THE PINE. 415 



Pine ; but, as we consider that the tree, under these cir- 

 cumstances, is seen under a false and unnatural character, 

 we turn to view it in those instances where it has been 

 judiciously planted upon a soil capable of bringing it to 

 full size and maturity, and where ample space has been 

 given to allow it "to form its head amongst the thick 

 branches," or else to those noble specimens and pictu- 

 resque groups, which we have so often admired when 

 growing in its native highland wilds, and which have 

 been introduced with such effect into the beautiful pro- 

 ductions of some of our most gifted artists ; under these 

 more favourable circumstances, and in what we deem its 

 natural state, we pronounce it, without hesitation, to be 

 one of the most picturesque, and also amongst the most 

 magnificent of our forest trees. In this opinion we are 

 supported not only by the authority of Gilpin, who speaks 

 of the Pine, when thus permitted to assume its natural 

 form and spread its ample head aloft, uncontrolled by the 

 close approach or interference of other trees, in terms of 

 high approval, but also by the commentary of his accom- 

 plished editor, Sir T. D. Lauder, who, with the feelings 

 of one who truly appreciates the romantic scenery of his 

 native land, exclaims, " We, for our parts, confess, that 

 when we have seen it towering in full majesty in the 

 midst of some appropriate highland scene, and sending 

 its limbs abroad with all the unconstrained freedom of a 

 hardy mountaineer, as if it claimed dominion over the 

 savage regions round it, we have looked upon it as a very 

 sublime object. People who have not seen it in its native 

 climate and soil, and who judge of it from the wretched 

 abortions which are swaddled and suffocated in English 

 plantations, amongst deep, heavy, and eternally wet clays, 

 may well call it a wretched tree ; but, when it stands 



