168 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
“The viper has ne’er been known to sting, 
Or the nightingale e’er heard to sing.” 
The beech tree is remarkable for the extraordinary and tortuous growth of its 
branches, and the knotted and rough appearance of the stems. The bark, however, 
is remarkably smooth and shining, and peculiarly tempting to the rustic carver. 
Poets in many verses have recognised the favourite custom of carving names on the 
bark of the beech trees. Shakespeare says, “‘ A man haunts the forest that abuses 
our young trees with carving Rosalind upon their bark.” And we read in Luis de 
Gongora that 
“ Not a beech but bears some cipher, 
Tender word or amorous text. 
If one vale sounds Angelina, 
Angelina sounds the next.” 
Our own poet Campbell avails himself of the ‘plea of long-cherished names in his 
appeal on behalf of the beech tree :— 
“ Thrice twenty summers have I stood 
In bloomless, fruitless solitude ; 
Since childhood in my rustling bower 
First spent its sweet and sportive hour ; 
Since youthful lovers in my shade 
Their vows of truth and rapture paid ; 
And on my trunk’s surviving frame 
Carved many a long-forgotten name. 
Oh, by the vows of gentle sound 
First breathed upon this sacred ground ; 
By all that love hath whispered here, 
Or beauty heard with ravished ear ; 
As love’s own altar honour me! 
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree.” 
Virgil alludes to this practice of carving letters on the beech tree. In Dryden’s 
translation we read— 
* Or shall I rather the sad verse repeat 
Which on the beech’s bark I lately writ ?” 
Tasso’s well-known lines say— 
“On the smooth beechen rind the pensive dame 
Carves in a thousand forms her Tancred’s name.”? 
We read of “beechen goblets” in several well-known verses. Milton writes— 
“In beechen goblets let their bev’rage shine, 
Cool from the crystal spring their sober wine.” 
And Cowley speaks of the happy times when 
“The beechen bowl without debauch went round, 
And was with harmless mirth and roses crowned 5 
Twas not that any virtue in the wood 
Against the baneful liquor was thought good, 
But poverty and innocence were here 
The antidote against all ills and fear.” 
