150 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
tively slow growth, and its abundance in various parts of the 
country, does not command the admiration here which it 
does in Europe. Campbell, the poet, has produced so elo- 
quent and beautiful an appeal in favour of an old denizen of 
the forest, entitled the “Beech Tree’s Petition,” that we gladly 
quote it, hoping it may perchance stay the hand of some soi- 
dissant improver, who would despoil our native woods of their 
proudest glories : 
“ Oh, leave this barren spot to me ! 
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree ! 
Though bud and floweret never grow 
My dark, un warming shade below ; 
Nor summer bud perfume the dew 
Of rosy blush or yellow hue, 
Nor fruits of autumn, blossom born, 
My green and glossy leaves adorn ; 
Nor murmuring tribes from me derive 
The ambrosial amber of the hive ; 
Yet leave this barren spot to me — 
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree ! 
Thrice twenty summers I have seen 
The sky grow bright, the forest green ; 
And many a w'intry wind have stood 
In bloomless, fruitless solitude, 
Since childhood in my pleasant bower 
First spent its sweet and sportive hour ; 
Since youthful lovers in my shade, 
Their vows of youth and rapture made, 
And on my trunk’s surviving frame, 
Carved many a long forgotten name. 
Oh ! by the sighs of gentle sound 
First breathed upon this sacred ground, 
By all that love has whispered there, 
Or beauty heard with ravished ear ; 
As love’s own altar, honour me— 
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree !” 
The beech is quite handsome and graceful when young. 
