3S6 StruWs Delicice Sylvdrum, 



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, " patulae 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 them 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 brilliancy of etching, not quite equal to their companions 

 in the same number. 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 individual 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 hurt, 

 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 

 other than the Ardennes of our Gallic neighbours. With 



