540 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



tree. Yet it is a grand object— in its rieliest of dark greeti, its no- 

 ble aspect, aud its powerful, defiant attitude. This is quite tbe best 

 specimen that I have seen, and stands in a ligbt, sandy soil on. a 

 gravelly bottom^-'on which soil, I was told, it only grows luxuriantly. 

 I do not know how well this fine evergreen will succeed at 'home. 

 It is now on trial — but I would hint to those who may fail borq. 

 planting it in rich damp soil, that even here, it completely fails in 

 such situations. 



After leaving what I should call the Pinetum in full dress — i. e. 

 in the highly-kept part of the grounds hear the house, you emerge 

 gradually into a tract of many acres of nearly level surface, which 

 reminded me so strongly of a scattered Jersey pine barren, that had 

 it not been for tufts and p'atches- of that chaiining little plant:; the 

 heather in full bloom, growing, vrild op all sides, I might have fan- 

 cied myself in the neighborhood of Amboy. The whole looked, 

 and much of it was, essentially wild, with, the exception of carriage- 

 drives and foot-paths running through the mingled copse, heath and^i 

 woodland. But I was soon convinced of the feet that it was not 

 entirely a wild growth, by being shown, here and there^, looking 

 quite as if they had come up by chance, rare specimens of pines, 

 firs, cedars, etc., from all parts of the wodd, aad pr^senltty I came 

 upon a noble avenue, half a mile long,, of cedars of Lebanon (a tree 

 to which I alwfiys feel inclined to take off my hat as I would do, to 

 an old cathedral). , The latter have, .been planted about twenty-five 

 years, and are just beginning to merge the beautiful in the grand. 

 Everything in the shape of an evergreen seems to thrive in this 

 light sandy soil, and I suggest to the owners-of similar waste, land 

 in the middle and southern States, to , take the hint fi-om this part 

 of Dropmore — plant here and there in the openings the same ever- 

 ' grefen trees, protecting them by slight paling at first, and gradually 

 clearing away all the common growth as they advance into beauty. 

 In this way they may get a wonderfully interesting park— in goU 

 where oaks and elms would never grow — at a very trifling outlay. 



I cannot dismiss Dropmore without mentioning a superb hedge 

 of Portjigal laurel, thirty-one feet high — and the beautiful," Burnam 

 beeches" almost as fine as one ever sees in America,, that I passed 

 on the way back to the railway station. 



