THE planter's GUIDE. 



31 



it with effect, and of which the former were passed under 

 the roots, these enormous masses were raised from the 

 ground, and placed upon a platform with very low wheels ; 

 when, after being dragged by the united strength of men 

 and horses, it was let down into the new pit by similar 

 apparatus.'"' These were gigantic operations, and such as 

 required machinery of the most powerful and expensive 

 kind. It is not a great many years, however, since feats 

 of the same description were performed at Blenheim, and 

 other large English places : and it sometimes happened, 

 when the excavation was made at an uncommon distance 

 from the trees, and a sufficient mass of earth obtained for 

 supplying the roots with nourishment, that the tops were 

 preserved from decay. But we may easily suppose that 

 planters only like a governor of Brazil, or a German 

 Elector, would undertake the execution. 



From the time of Evelyn to that of Brown, (the well- 

 known professor of landscape gardening,) — that is, for a 

 period of about threescore years — we hear little of trans- 

 planting in England; and had it not been for the exer- 

 tions of the latter, and for the kindred art, to which he 

 gave so much celebrity, it might have' sunk altogether 

 into oblivion. That enterprising genius clearly perceived 

 that his fortune had placed him at the head of a new and 

 popular school of design, which, from the novelty of its 

 attractions, promised ere long to rival painting itself. As 

 the new artists possessed already the privilege, not only 

 of appropriating the colours, but even of working with the 

 materials of nature, so they appeared to want nothing 

 but the power of giving immediate effect to their pictures 

 in order to facilitate the competition, if it did not alto- 

 gether turn the balance in their favour. 



* Evelyn, vol. i. p. 103. Diet. Rust, in voce Transplanting. 



