34 
CEDRUS LIBANI 
of the part of the plate in which they are seen. Judging from their appearance, we should guess their 
age, at the time they were figured, at about thirty years. The engravings themselves are without 
date; but the names of the artist, engraver, and publisher, 
are engraved at their foot; and we learn from Mr. G. W. 
Reid, the head of the print department in the British 
Museum, that they were published in 1753. This, sup¬ 
posing our estimate of the age of the trees in the plate 
to be correct, would make the date of their birth about 
1723. 
The form of the Cedars in this plate shews that they 
had been pruned up in the mop fashion. Those on the 
south side of Chiswick House (which are the trees de- 
Fig. 30.—Mop-headed Cedars at Chiswick. . 
lmeated), still bear marks of having been so treated, all 
having straight bare stems; and we know from other sources that this was a favourite mode of treating 
the Cedar when first introduced. Whether in consequence of this treatment or not, there is a marked 
difference between the size and health of the trees in the avenue on the north, and that on the south side 
of the house, where the branches have not been pruned away, but actually rest on the ground; the 
latter being considerably larger (the two largest respectively 16 feet 8 inches and 14 feet in girth, while 
the girth of those on the north side is only 13 feet), and the tree which has been cut down, and another 
opposite which the wind threatened to uproot, and which was propped up with massive beams like 
a dangerous house, are both on the north side of the house, and are of those which have been 
pruned. 
But to return to the enumeration of our oldest Cedars, Loudon mentions that, according to a 
tradition in the family of Ashby, whose seat is at Quenby Hall, in Leicestershire, one of the first Cedars 
raised in England was from seeds brought from the Levant by Mr. William Ashby, a Turkish 
merchant, and given by him to his nephew, George Ashby, who is supposed to have planted the old 
Cedar in front of Quenby Hall, between 1680 and 1690. 
Whoever was the first to introduce it, there can be little doubt that the example was speedily followed, 
and that many people who had relations with the Levant must have received seeds after it once became 
known that the tree would grow in the open air. The renown of “ the Grove,” and the numerous 
pilgrimages to it, as well as its lying directly on the road to the interior, and only some 20 miles from the 
sea, would render the procuring of seeds very easy. 
The individual specimens of trees which have been planted, reared, or brought from abroad by 
eminent persons, or which are known to have been planted at particular dates, or in celebration of public 
events, have an interest of their own. There is a number of specimens with interest of this kind to be 
found among the Cedars, and it may be worth while to preserve notes of those that we know for 
future identification. 
We have already alluded to the apocryphal traditions of Cedars planted by Queen Elizabeth and 
Sir Walter Raleigh. Among the realities, we have mentioned those planted by Evelyn, by Sir Stephen 
Fox, by Collinson, by Dr. Uvedale, and by Jussieu. Besides these, we may note the following, of which 
we have cognisance. At Barne, near Beaconsfield, there are many Cedars that are said to have been 
planted by Waller the poet. But we should doubt this, because Waller died in 1687, only some seven 
years after the date which we have accepted as that of the introduction of the Cedar; and when, more¬ 
over, he must have planted them at an age (82) when, as Johnson tells us, “he for age could neither 
read nor write.” Still it is possible. He retained his faculties to the last, and the lines he composed 
in his old age are considered not inferior to the effusions of his youth. He was buried at Beaconsfield, 
where 
