side of the pathway leading to Wolterton Hall; it is a magnificent object, displaying the usual characteristics of that noble species. Its trunk is nineteen feet three inches in girth. Another, which contains seven loads of timber, measures eighteen feet three inches in girth, and has a beautiful clean stem forty feet in height. The chestnut-trees here (Castanea vesca) are likewise of noble dimensions, the largest of them averaging from nineteen to twenty feet in circumference. On the north side of the lake, close to the edge of the water, are the remains of an oak, hollow and open on all sides, the trunk of which measures the unusual circumference of twenty-four feet. This is apparently the oldest tree, retaining any trace of life, upon the estate.

Upon the whole, we consider Blickling one of the finest seats in the county. It possesses many natural advantages, which have been turned to good account both by the present and former possessors. Its beauties are carefully preserved under a pure and enthusiastic taste; and we repeat that, looking upon it from a certain point on the pleasure-ground, nothing can possibly surpass the lovely and diversified landscape which it exhibits. It is a place which judges of gardening describe as well kept. There is nothing in this respect to offend even the most critical; and whilst every thing new, calculated to adorn and beautify, finds a place here, the objects which already grace this seat-the venerable chiefs of the field-are cared for and watched over with great interest.

OUR TREES.-No. IV.

THE CEDAR OF LEBANON-Pinus Cedrus.

THIS tree has in all ages been reckoned one of the princes of the vegetable kingdom. The voice of antiquity has bestowed more praise upon it than upon any other sylvan object. It is celebrated in the lines of heathen poets, and its grand and beautiful character is frequently acknowledged in the Book of Inspiration. In the poetical style of the Hebrew prophets it is in continual use, either in symbolizing that which is majestic and comely in nature, or the spiritual prosperity of the righteous in their heavenward Unlike many other trees, it flourishes in garments of a perennial nature, always green, and consequently affording, throughout the heat of summer, a dense and grateful shade.

course.

The chief characteristics of this object are its beauty and grandeur, especially the latter. With a degree of recklessness which cannot be too much reprobated, some writers have told us that the epithet lofty is by no means applicable to the cedar; and that from the experience we have of these trees growing in England, as also from the testimony of travellers who have visited those upon Mount Lebanon, it is a spreading tree or bush, extending its branches very wide, and corresponding but indifferently with the description given of it in the Sacred Writings. The truth is, those writers must have either seen those trees in the earlier stages of their growth, or isolated individuals exposed on all sides to the air, in which cases they usually throw out ponderous limbs; and have never beheld them in a forest associated with other trees, where they acquire an upright

growth like the other pines. Besides, we know that ancient history is full of instances confirmatory of our opinion as to the nature of this tree. It is therein recorded that a cedar was felled in Cyprus, the stem of which was of the astonishing length of 125 feet and twenty feet in diameter, and that it was used as the main-mast of the galley of Demetrius; but rejecting all such accounts as bordering on the fabulous, we take the unerring page of Inspiration to prove that the cedar, when full grown, is not only an embowering tree, but a lofty and majestic object,-a tree when properly grown for the sake of its timber, similar to that which is used in erecting our buildings of the present day. "Now, therefore, command thou," said Solomon to Hiram, "that they hew me cedar-trees out of Lebanon; for thou knowest that there is not amongst us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians. *** * And Solomon had four score thousand hewers in the mountain, beside the chief of his officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred which ruled over the people that wrought in the work." Now, it is unquestionable, we think, that the trees selected for beams and rafters, in such a building as the temple, must have had a considerable length of trunk; and further, they must have been branchless, and consequently knotless, like the white pine of commerce of the present day; for they were subjected to all manner of figuring, bearing carved images of "cherubims, and palm-trees, and open flowers." It is likewise stated, that the house of the forest of Lebanon, which this prince erected, was thirty cubits in height, and that it was supported by cedar pillars, which were in all likelihood of this length, namely, forty-five feet,—a proof that the tree in those times reached to an altitude of at least a hundred feet. Besides, the numerous allusions made to this tree in its flourishing state, leave no doubt upon the mind that in its manhood it is invested with extraordinary majesty. Thus, the prophet Isaiah, whose writings abound in poetical metaphors, in denouncing the judgments of the Almighty upon the proud and arrogant, declares, "that the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon

all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan." The same noble plant is compared by David to the attainment of the righteous: "He shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow as the cedar in Lebanon." To break this lofty and ponderous object, and shake the enormous mass on which it grows, are figures which the inspired Psalmist selects in expressing the power and majesty of Jehovah. "The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars: yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them also to skip like a calf: Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn." And, finally, we find the prophet Zechariah referring metaphorically to this tree, whilst descanting on the destructive operations of the Roman armies under the command of Titus Vespasian against the nation of the Jews, when the princes and rulers were slaughtered, the city and temple reduced to ruins, the people either put to the sword or sold into bondage, and the whole country laid waste. "Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars: howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty is spoiled howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down."

From these quotations, it will be seen that the cedar-tree at maturity, is well entitled to be considered a lofty and magnificent object, and that it is one of the most important products of the vegetable empire. But, in order fully to satisfy those who find it hard to reconcile the language of Scripture with the dwarfish specimens of the cedar they may have met with, we annex an etching of a tree of this species, growing at the seat of Robert Marsham, Esq., at Stratton Strawless, in this county, which sufficiently illustrates the character of its being tall and towering; and let us remember, that though this is a noble upright object, it bears but a remote comparison to those which grew on the elevated ridges of Syria in the days of Solomon. But according to Volney, this tree, in latter times even, exhibited a majestic character on its native heights. "Towards Lebanon," he says, "the mountains are high, but covered in many places with as much earth as fits them for cultivation.