CEDAR OF LEBANON. 177 



We have frequently seen this native of 

 Lebanon planted by those who could not have 

 read or recollected the Psalm, " They shall 

 spread their branches like the cedar tree." 

 For on the banks of the Thames it is fre- 

 quently seen as near the dwelling as to give 

 the idea of the good old-fashioned piece of 

 furniture, called a dumb-waiter; and it has 

 frequently had its branches lopped off to let 

 light into the eating-parlour ; although it is 

 known, that this tree suffers more by cutting 

 and lopping than most other resinous trees. 

 A court dress in a country fair is not a greater 

 burlesque than a cedar of Lebanon in a lawn 

 of forty feet, for the majesty of the tree de- 

 mands an open, if not an elevated situation : 

 its beauty consists in its formation, which is 

 lost when cramped in its growth. That it is 

 not particularly slow in its increase, will be 

 seen by the progress the cedars in Chelsea 

 gardens had made, which, in the year 1766, 

 " measured twelve feet and a half in girth, at 

 two feet above the ground, and their branches 

 extended more than twenty feet on every side 

 their trunks ; which branches, though they 

 were produced twelve or fourteen feet above 

 the surface, did at every termination hang 

 very near the ground, and thereby afford a 



VOL. I. n 



