310 FAGUS. 



the present day, appear somewhat extraordinary that 

 Pliny and Virgil should talk of grafting the Beech upon 

 the Ohesnut, or that the fruit of the latter should in their 

 day be considered inferior to the mast of the Beech. 



Few, we believe, who peruse the pages of '.- Gilpin's 

 Forest Scenery," will be found to coincide in that author's 

 estimate of the ornamental properties of the Beech, or 

 who will not think that he has overlooked many circum- 

 stances, connected with this tree, which, though not exactly 

 adapted for representation by the pencil, or wanting in 

 those peculiar characters which are considered to con- 

 stitute the picturesque, are, nevertheless, in themselves 

 objects of interest, and calculated to produce, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, the most pleasing effects. It is, how- 

 ever, from the light in which natural objects were almost 

 invariably viewed by the gifted author of " Forest Scenery," 

 that we must attribute that apparent want of interest he 

 seems to have felt and entertained towards individual ob- 

 jects, when not connected with the art of composition ; 

 for such was his love and admiration of the pencil, and 

 so closely interwoven were all his feelings and associations 

 with it, that they threw into the background, and out 

 of view, all other qualities and accidents when these could 

 not be made available, or were repugnant to the rules of 

 composition. 



Sir T. Dick Lauder, in his valuable edition of this 

 author, when commenting upon the depreciating terms in 

 which the Beech is mentioned, has well remarked, " that 

 this is one of the instances in which the author's love 

 of the art of painting objects of nature with the pencil, 

 and his associations with the pleasures of that art, have 

 very much led him away. We are disposed," he adds, 

 " to go along with him in a great measure so far as we, 



