in with the original building, and cutting it with a knife, 

 found it apparently sound, when the bricks were crumbling to 

 pieces. I have read a description of the oak — 



Three centuries he grows, and three he stays 

 Supreme in state, and in three more he dies. 



Sir Robert Walpole planted with his own hands many of 

 the magnificent trees now the pride of Houghton, and of all 

 the actions of his life, this was one which seems to have given 

 him the most gratification in the performance, and the most 

 pleasure in the retrospect. 



More free from peril than envious Courts. 



Cicero mentions planting as one of the most delightful occu- 

 pations of old age ; and it is indeed of all pursuits the most dis- 

 interested. He who puts a sapling into the ground is morally 

 certain he shall never live to enjoy the shade of its matured 

 branches; but he enjoys it every day in the thought that 

 the land, which to his predecessors had been only a barren 

 waste, will present to his successors a scene of waving beauty. 

 Plantations, ultimately woods, present many advantages, and 

 are yearly arriving at greater and still greater perfection and 

 value, so long as man lives. The encouragement of trees is 

 not only a pleasing but a very valuable amusement : it is also 

 a virtuous employment, particularly from the love we ought 

 to bear to our country and posterity. I am aware that some 

 will ask, what might be made of so much money put out to 

 interest, with compound interest, in fifty years ? I answer, 

 that at the end of fifty years the planter or his son will re- 

 ceive the additional value with all other incidental advantages ; 

 and think how well time and money have been expended, proving 

 a source of wealth to their families, and contributing in the 

 mean time to some of the most rational and refined enjoy- 

 ments of life. 



No one has carried agriculture and arboriculture to 

 greater perfection than the late Earl of Leicester, better 



