352 English Trees. 



history. I respect this trait in the character of the English, 

 and I sympathize with them in their veneration for old trees. 

 They are the growth often of centuries, and the monument of 

 years gone by. 



I cannot quite enter into the enthusiasm of an excellent friend 

 who 1 used to say that the cutting down of an old tree ought to 

 be made a capital offence at law : yet I deem it most sacrile- 

 gious to destroy them, excepting where necessity demands it ; 

 and I would always advise that an old tree, standing in a con- 

 spicuous station, either for use or ornament, should be at least 

 once more wintered and summered, before the sentence of 

 death which may be passed upon it is carried into execution. 



The trees in the park of the palace of Hampton Court, are 

 many of them the horse-chestnut and the lime, of great size, 

 and eminent beauty, several straight lines of them forming for 

 a long distance the approach to the palace. On a clear, bright 

 day, at the season of their flowering, I passed through this 

 magnificent avenue, with inexpressible delight. I passed 

 through them again late in the autumn, when the frost had 

 marred their beauty, and the autumnal gales had stripped off 

 their leaves ; but they were still venerable in the simple ma- 

 jesty of their gigantic and spreading forms. I could not help 

 reflecting with grateful emotion on that beneficent power which 

 shall presently breathe upon the apparently lifeless statues, 

 and clothe them with the glittering foliage of spring, and the 

 rich and splendid glories of summer. So be it with those who 

 have gone far into the autumn, or stand shivering in the winter 

 of life. — Coleman's European Agriculture. 



