Powers of Vegetation. 365 



more graceful wild plants, such as those of the fern tribe, the great tussilago, 

 and others, may occasionally be permitted to show themselves, and even tufts 

 of whins may not be altogether out of place. And as it is well known that 

 the best way to produce good pasture, is to put a great variety of animals 

 upon it ; so by having groups of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and even asses, 

 constantly grazing together, you will not only thereby insure the richness of 

 the surface, but you will also add to the interest of your scenery by the variety 

 of the living objects which will thus be seen giving animation to it." 



[In an open glade in the shrubbery, surrounded by ever- 

 greens, a handsome pedestal contains the following inscription, 

 which was copied for us by Mr. Mackenzie last year.] 



WILLIAM ADAM 



(born 1688, died 1748) began, in 1733, 



with a spirit of enterprise, and with forecast greatly in advance 



of that age, to improve and plant this domain, 



then a wild unsheltered moor. 



JOHN ADAM, 



THE SON OF WILLIAM, (BORN 1721, DIED 1792) 



WITH DISTINGUISHED TASTE, 



EXTENDED THE IMPROVEMENTS AND ENLARGED THE WOODS. 



IN 1751 HE BEGAN, AND IN 1761 HE COMPLETED, THE GARDEN, 



WHICH HAS BEEN PRESERVED WITHOUT CHANGE OF DESIGN OR ALTERATION 



OF EFFECTS, 

 EXCEPT WHAT GROWTH HAS PRODUCED. 



A CENTURY AFTER THE IMPROVEMENTS WERE BEGUN, 



WILLIAM (the son of john), aged 82. 



COMPOSED THIS INSCRIPTION AND PLACED IT HERE, A. D. 1833. 



Art. IV. The Powers of Vegetation. By Charles Waterton, Esq. 



In those good days of old, when there were no corn-factors in 

 England to counteract that part of our Redeemer's prayer, 

 " Give us this day our daily bread," by hoarding up vast stores 

 of grain, until mouldiness and vermin have rendered it unfit 

 for the use of man, there stood at Walton Hall a water-mill, 

 for the interest of the proprietor and the good of the countx-y 

 round. Time, the great annihilator of all human inventions, 

 saving taxation and the national debt, laid this fabric low in 

 ruins some sixty years ago ; and nothing now remains to show 

 the place where it once stood except a massive millstone, which 

 measures full 17 ft. in circumference. The ground where the 

 mill stood having been converted into meadow, this stone lay 

 there unnoticed and unknown (save by the passing hay-maker) 

 from the period of the mill's dissolution to the autumn of the year 



