Strutfs Sylva Britannica, ^^^ 



the forests to the page before us will not displease either him 

 or the reader : — 



" * Than a tree, a grander child earth bears not. 

 What are the boasted palaces of man. 

 Imperial city or triumphal arch, 

 To forests of immeasurable extent, 

 Which Time confirms, which centuries waste not ? 

 Oaks gather strength for ages ; and when at last 

 They wane, so beauteous in decrepitude. 

 So grand in weakness ! E'en in their decay 

 So venerable ! 'T were sacrilege t' escape 

 The consecrating touch of Time. Time watch'd 

 The blossom on the parent bough ; Time saw 

 The acorn loosen from the spray j Time pass'd 

 While, springing from its swaddling shell, yon oak. 

 The cloud-crown' d monarch of our woods, by thorns 

 Environ'd, 'scaped the raven's bill, the tooth 

 Of goat and deer, the schoolboy's knife, and sprang 

 A royal hero from his nurse's arms. 

 Time gave it seasons, and Time gave it years. 

 Ages bestow'd, and centuries grudged not ; 

 Time knew the sapling when gay summer's breath 

 Shook to the roots the infant oak, which after 

 Tempests moved not. Time hollow'd in its trunk 

 A tomb for centuries ; and buried there 

 The epochs of the rise and fall of states, 

 The fading generations of the world, 

 The memory of man.' '* 



On a former occasion we expressed our regret that the folio 

 edition of the work before us had not been enlarged, so as to 

 have included portraits of all the more remarkable trees still 

 remaining throughout the country ; and we ventured an opi- 

 nion that Mr. Strutt was restrained from exceeding the ori- 

 ginal limits of his work by feelings of delicacy towards his 

 subscribers. Our surmises, it seems, were not far from the 

 truth. " The author," we read in the preface to the present 

 edition, " was entreated by several highly esteemed friends 

 to add a supplement to the work, for the purpose of including 

 various specimens of trees which the original limits did not 

 admit of containing. But, however flattering those solicitations 

 might be, his unwillingness to incur the slightest appearance 

 of trespassing on the liberality of his subscribers formed an 

 insuperable bar to his compliance with them." We respect 

 our author's motives, while we lament the loss that we sus- 

 tain in consequence of them. As the work, however, in this 

 second edition, has now assumed a novel and somewhat 

 altered guise, we do trust that he will so far comply with the 

 wishes of his friends as to add to it another volume. To this 

 plan not the most scrupulous delicacy can frame a reasonable 

 objection. Ere long, therefore, we hope to meet Mr. Strutt 



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