Large British Oaks. Ill 



way, ■would gladly have spared tliem till they perished by 

 decay. All do not view the same object in the same light, and 

 it is well for the general good that it should be so. Each has 

 thus his share in it. 



It happened to the writer many years ago that he was 

 riding in company with several persons, among whom was the 

 celebrated author of the Essay on the Picturesque, together 

 with a simple country squire, whose ideas and admiration of 

 forest scenery centred in trees as timber. " What a charming 

 effect," said the lover of pictorial beauty, " do those masses of 

 foliage produce !" "Yes," added the other, "but the trees 

 are worth next to nothing in the market." The man of taste 

 turned round with a glance of disapprobation, and was silent 

 at the moment, but could not refrain from expressing apart 

 his disgust and indignation at such an absence of feeling; and 

 yet each in his own way was not far from right. 



Sir Uvedale Price, Bart., the person alluded to, a man of 

 taste and a scholar, was an enthusiastic lover of forest scenery, 

 as his oaks at Foxley, near Hereford, bore ample testimony. 

 He used to prune them regularly, in part, with his own hand, 

 and had under him a set of pruners who worked beneath his 

 own eye. On the loss of one of them he expressed his regret 

 to the writer in the words employed by Priam on the death of 

 Hector, "O? Be fiot 010$ et]v (Iliad, XI), such was his zeal for 

 the care and cultivation of the oak. 



A taste of this kind seems to have been inherent in the 

 family. Colonel Price, a brother of the above gentleman, was 

 a great and deserved favourite of George III. An anecdote is 

 related of him that the King, intending to have a certain tree 

 taken down, asked the Colonel's advice respecting it, at the 

 same time expecting to meet with a ready acquiescence in the 

 notion of its propriety. The Colonel, however, ventured re- 

 spectfully to say that he was of a different opinion. "Aye," 

 replied the King, somewhat hastily, "that's your way, you 

 continually contradict me." " If your majesty," resumed 

 Colonel Price, "will not condescend to listen to the honest 

 sentiments of your faithful servants, you can never hear the 

 truth." After a short pause, the King very kindly laid his 

 hand upon the Colonel's shoulder, " You are right, Price, the 

 tree shall stand." J. W. 



