x PREFACE. 



upon the whole, very little improved by the interposition 

 of art ; which, though it may have heightened fome of 

 their beauties, has totally robbed them of many others. 



It would be tedious to enumerate all the errors of a 

 falfe tafte : but the havock it has made in our old 

 plantations, muft ever be remembered with indignation : 

 the ax has often, in one day, laid wafte the growth of 

 feveral ages; and thoufands of venerable plants, whole 

 woods of them, have been fwept away, to make room 

 for a little grafs, and a few American weeds. Our vir- 

 tuofi. have fcarcely left an acre of made, nor three trees 

 growing in a line, from the LandVend to the Tweed ; 

 and if their humour for devaluation continues to rage 

 much longer, there will not be a foreft-tree left ftanding 

 in the whole kingdom. 



D I S- 



