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But the custom itself is harmless, whatever the origin 
may be; and those persons who have any regard for the 
manners and observances of other days, will view with 
regret one usage after another swept away, as if one 
more link were broken in the chain which connected them 
with the past, and all its interesting associations. 
To such the accompanying Christmas wreath will not 
be unwelcome. The specimens of which it is composed 
are not to be considered as the only ones used at the 
commemoration of that festival, but as representatives 
of all the various claimants for this honour. 
The box, of which there is but one species, but many 
varieties, is a well-known evergreen, growing in every 
plantation; but, though this is the situation in which we 
are most accustomed to see it, and that, too, in a dwarfed 
or clipped condition, it is really an indigenous tree, and, 
in calcareous soil and dry situations, will rise to the 
height of ten or twelve feet, with a stem of proportion- 
able thickness. It grows pretty freely on the chalk hills 
near Dunstable, and on Box Hill in Surrey, to which 
place, as well as Boxley in Kent, and Boxwell in Glou¬ 
cestershire, it has given name. But it is evidently less 
plentiful now than it was in Evelyn’s time, who exclaims, 
with his usual warmth, — “ He that in winter should 
behold some of our highest hills in Surrey, clad with 
