CHAP. CXIIl. CONl'FERiE. CE V DRUS» 2119 



plied,' as Ezekiel says, * and his branches become long ;' which David calls 

 spreading abroad. His very boughs are equal to the stem of a fir or a chest- 

 nut. The second characteristic is, what Ezekiel, with great beauty and 

 aptness, calls his shadowing shroud. No tree in the forest is more remarkable 

 than the cedar for its close-woven leafy canopy. Ezekiel's cedar is marked 

 as a tree of full and perfect growth, from the circumstance of its top being 

 among the thick boughs. Every young tree has a leading branch or two, 

 which continue spiring above the rest till the tree has attained its full size : 

 then it becomes in the language of the nurseryman, clump-headed ; but, in the 

 language of Eastern sublimity, its top is among the thick boughs ; that is, no 

 distinction of any spiry head, or leading branch, appears ; the head and the 

 branches are all mixed together. This is generally, in all trees, the state in 

 which they are most perfect and most beautiful ; and this is the state of 

 Ezekiel's cedar. But, though Ezekiel hath given us this accurate description 

 of the cedar, he hath left its strength, which is its chief characteristic,untouched. 

 But the reason is evident : the cedar is here introduced as an emblem of 

 Assyria ; which, though vast and wide- spreading, and come to full maturity, 

 was, in fact, on the eve of destruction. Strength, therefore, was the last idea 

 which the prophet wished to suggest. Strength is a relative term, compared 

 with opposition. The Assyrian was strong, compared with the powers on 

 earth ; but weak compared with the arm of the Almighty, which brought 

 him to destruction. So his type, the cedar, was stronger than any of 

 the trees of the forest; but weak in comparison with the axe, which 

 cut him off and left him (as the prophet expresses the vastness of his 

 ruin) spread upon the mountains and in the valleys, while the nations shook 

 at the sound of his fall. Such is the grandeur and form of the cedar of 

 Lebanon. Its mantling foliage, or shadowing shroud, as Ezekiel calls it, is 

 its greatest beauty ; which arises from the horizontal growth of its branches 

 forming a kind of sweeping irregular penthouse. And, when to the idea of 

 beauty that of strength is added, by the pyramidal form of the stem, and 

 the robustness of the limbs, the tree is complete in all its beauty and ma- 

 jesty. In these climates, indeed, we cannot expect to see the cedar in such 

 perfection. The forest of Lebanon is, perhaps, the only part of the world 

 where its growth is perfect ; yet we may in some degree perceive its beauty 

 and majesty from the paltry resemblances of it at this distance from its native 

 soil. In its youth, it is often with us a vigorous thriving plant ; and, if the 

 leading branch is not bound to a pole (as many people deform their cedars), 

 but left to take its natural course, and guide the stem after it in some irregular 

 waving line, it is often an object of great beauty. But, in its maturer age, the 

 beauty of the English cedar is generally gone : it becomes shriveled, de- 

 formed, and stunted ; its body increases, but its limbs shrink and wither. 

 Thus it never gives us its two leading qualities together. In its youth, we 

 have some idea of its beauty, without its strength ; and in its advanced age, 

 we have some idea of its strength, without its beauty : the imagination, there- 

 fore, by joining together the two different periods of its age in this climate, 

 may form some conception of the grandeur of the cedar in its own climate, 

 where its strength and beauty are united. The best specimen of this tree I 

 ever saw in England was at Hillingdon, near Uxbridge. The perpendicular 

 height of it was 53 ft., its horizontal expanse 96 ft., and its girt 15 ft. 6 in. When 

 I saw it in 1776, it was about 118 years of age; and, being then completely 

 clump-headed, it was a very noble and picturesque tree. In the high winds, 

 about the beginning of the year 1790, this noble cedar was blown down. Its 

 stem, when cut, was 5ft. in diameter." {For. Seen., i. p. 81.) On these obser- 

 vations of Gilpin we shall only remark, that there are now, 1837, 60 years 

 after Gilpin saw the cedar at Hillingdon, many hundred cedars in Eng- 

 land more grand and picturesque than that tree ; and, not to go further 

 than Syon, Whitton, and Pain's Hill, there are at these places, cedars which 

 are both higher, and cover a larger space with their branches, than that at 

 Hillingdon. With respect to the age which Gilpin assigns to the Hillingdon 



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