324 



THE planter's guide. 



Notwithstanding this just and ingenious eulogium, the 

 Beech, according to Gilpin, is nevertheless a heavy tree ; 

 it has completely the appearance of an overgrown bush. 

 When massy and fdl-grown, it is therefore displeasing. 

 It is made up, he says, of littleness, and is seldom in 

 harmony with itself. Though with branches fantastically 

 wreathed, it is rarely well ramified. It is without the 

 strength and firmness which we admire in the Oak, or the 

 easy simplicity which pleases us in the Ash. In a word, 

 it does not exhibit those tufted cups, those hollow and 

 dark recesses, which dispart the branches of the most 

 beautiful kinds of forest trees, and render them attractive 

 to the pictm^esque eye. After all, however, he adds, " the 

 Beech has sometimes its beauties, and oftener its use. In 

 distance, it preserves the depth of the forest ; and in the 

 corner of a landscape, when we want a heavy tree, nothing 

 answers our pm^pose like the Beech." That is to say, that 

 the main reason for which it is objected to — namely, its 

 heaviness — forms its chief claim to distinction with the 

 painters, who should be the arbiters of picturesque merit ; 

 and this singular eulogium is concluded by the remark, 

 that he supposes the tree has acquired its reputation, 

 chiefly from having a peculiar character, which, with all 

 its defects, he owns it certainly has.'" 



I have thus given the substance of the praise and the 

 censure of Gilpin, as nearly as may be in his own words : 

 and, in fact, were I to adduce any evidence, more strong 

 than another, of the picturesque merits or partial defects 

 of the Beech, it would be in the good-humoured fastidi- 

 ousness of this pleasing writer. It is probable that he 

 had been accustomed to hear the Beech overpraised, and 

 that he resolved to counteract the opinion, by some salu- 



* See Forest Scenery, vol. i. p. 45-50. 



