204 SckelVs Landscape-Gardening. 



loathing food which is very palatable to him who passes the 

 clay in the open air. Thus, the ploughman will bolt fat bacon by 

 the cubic inch, whilst the tender young milliner will turn sick at 

 the very taste of it. I myself cannot bear melted butter ; but I 

 can and do often thrive, by preference, on a hard crust of bread. 

 Still this would not be the case with one of your London alder- 

 men, who would turn up his nose at the gifts of Ceres, unless those 

 of Nimrod and Bacchus appeared on the same festive board. 



The squirrel, in the state of liberty, lives on nuts and seeds, 

 and on the tender bark of the lime tree, &c. ; but rest assured 

 that it never touches flesh, or kills birds, or sucks eggs. The 

 shepherds of Wiltshire, who have backed Master Charles in his 

 important discovery, deserve a birch rod. These rural sinners, 

 both young and old, would swear that the moon was made of 

 Jones's lucifers, if you would give them a quart of ale apiece. 

 All my labourers believe that the heron thrusts its legs through 

 the nest during incubation ; and they will all tell you that the 

 cuckoo becomes scabbed at the close of summer. " As scabbed 

 as a cuckoo." This, by the way, conies from the mottled ap- 

 pearance which the plumage of the bird puts on at that time of 

 the year. It is caused by the growth of the adult feathers amongst 

 the chicken feathers. I pity the poor squirrels from my heart. 

 Our country squires will now consign them over to the tender 

 mercy of their gamekeepers, and we shall hear of squirrels shot 

 by the dozen. The squirrel is a most harmless animal, except 

 in a nut orchard, from which he ought be expelled without loss 

 of time, as the damage which he does there is incalculable; but 

 I would trust him for ever in a butcher's shop, provided he were 

 allowed to go and take his breakfast and dinner in the neighbour- 

 ing woods. I can see the squirrel here just now, living entirely 

 on the seeds of the cones of the spruce firs ; I can see him in 

 the very trees which contain nests of ringdoves, thrushes, 

 chaffinches, and blackbirds. Still the owners of these nests 

 betray no fears on his approach ; and he himself shows no in- 

 clination for raw eggs, young or old birds, whereon to make a 

 meal. 



Walton Hall. June 3. 1839. 



Art. V. The Landscape-Gardening of F. L. von Sckell of Munich 

 Translated from the German for the "Gardener's Magazine." 



(Continued from p. 172.) 



XIII. On removing Earth in general. 



1. Removing earth, particularly the excavating of valleys, lakes, 

 and ponds, rivers, brooks, &c, ought to precede all other ope- 



