PORTUGAL LAUREL.. 137 



Knowlton's manuscripts inform us, that it 

 was first cultivated in this country by Mr. 

 Thomas'Fairchild, in 1648. 



Miller, who calls the common laurel the 

 cherry-laurel, calls this species the cherry- 

 bay, and he observes, in 1724, that, " it 

 holds out our hard winters best on our cold- 

 est and openest grounds, and is a glorious 

 tree for standards on most grounds." 



It is with great delight we see, of late years, 

 even our native woods interspersed with 

 exotic timber-trees, and in many instances 

 embellished with foreign flowering shrubs. 

 The forest of St. Leonard's, in Sussex, which 

 we remember a most gloomy and desolate 

 waste, the retreat of footpads and contraband 

 dealers, is now become one of the most 

 embellished parts of the country ; and we 

 behold with surprise, groves of valuable 

 timber spring up in spots where we were 

 formerly told a rabbit could not find sub- 

 sistence. 



u Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn, 

 The spiry fir and shapely box adorn." Pope. 



These agreeable metamorphoses are princi- 

 pally owing to the spirited manner in which 

 the grounds have been cleared and planted 

 by Lord Erskine, Charles George Beauclerc, 



