vn. 



DEOPMORE.— ENGLISH KAlLWAYS.— SOCIETY. 



, September, 1850.. 



DROPMORE is the seat of Lady Grenville, and has been cele- 

 brated, for some time, for its 'collection of rare trees — especially 

 evergreens. It is in the neighboriipod of Windsor, and I passed ^a 

 morning there with a good deal of interest. - ' 



In point of taste and beauty, Dropmore disa.ppointed me. The 

 site is flat, the soil sandy and thin, and the arrangement; in no way 

 remarkable. The mansion is not so fine' as Some upon the Hudson, 

 and the .scenery about it, "does pot rise a]3pve the dead level of a 

 umformity rendered less insipid by abundant plantations. There is, 

 however, a wilderness of flower-garden- about , the house, in which! 

 saw scarlet geraniums, and garden vases enough to embellish a 

 whole village. The effect, however, ,was riant and gay without the 

 sentiment of real beauty. 



But one does tiot go to Norway to drink sherbet, and Dropmore 

 is only a show place by virtue of its Pinetum. This is its collec- 

 tion of eveTgreeUr trees, anil particularly of ^\& pine tribe — ;every 

 species that will grow in England bping collected ill. this one place. 

 , Of course, in a scientific collection of evergreen trees, there^ are 

 many that are only curious to tljie botanist — many tha;t are only valu- 

 able for timber, and many that are almost ugly in their growth— or 

 .at least present, no attractive feature to the general eye. But there 

 are also; in this Pinetum, some evergreens of suchra,re and wonder- 

 ful beauty, gfp wing in such exquisite perfection of deycjlopment, 

 that they effect a tree-lover like those few finest Raphaels and Van- 



