is com- 
posed — all or any of these will make a material difference. 
“ The very name of the Forest of Arden,” observes our 
author, ‘conjures up in the mind of the English reader a 
thousand poetical images; for he involuntarily links it with 
Shakspeare’s muse ; peoples it with banished lords ; listens 
in imagination to ¢ the moralising of the melancholy Jaques,’ 
and longs to find out the individnal oak 
— “* Whose antique roots peep out 
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood: 
To the which place a poor sequester’d stag, 
That from the hunter’s aim had ta’en a hare 
> 
Did come to languish? 
“ It is, however, too often the unwelcome province of the 
historian and topographer to destroy the associations with 
which fancy loves to deck a favourite scene, by showing the 
fallacy on which they are founded.” Accordingly, the Shak- 
spearean Forest of Arden, it is almost unnecessary to state, is 
to be sought for in foreign, not in English, soil, and is no 
fo) 
other than the Ardennes of our Gallic neighbours. With 
