of the most eminent marts and fairs kept in the Popedome." In the latter we find

66

March 25, being Lady Day, new stile, a most famous fair is kept at alle in Brabant, which is the common empory for these staple commodities following:

"1. The breeches of Joseph, without kelt or guard; they are something sleepy, it's confest, for they have not had a good nap these 1600 years: but you may have them pretty cheap, because they are something grown out of fashion.

"2. A pair of slippers, the same that Christ wore, and yet they look as fresh as if they were newly rubbed off the last. They are famous for curing the gout; if, therefore, any have that distemper in their great toes, it will be worth the while to travel thither, especially if they be half-way there already."

With many similar entries.

66

"en

The next Almanac is the "Kalendarium Catholicum for the year 1686. -Tristitia vestra vertetur in gaudium, Alleluia." It is not a Rowland to the Protestants' Oliver; but a simple during and patient" performance. First comes the " Holidays of Obligation," then the Calendar; then the Holy"" Catadays Expounded," and next a logue of the Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen (of the Catholick religion) that were slain in the late war, in defence of their King and country." The names of those Catholics whose estates were sold by the Rump-Acts of 1651-52, and "Memorable Observations," conclude the tract.

The third is a

"Yea and Nay Almanack, for the people called by the men of the world Quakers. Containing many needfull and necessary observations from the first day of the first month, till the last day of the twelfth month. Being the Bissextile or

Leaping Year. Calculated properly for

the meridian of the Bull and Mouth within Aldersgate, and may indifferently serve for any other meeting-house what or wheresoever. The very fourth edition. London, printed for the Company of Stationers, 1680."

This Almanac is truly a very amusing production. The " Second Part," "London, printed by Anne Godbid, and John Playford, for the Company of Stationers, 1680," is even scarcer than the former; and contains a laughable account "of a very sad disaster that befell two wet friends, coming

home very late, in Gray's-inn-lane."My time and space only allow me to transcribe the following" Enthusiasms on the Twelfth Month" (February) from the "Yea and Nay Almanack."

"The stars do predict that all those who are troubled with agues will prove Quakers, and that about the 14 day many shall fall into love, even as a fly falls into a hony-pot; this shallamaze many friends, and make them believe that marriage is a sweet thing, but lighting on an untoward sister, it proves as bitter as gall, or the herb called wormwood; therefore, Friends, have a care of marrying a shrew, nay, rather than yoak your selves to such a one, better doe as the men of the world doe on the 23 and 24 dayes of this month, eat pan-cakes and fritters, for they are more comfortable to the belly, then marrying a shrew is comfortable to the heart. Men talk very much of honesty, but because they use but little, we do not think they mean as they say. Let not the greatbellied Sistern now long for strawberries or cherries, for I assure ye they are very hard to come by; money also will be hard to come by; and when you have it, if you have not the more care, as slippery to hold as a wet eel by the tail. If you hear now of some old men getting young females with child, think it not strange; but impute it to the cock-broth eaten by them, made of the carcasses of those fowls unmercifully slaughtered by the boys on the 23 and 24 days of this month."

Should the above prove anyways interesting, I shall be happy to communicate whatever, either on this or other literary antiquities, may chance to fall under my notice.

Yours, &c. W.B.D.D. TURNBULL.

NEQUE Scriptor est ullus," says Professor Wyttenbach, “ex totâ antiquitate eruditâ, Cicerone præstantior, neque ex omnibus iis viris, qui post restituta bonarum literarum studia, in eo expoliendo emendandoque operam posuerunt suam, quisquam anteferri debet Joanni Aug. Ernesto." Now, if we may be permitted to adopt the method of expression used in the above paragraph, we should say, that of all writers who have treated on the subject of Trees and Plants, none have equalled Mr. Loudon in copiousness of information, in variety of materials, in accuracy of detail, in the unwearied

industry of collecting, and in the judicious arrangement and disposition of the different branches of his subject. His book is indeed a κrýμov és det: a most valuable repository, which never can be superseded, and which is richly deserving the highest public encouragement. It has been to him truly a "labour of love," pursued with a zeal and energy which may be said to have ensured its excellence. We have consulted it repeatedly and carefully, and always came away, like the bee, apis matinæ more," laden with the honey of our research. But here we are obliged to close our language of praise; nor can we extend, like the Professor, our commendation from the author to his critic and commentator. We allude, Mr. Urban, to the article in the last Quarterly Review (No. LXXIV. Art. ii.) of which the Arboretum forms the subject: yet there is a value attached to it, which may be estimated by those industrious and enlightened gentlemen who live by the weekly and monthly profits of their pen, viz. because it exhibits, most clearly and satisfactorily, how a reviewer can discuss the merits of a work without any further knowledge of his subject than what he derives from the work itself. We have heard this article attributed to one of the leading hands of the Review: but we cannot believe that anything so utterly superficial, flimsy, and barren of all information, could come from one of the leaders of the learned phalanx, Bovλnφορον ἄνδρα. Whoever he is, we advise Mr. Murray for the future to select some other writer on Dendrology; and we now proceed to point out a few of those blunders and mistakes which he is sure to make whenever he is rash enough to drop Mr. Loudon's hand, and attempt to guide himself through the "Caligantem nigrâ formidine lucum." 1. "The trees which produce those lovely tints of scarlet and gold of which travellers tell us, are all to be obtained at moderate cost in every nursery; and that they will thrive perfectly in this country, Fonthill and White Knights bear ample testimony." What trees does the Reviewer allude to?-We presume, to the American oaks and maples. Does he mean that all the American oaks are to be procured at every pursery? If so, he

