46 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



If, lifting there the axe, it dared invade 



Those spreading oaks, which in fraternal files 



Have pair'd for centuries, and heard the strains 



Of Sydney's, nay, perchance of Surrey's reed. 



Yet must they fall ; unless mechanic skill, 



To save Jier ofispring, rouse at our command, 



And where we bid her move, with engine huge. 



Each pond'rous trunlc, the pond'rous trunh there move ; 



A work of difficulty and danger tried, 



Nor oft successf ul found."* 



From the expressions made use of in this beautiful 

 passage, we are led to believe that entire decapitation 

 was implied in the process, and that Mason, who was 

 himself a planter as well as a poet, considered the neces- 

 sity as indispensable. 



Pontej, one of the most extensive and successful 

 planters now living, and also a landscape gardener of no 

 small distinction, gives his testimony nearly to the same 

 effect as Marshall and Mason. In a late practical treatise 

 on this pleasing art, (a work which was much wanted,) f 

 after stating his anxiety to discover some certain method 

 of giving a speedy effect to wood, he gives up the point 

 as unattainable, and has recourse to the miserable expe- 

 dient of planting Willows and Poplars. Respecting the 

 art under consideration, he candidly says — "I am no 

 advocate for the removal of quantities of large trees, as 

 the business is extremely tedious, and hazardous also. 

 And after all, in cases of success, such trees for several 

 years grow so slowly as to remind one of the ' stricken 

 deer.' It is, indeed, seldom that they harmonise with 

 any thing about them. ''if This, we must own, is a judicious 

 not less than an obvious remark, and of which no impartial 

 person will deny the justice. 



From the view which has been thus taken of the art 



* English Garden, book i. 318. f See Note IV. on Sect. I. 



X Pontej^'s Rural Improver, p. 87. 



