CHAI'. CXIII.

CONl'FERTE. Ce'dRUS.

2413

of trees as Evelyn, and so anxious to introduce new and valuable sorts intohis native country, should have suffered “ cones and seeds ” of such a tree asthe cedar to be in his possession, without trying to raise young plants fromthem; particularly as he was a man of leisure, residing in the country, andfond of trying experiments. ( See Sir John Cullum’s paper on this subject, inthe Gent. Mag. for March, 1779.) Supposing Evelyn to have raised plantsfrom his cones, the great cedar at Enfield may have been given by him to Dr.Uvedale; as Evelyn’s Sylva was written in 1064, and Dr. Uvedale resided atEnfield from 1665 to 1670 (see Hunter's Evelyn, ii. p. 3.); between whichyears his cedar must have been planted. The story of the Enfield treehaving been brought by one of the doctor’s pupils from Mount Lebanon (p. 48.) rests solely on tradition; like that of the Enfield and the Hendontrees having been planted by Queen Elizabeth; and, possibly, one tale is notmore worthy of credit than the other. Lord Holland is of opinion it wasintroduced by his ancestor, Sir Stephen Fox . In a letter to us dated No-vember 23. 1836, His Lordship mentions a cedar at Farley, near Salisbury,the native village and burial place of Sir Stephen Fox , “ the very first, Ibelieve, ever planted in England. It was standing in 1812, near the vaultof Sir Stephen Fox, who had imported it from the Levant ; and whoplanted other cedars in the gardens at Chelsea.” The cedar at Farley,His Lordship informs us in a subsequent letter, dated February 16. 1837,was, when he saw it in 1812, “ barked, and some part of it lopped, in prepara-tion for the axe. It was nearly the largest in girt that I had ever seen, butthe branches, judging by what remained of them, did not grow boldly outfrom the trunk, but were more perpendicular, or cypress or poplar-tree fash-mned, than is usual with cedars of Lebanon . That tree, or those at Chelseaor at Chiswick, all, I believe, planted under Sir Stephen Fox ’s direction, wereunquestionably the first introduced into England. The circumstance is men-tioned in Evelyn.” We have not been able to find the passage alluded to.The particulars of the tree at Farley, Lord Holland had the kindness to pro-cure for us from Mr. Thomas Parsons, who had them from the person who cutJt down, and measured it. “ He gave me,” says Mr. Parsons, “ the followinginformation. The tree was stripped of its bark in 1812; the next winter itwas grubbed down. He had 'll. for grubbing it down. I do not know whatthe expense of sawing off the root was. The expense of cutting the tree inquarters, viz., two cuts as it lay, each 14 ft. long, was 10 1. The totalweight of the tree was above 13 tons, without the bark; all the wood at andabove 24 in. round included. All the rest went'for firewood, of which therewas an immense quantity. I remember, a few years before it was cut, therewas a bough broken off by the weight of the snow.— T. P. Farley, Feb.2. 1837.” According to a tradition in the family of Ashby, whose seat is atQuenby Hall, in Leicestershire , one of the first cedars raised in England wasfrom seeds brought from the Levant by Mr. William Ashby, a Turkey mer-chant, and given by him to his nephew George Ashby, Esq., called in his time,and also on his monument, ‘ honest George Ashby, the planter,’ who issupposed to have planted the old cedar in front of Quenby Hall, between1680 and 1690. (See Nichol’s Hist. Leicest.) William Ashby Ashby, Esq.,Ihe present possessor of Quenby Hall, has kindly endeavoured to findamong his ancestor’s papers some specific document respecting the intro-unction of the cedar, but could give us nothing farther than the generalmmily tradition ; except that Evelyn is said to have paid a visit to Quenby.The tree at Quenby Hall was, in 1837, 47-J ft. high, the trunk 7 ft. 9 in. in cir-cumference at 1 ft. from the ground, and the diameter of the head about 71 ft.

When first introduced, the cedar, being a native of the hot climate of®J’ria, was supposed to be tender. Sir Hans Sloane , in a letter to Mr. Raydated March, 1684-5, says : — “I was the other day at Chelsea, and find that™, e artifices used by Mr. Watts have been very effectual for the preservation®fhis plants; insomuch, that this severe weather has scarce killed any of•s fine plants. One thing I much wonder to see, that the Cedrus Montis