OF FOREST-TREES. 205 



3. The Prince Elector did lately remove very great Lime-trees out cH. XIV. 

 of one of his forests at Heidelberg, to a steep hill, exceedingly exposed '"-^^'V^^ 

 to the heat of the sun, and that in the midst of summer : they grow- 

 behind that strong tower on the south-west and most torrid part of the 

 eminence, being a dry, reddish, and barren earth, yet do they prosper 



rarely well : But the heads were cut off, and the pits into which they 

 were transplanted, were (by the industry and direction of Monsieur 

 De Son, a Frenchman, and an admirable mechanician, who himself 

 related it to me) filled with a composition of earth and cow-dung, which 

 was exceedingly beaten, and so diluted with water, as it became almost 

 a liquid pap : It was into this that he plunged the roots, covering the 

 surface with the turf: A singular example of removing so great trees 

 at such a season, and therefore taken notice of here expressly. Other 

 perfections of the tree, besides its unparallelled beauty for walks, are, 

 that it will grow in almost all grounds ; that it lasts long ; that it soon 

 heals its scars ; that it effects uprightness ; that it stoutly resists a storm ; 

 that it seldom becomes hollow. 



4. The timber of a well-grown Lime is convenient for any use that 

 the Willow is ; but much to be preferred, as being stronger and yet 

 lighter ; whence Virgil calls them Tilias leves ; and therefore fit for 

 yokes They are turned into boxes for the apothecaries. Columella 

 commends Arculas Tiliaceas. And because of its colour and easy 

 working, and that it is not subject to split, architects make with 

 it models for their designed buildings ; and the carvers in wood use 

 it not only for small figures, but large statues and entire histories in bas 

 and high relieve : witness, besides several more, the lapidation of 

 St. Stephen, with the structures and elevations about it ; the trophies, 

 festoons, fruitages, encarpia, and other sculptures in the frontoons, 

 friezes, capitals, pedestals, and other ornaments and decorations, of 

 admirable invention and performance, to be seen about the choir 

 of St. Paul's and ether churches, royal palaces, and noble houses in city 

 and country ; all of them the works and invention of our Lysippus, 

 Mr. Gibbon, comparable, and, for ought appears, equal to any thing 

 of the ancients. Having had the honour (for so I account it) to be the 



u 



et tilia ante jugo leviS' 



