PREFACE. 



V, i4/ 



AM not surprised that 

 the ancients worship- 

 ped trees. Lakes jand 

 mountains, however 

 glorious for a time, in 

 time weary — sylvan 

 scenery never palls.' 

 So ■ ran, at its conclu- 

 sion, a remarkable and 

 interesting letter, which 

 the late Lord Beaconsfield, in December, 1880, 

 a few months only before his death, wrote to the 

 Author of this volume. In the same letter the 

 distinguished statesman and littSrateur, turning 

 from the subject with which he had prefaced 

 his communication, remarked : - With regard to 

 tre6s, I passed part of my youth in the shade of 