is in egregious error. Or at some nurseries? Even then he is wrong. There are very few American oaks that can be perfectly naturalised to the climate of England: the few that are, scarcely outlive a century; as may be seen by the decaying specimens at Pains Hill and Parson's Cross: the most desirable are the Quercus rubra, Quercus tinctoria, Q. aquatica, Q. phellos. The best collection in England is at Henham, the seat of the Earl of Stradbroke. The late Earl bought every species and variety introduced by Mr. Lyons about twenty years since, that would bear the climate of our island, and they have now grown into handsome trees. The best specimen of the "Tinctoria" is at Cashiobury; of the

Phellos" at Parson's Cross and Pepperharrow. The "Rubra" and "Aquatica" are too common to particularise. So far from every nursery having rich collections of American oaks, none but the commoner sorts are to be obtained; further, White Knights is not rich in its oaks; so that the Reviewer has crowded as much error into one short sentence, as it would well give room for.

2. "The Abies of the Romans was the Silver Fir; and the Fagus the Sweet Chesnut." We have very great doubts on the subject; and we may ask the Reviewer this question :— If Fagus was the Sweet Chesnut, what was the Latin appellation of the Beech? The description which Pliny gives of the Fagus' agrees with the Beech and not with the Chesnut :-" Fagi glans nuclei similis, triangula cute includitur. Folium tenue ac levissimum, populo simile." But there is no doubt that the Latin Fagus is derived from the Greek pnyos. Now Eustathius (Il. 5.) says, pnyòs, ʼn dpûs déyetaɩ napà тò payeîv. "The oak is called pnyòs, from the fruit being eaten ;" and the Glossæ give onyos, fagus, æsculus; and Pliny, in the following passage, seems to allude to the three different species of oaks,the Esculus, the Ilex, and the Quercus. "Glans fayea suem hilarem facit; Ilignua suem angustam ; querna, diffusam." Ovid has in the Fasti, lib. iv. 656, "Bis sua faginia tempora fronde premit." Here the idea of chesnut-leaves must be excluded; and, probably, the poet alluded to the oaken wreath.

The subject is not without its difficulty; but we are inclined to think that the term fagus,' which is the Greek pnyos, was used with considerable latitude of meaning, and included the beech, chesnut, and a species of oak -all of them bearing fruits. The word 'glans' was in a similar manner used, "sub suâ significatione, inquit Caius juriconsultus, omnes fructus continet;" but it had also a more confined and appropriate meaning when it designated the fruit of the Quercus, Robur, Esculus, Fagus, Cerrus, Ilex, and Suber. It also included "Fructus, Castaneæ Arboris." We have only further to observe, that Columella, speaking of the chesnut, uses the term Castanea,' lib. iv. c. 33. " Castanea Roboribus proxima est, et ideo stabiliendis vineis habilis." Upon the whole, then, we think that the term fagus, like glans, was sometimes used in an extensive signification, including the Chesnut, and Beech, and Oak, the 'Arbores glandiferæ;' but in its more limited sense it was the name of the Beech, as Castanea was of the Chesnut, and Robur of the Oak. But, as we said before, if the Reviewer means to exclude the Beech from coming under the term Fagus, it rests with him to point out to us what was its Latin appellation-and in this we cannot help him. The passage in Cæsar is perplexing; but it is not to be got over as the Reviewer attempts. The Beech is a short-lived tree, and it does not necessarily follow that Cæsar saw beeches in Kent two thousand years ago. He may have used the word 'fagus' as Theophrastus is supposed to do, for the Esculus,' that bears the sweet edible acorn, which oak we have not. Theophrastus says, yλukuKÓTATOS ὁκάρπος τῆς φηγοῦ; and we think it probable that Cæsar alluded neither to the Beech nor the Chesnut, but to the Esculus with its sweet edible acorns.

3. "We read (in Ireland) of Portugal Laurels from 30 to 40 feet high, while in English gardens they are seldom above 10 feet, nay, rarely attain even that height! Proh pudor! If the Reviewer will put himself into the stage-coach and visit the Portugal laurels at the priory of St. Osyth in Essex; those at the passage at Stutton, where is one, we believe, more than 300 feet round, and those at Hevening

ham Hall, Suffolk, he will find some equalling or excelling the specimens in Ireland; but, if he is a Cockney, we recommend him to one at the extremity of the new garden attached to Pope's Villa, by the late possessor at Twickenham.

