158 Gilpin's poeest sceneuy. 



To human footstep inaccessible, 



Defend a favour'd plant. Now, if some sire 



Leave to his heir a forest-scene : that heir 



With graceless hands hews down each awful trunk, 



Worthy of Druid reverence ; there he rears 



A paltry copse, destined, each twentieth year, 



To blaze inglorious on the hearth. Hence woods. 



Which shelter'd once the stag and grisly hoar. 



Scarce to the timorous hare sure refuge lend. 



!Farewell each rural virtue with the love 



Of rural scenes. Sage Contemplation wings 



Her ilight. 'No more from burning suns she seeks 



A cool retreat. No more the poet sings. 



Amid re-echoing groves, his moral lay.' — Ed. 



As it is thus a general complaint that noble 

 trees are rarely to be found, we must seek them 

 where we can, and consider them, when found, as 

 matters of curiosity, and pay them a due respect. 



And yet I should suppose they are not so fre- 

 quently found in a state of nature as in more 

 cultivated countries. In the forests of America, 

 and other scenes where boundless woods have 

 filled the plains from the beginning of time, and 

 where they grow so close, and cover the ground 

 with so impervious a shade, that even a weed can 

 scarce rise beneath them, the single tree is lost. 

 Unless it stand on the outskirts of the wood, it is 



