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The eastern arboretum
by James Grigor
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Excerpt:
The great book of knowledge on this subject, is the Arboretum Britannicum of Mr. Loudon, which treats of trees as they deserve to be treated. Of the merit of this book, we believe there is but one opinion. His illustrations throughout are succinct and interesting; and there is a worthful feature in it, characteristic of all his works— perfect method and analytical order, which, from the nature of its publication, unless by persons well acquainted with the subject, could scarcely be observed. Like his others, this performance is of the Herculean caste, and would have borne down and discouraged any other man. The land proprietors of the present day are under great obligations to this gentleman; for it is certain that, by his works in the lawn* and library, he has done more to beautify the face of our country than any other man of this or former times. We do not make this assertion hurriedly, or without duly weighing the merits of the bright men who have gone before him. There were Evelyn, Miller, Gilpin, Marshall, Price, Whately, Brown, Repton, and others excellent in their line, and deserving to be held in remembrance; but they did not exactly "hold as 't were the mirror up to nature," so that she is not always reflected in their works. Thus, for instance, Evelyn exclaims, —" Is there under heaven a more glorious sight than an impenetrable hedge, glittering with its armed and varnished leaves, the taller standards at orderly distances, blushing with their natural
* Mr. Loudon is consulted by many on Landscape Gardening.
coral, shorn and fashioned into columns and pilasters, architecturally shaped, at due distance?" Now, this sort of dealing with Nature is all very well for a road-side country tailor to indulge in, but it is outrageous to our feelings when exhibited to us as a natural and pleasing object. No such shearing and clipping, in such a case, ought to be tolerated: besides, how can there be such a thing as armed leaves after the disarming and destroying hedge-scissors have passed over them? This, after all, is but a trifling fault of the great man; and we should be sorry to be thought to display the slightest inclination to detract from his praise. We must recollect, too, that in his day, though Nature was the same perfect model as now, she was not apprehended in all her beauty and proportions; whereas any such slip on our part, who enjoy such a "flood of light," and who are exalted to heaven in point of privileges of this description, would be considered as unpardonable ignorance.
Though Mr. Loudon's book comprises the trees of Britain in general, there must be necessarily many specimens in our country which have not been noticed by that author; so that we may proceed to the illustration of the sylvan beauties of Norfolk, without any fear of their having been all pourtrayed by his pen, or by that of any preceding writer.
As to our own humble pretensions on the subject, we must allow the present work to speak for us. Out of love to the science, we have devoted an apprenticeship of about twenty years to practical botanical pursuits, so that we are without excuse if we should not throughout be guided by generally ascertained facts.
It is our intention, then, to notice all the trees of Norfolk that are interesting on account of their age, size, rarity, historical association, or in any other respect; and, in order to make it complete as a book of reference, we shall annex directions as to sowing, transplanting, pruning, and felling all our English timber trees; the whole forming a popular dictionary of every thing relating to this interesting department of Natural History.
In order to break the monotony of a continued treatise on the same class of subjects, the reader will be occasionally relieved by general descriptions of such gentlemen's seats as are considered worthy of particular notice; and as it would be inconvenient and incompatible to treat of trees at length under the head of Seats, and vice versa, a portion of each number will be devoted to the respective subjects.
