162 



THE BOX. 



of Surry, gi^'ii^g name to that chalky hill * (near ; 

 the famous ]Mole or Swallow) whither the ladies 

 and gentlemen, and other water-drinkers from 

 the neighbouring Ebesham Spaw, often resort 

 during the heat of summer to walk, collation, and 

 divert themselves in those antilex natural alleys 

 and shady recesses among the Box-trees, without \ 

 taking any such offence at the smell which has of 

 late banished it from our groves and gardens." 

 Gilpin, too, is of the same opinion ; speaking of 

 Box-hill, he says : This plant grows here in full ; 

 luxuriance, in its native uncultivated state, mark- ■ 

 ing the road on the right with, great beauty."' 

 This is, I believe, the only place in Great Britain , 

 in which the Box grows in profusion in its wild- 

 state. Here it attains the height of about fifteen 

 or sixteen feet, and gives to the scenery quite a 

 foreign character, the mellow tint of its foliage 

 harmonizing well both with the grey of its stem 

 and the richer green of any other tree which may ^ 

 happen to be associated in the landscape with it ; 

 and at seasons when other trees are out of leaf it 

 displays an luiconsciousness of mnter, which no : 

 artificial shrubbery can compete with. 



Evelyn says, quaintly, but with great propriety: 

 He that in winter should behold some of our- 



Boxliill. The Hon. Daines Barringtun, in a paper inserted in. 

 the Philosophical Transactions for 1769, says: Now we happen to 

 know that this hill was so called from an Earl of Aninders" (the. 

 famous antiquary) haring introduced this tree in the reign of James 

 or Charles the First/' Barrington does not state whence he obtained 

 his knowledge, nor does he account for the fact that a naturalist of 

 the preceding century found it growing on " the waste and barren hils : 

 in Englande,"'' at least forty years before James the First came to the 

 throne. 



