The Nineteenth Century (Volume 30) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: WOODLANDS Linquenda ttllus et domus et placena Uxor, neque luiruni quas colis arborum Te, preeter invisas cupressus, Ulla brevem dominum sequetur. Horace was less likely than anyone else to be insensible to the pathos of one of the most touching sights that can be witnessed?that of an old man laying out plantations of which he cannot hope to enjoy the shelter?and in the lines quoted above he has touched on the consideration which, more than any other, might discourage the planting of trees? Thy lands, and home, and charming -wife Must all be left with parting life, And, save the bough abhorred Of monumental cypress, none Of all the trees thy care hath grown Follow their short-lived lord. It would have discouraged and put an end to it altogether were men influenced only by selfish motives; but happily the instincts of race are as strong as those of the individual, and we are eager to do many things of which the fruits can only be enjoyed by generations unborn. It may be claimed for our country gentlemen, that they have diligently (though not altogether discreetly, as is proposed to be shown) carried out the advice given by the Laird of Dumbiedykes to his son, ' Be aye stickin' in a tree, Jock; it'll aye be growin' while you're sleepin';' woods are reckoned as indispensable to the furnishing of a country house as carpets and pictures; and, on the whole, the efforts of the last three generations to repair the waste of their spendthrift forerunners have been creditable and fairly successful. Leaving Ireland out of account for the moment (for in that country agrarian questions have interfered with replanting the land), the vast increase in the people's wealth has told with marked effect on the landscape, so that, considering the density of our population...