218 NATURAL HISTORY 
more than fixty years. Another reafon of the fcarcity of wood in 
Cornwall is, that fome of our ancient woods are now covered with 
the fea as particularly between Ramhead and Loo, and, in the 
weft, betwixt Penzance and St. Michael’s Mount, and very likely 
on fome of our other ftrands. However, fome fmall woods, or 
rather large plantations, we have in Cornwall, which are moftly 
fttuated in the valleys adjacent to our four great rivers, viz. the 
Tamar, Fawy, Fal, and Alan ; cultivation beginning, as is moft 
likely, and gentlemen of fortune building their feats on the banks 
of rivers for delight and conveniency. In thefe fituations therefore 
we have fome old woods ; at Godolphin there is a very ancient and 
extenfive plantation round the houfe, as there are alfo at fome other 
ancient feats, and at prefent no gentleman builds without allotting a 
proportion of ground to his foreft-trees and gardens ; alio we have fe- 
veral plantations lately raifed and laid out in a more unconfined and 
rural manner than was formerly the cuftom p ; fo that at prefent 
the tafte for planting is general, and oak, elm, and other foreft trees, 
but above all the feveral kinds of firs and pine, are propagated with 
great fuccefs. We muft not expetft indeed in our fouthern climate, 
that the fir will be of any great utility ; trees have their climates, 
and may live, but never come to perfection out of diem ; this tree in 
particular, though found foflil in fome parts of England q , covets the 
more northern colds, which comprefs and ftrengthen the fibres, 
and infpiftate the juices more than warmer climates can do ; and the 
firs in Cornwall (fome of fifty years ftanding) I have obferved fhort- 
fibred, the timber not refinous, fmooth, nor well compacted, in no 
wife comparable to that of Norway. However, the fir-tree may be 
the winter garnifh of our gardens, and at leaft compenfate the cul- 
ture by its continual verdure.. Several trees, unknown here in 
the laft generation, have alfo been introduced, and rife to the credit 
of the owners, as well as to the ornament of their groves. Among 
the reft, it fhould not be forgotten, that the plane-tree, of which 
the ancients were fo fond, which hiftory has thought it worth while 
to record as planted at Delphi by Agamemnon’s own hand, which 
Xerxes thought worthy of a golden wreath, and dedicated folemnly 
to a peculiar deity, a tree whofe feveral ftages Pliny r has traced 
from Syria through the Grecian Ifiands, till it arrived in Italy, and 
palled thence to the weftern parts of Gaul *- -Let it not be forgotten, 
that this tree, fo defervedly celebrated, and for its broad leaf and 
° See the Ancient and Prefent State of Scilly s Jn Lincolnfhire, Ray’s Difcourfes, page 233, 
Ides, page 94, 95. and Staffordfhire, 237, ibid, and Lancafhire, Dr. 
p At Anthony, Port Elliot, Trewithen, Tre- Leigh’s Nat. Hift. 
gothnan, Carclew, Nanfwhydn, Tehidy, Clow- r Lib. xvi. chap xliv. 
ance, Trelowarren, Trevetho, Enys, Caftlehornek, s About the time that Rome was facked by the 
and others, Gauls, lib. xii. chap. 1, ibid. 
wide- 
