250 Notes on Gardens and Country Seats : — 



ning of February ; and, in the autumn following (or even in the 

 same spring), to cut round the roots, and fill the earth in ; letting 

 it stand till the succeeding autumn, or longer, by which time the 

 tree will have made young branches and young roots, and be in 

 vigour, and fit, upon removal, to push immediate roots. It 

 should be taken up without cutting the roots much more, and 

 put into a hole with the earth in mud, filled in and well staked. 

 The young roots will immediately strike, and the young branches 

 shoot. Planting in earth made thick mud is an excellent way. 

 The tree should be planted level with the ground ; it suffers, if 

 sunk below the level of the ground. The top or leading branch 

 of a beech, indeed of any tree, should not be cut off.' 



" When riding round the grounds at Highclere, the fine taste 

 which dictated the position of the masses of trees, and of single 

 trees, is obvious : how much attention was bestowed upon this 

 point by the above-named nobleman, another extract from his 

 memorandum book will show ; and it will, at the same time, 

 afford a useful lesson to all planters and place improvers. 



" ' In planting single trees about the house, great care should 

 be taken not to hide the house from essential parts of the park ; 

 for, though they might be of advantage, when seen from the 

 house, yet, viewed from Smart's Hill, Tent Hill, Hopgood Hill, 

 also from Guines's Coppice, the head of a single tree may hide 

 the house, though you may see under it from the house. Great 

 care has been taken in placing the present trees ; which might 

 have been placed better, choosing their position from the house 

 only, but, I think, could not have been placed any where else, 

 taking into consideration the necessity of keeping the view of the 

 house clear for the beauty of the above-named spots, giving at 

 the same time sufficient grove near the house. The best way to 

 ascertain the position of a tree is to fix a white pole, with a 

 white rag hung to it, and then ride round the park to the heights 

 from whence the house is seen. Till I adopted this plan, I was 

 obliged to take away trees inadvertently planted, which is ex- 

 tremely mortifying.' 



" The fine cedars which adorn the immediate environs of 

 the house were (with the exception of two, raised from a 

 cone brought immediately from Lebanon, by the celebrated 

 Oriental traveller, Dr. Pococke) all raised from seeds by the 

 first Earl of Caernarvon ; and the largest of them was planted 

 out between the years 1773 and 1778. These fine trees may 

 serve to dissipate a commonly prevalent error, which attri- 

 butes to the cedar of Lebanon the character of slowness of 

 growth ; and to show planters that this most stately of evergreen 

 trees actually makes a progress superior to most trees in our 

 climate. A fine specimen, upon the lawn opposite to the north- 

 western angle of Highclere House, was planted there in the 



