CEDRUS LIBANI 
31 
The preceding numbers, and the size of the younger trees, prove that a group of old Cedars had 
stood in the Grove from 1487 to the present time, numbering twenty-eight in 1550, but now reduced, by 
the casualties of time, to nearly the half of that number. These old trees appear to be of various ages ; 
and it seems not an improbable supposition that they have existed since long before the days of Solomon. 
Then there is a wide gap, probably more than 1000 years, which separates those of the second size from 
the older ones; and again, a gap of not less duration between these second-class specimens and the 
modern young ones. 
H ow are these alternate periods of growth and barrenness to be accounted for; and to what date 
must the birth of each new crop be referred? We think we can imagine how some of them originated. 
Loudon, for instance, embodying the statements of several authors, says “ About this period, paying a 
visit to the Cedars of Mount Lebanon seems to have been considered as a kind of pilgrimage; and as 
every visitor took away some of the wood of the trees to make crosses and tabernacles, the Patriarch of the 
Maronites, fearing that the trees would be destroyed, threatened excommunication to all those who should 
injure the Cedars, and at the same time exhorted all Christians to preserve trees so celebrated in holy 
writ. The Maronites were only allowed to cut the branches of these trees even once a-year, and that was 
on the eve of the Transfiguration of our Saviour, which festival occurs in August; and, consequently, at a 
suitable period for visiting the mountain. On this festival, the Maronites and pilgrims repaired to Mount 
Lebanon, and passing the night in the wood, regaled themselves on wine made from the grapes grown 
on the mountain, and lighted their fires with branches cut from the Cedars.” 
There remains the question, why no plants have grown up subsequent to the young trees noticed 
by the travellers whose works we have quoted ? It is the concourse of travellers to visit the Grove. It 
was formerly the devotees of religion who did the mischief—it is now the devotees of science and travel. 
Not that they do the injury themselves in propria persona. It is indirectly that they do it, through 
inducing herds of Arabs to follow in their wake, or to lie in wait for them in the Grove to prey on them, 
or profit by their largesse. With them these parasites bring their goats up to browse, and it is the goats 
that destroy the young seedlings. Not only is the Grove thus spoiled, but from the same cause there 
are no young saplings at the Grove above the village of Ehden, nor can there be any at any other grove 
which is subject to the like pasturage. Of course, too, now that a chapel has been actually built in the very 
midst of the Grove, and people reside there, the mischief has become past cure, past hope. Indepen¬ 
dently of this, however, a week or two’s invasion by the squatters and their goats in any year would be 
sufficient to destroy all the young plants of that and the two or three preceding seasons. A very little 
care and protection would be sufficient to enable them again to make progress, as we see from the 
multitudes of seedlings in those groves whose remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved them from 
the visits of man—and goats. 
The facts which we have above given regarding the history of these trees are genuine, and authenti¬ 
cated by the best authority,—quotations from the writings of those who have visited them themselves. 
Naturally, however, in the case of such interesting objects, there are a number of statements of less 
value, traditions and tales flying about, which, by repetition, find their way into works of more or 
less authority, and which it may be right that we should caution our readers against accepting until 
better vouched. 
Modern History in Britain .—The exact date of the introduction of the Cedar of Lebanon into this 
country is not known. Nor is it even certain to whom the credit of having introduced it belongs. There 
are three or four places at which old Cedars are growing, or have grown, which hav.e been referred to the 
date of Queen Elizabeth. One of these was an old tree at Hendon, which was blown down on New 
Year’s Day, 1779. There is an unsupported tradition that this had been planted by Queen Elizabeth 
herself. That sovereign died in 1603. If it were planted by her, it must have been before 1600 ; as for 
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