4. "Rhododendrons here seldom seen above five feet." These extraordinary assertions, made in such a dashing and peremptory manner, perfectly astonish us; is the Reviewer himself deceived, or is he laughing at his readers? Did he never hear of the Rhododendrons at Cuffnells? did he ever see that long and noble mass of them at Tottenham Park, in Wiltshire, above twelve feet high, and growing in the highest luxuriance? The fact is, that these plants delight in a soft, damp, moist atmosphere; and in our southwestern counties, from Hampshire to Cornwall, would, if properly cultivated, equal any that the similar climate of Ireland could produce. At Muswellhill there are some magnificent Rhododendrons growing in a strong tenacious clay.

5. A "Yucca in England is seldom above five feet high, and dies as soon as it has flowered!!!" Let not our readers give one grain of belief to this portentous, pudendous assertion. We have seen a Yucca in England (we believe Mr. Loudon has described one in his Gardener's Magazine) more than twice this height, and, moreover, the Yucca does not die after flowering. It is true that the Yucca filamentosa loses some of its leaves, but they soon spring out again; but the Yucca gloriosa, &c. flowers annually without impairing its strength, or shortening its life.

6. "Tree Pæony in our gardens seldom run more than three or four feet high." We have two plants of this description in our garden, planted about fifteen years, both more than six feet high.

7. On the Caper, the author does not mention that this plant long grew beneath the garden-wall of what was a large ladies' boarding-school at Kensington; and if it is dead, it is but a short time since: it was planted by a friend of old Bradley, the writer on gardening. The Caper is also grown in the Apothecaries Garden at Chelsea with a slight glass protection in winter,

8. Mr. Loudon is mistaken when he says, the term Locust-Tree, for the Pseudo-Acacia, was almost unknown in England, before Cobbet's time; the fact is, the tree is called the Locust and not the Acacia, by Bartram and all our old American travellers.

9. The Reviewer should have mentioned, under the subject of the Ericacetum, that the park at Dropmore is sown with the Rhododendron, which is protected by the Fern in winter, and when that dies away in the spring, the plants spring up into sight covered with blossom; he is also wrong in saying that the "undergrowth of the woods at High Clerc is composed almost entirely of Rhododendrons and Azaleas" it is only in a confined space, round the margin of the lake. The plants at Ken-wood are not extensive; and the soil at the Duchess of Gloucester's, at Bagshot, is too light for these plants, which suffer there extremely in a hot summer. He should have mentioned the more favourable soil of the contiguous garden at Knap-hill.

"

10. Lord Byron hits Mr. Bowles hard, by showing that Pope, disparaged by his editor as destitute of all real love of nature, gave the great blow to the formal school of gardening by a paper in the Guardian." This paper is No. 173, and its attack is directed against what is called the topiary work in gardens; cutting yew, box, and other flexible evergreens into grotesque shapes of animals, &c. but far from Pope having imbibed the true picturesque feeling in gardening, in the same paper he recommends Homer's "Garden of Alcinous" as the best model for imitation. As far as we recollect, what called out Mr. Bowles's animadversion on Pope's taste, was the poet's ambition of having some joints of the Giant's Causeway on his lawn, and two wooden swans, supported on wires, and appearing to be flying to the Thames. We think this might justly alarm any lover of the picturesque; however, to settle this controversy, we shall observe that a plan of Pope's garden was published by Serle, his gardener, and there his taste may be seen exemplified. The highest praise he ever received on this head was from Horace Walpole in a letter to Horace Mann, who speaks of

Pope's taste having, in a very confined space, formed "three of the most delicious little lawns that the eye of man ever rested on," or words (for we have not the book by us) to that effect. We have no hesitation in declaring it to be our opinion that Mr. Hamilton at Paine's-hill, and Mr. Southcote at Woburn farm, gave the first and earliest specimens of picturesque gardening. Compare Mr. Whately's description of Paine's-hill with Pope's paper in the Guardian, and the immense progress of the art in the space of 30 or 40 years will be distinctly seen, aud acknowledged.

11. "Very few instances exist in England of old white Mulberries, though it is only on the leaves of that species that the silk worm can be fed advantageously.” The white Mulberry is too tender for the general climate of England, and soon begins to canker and get out of health. These trees are not much to be met with, except a few in Switzerland, north of Lyons; where the avenue commences from the gate leading to Chamberry, and after that, they are common; whether those planted by government a few years since, in the south of Ireland, have succeeded, we do not know.

12. The Reviewer, speaking of Pinetums, says "the first in every respect, unquestionably is that of Lady Grenville at Dropmore." We do not think so; we have before us a Catalogue of the Dropmore Pines, and those of Sir Charles Monck, at Belsey Castle, and we see little difference in the respective lists. If the Reviewer had said, "that Lady Grenville's collection was as copious as any, and had the advantage in point of age of all," he would have spoken with a precision more worthy of our attention.

13. Speaking of the severity of last winter, the Reviewer says, "large Arbutuses, twelve or fourteen feet high, were almost every where killed to the ground, and in many places entirely destroyed." This is rather a cockney view of the subject, and applies chiefly to the close sheltered gardens near London. We have above fifty of these plants scattered about our garden, not one of which was killed, and only a few injured; at White Knights, the more