296

A DISCOURSE

Nor will it be here unseasonable to advise, that where trees are mani-festly perceived to decay, they be marked out for the ax, that so theyounger may come on for a supply,, especially where they are chiefly Elms,,because their succefsors hasten to their height and perfection in a com-petent time; but beginning once to grow sick of age, or other infirmity,suddenly impair., and lose much of their value yearly; besides, that theincrease of this, and other speedy timber, would spare the Oak for navi-gation and the sturdier uses.

How goodly a sight were it, if most of the demesnes of our CountryGentlemen were crowned and incircled with such stately rows of Limes, ,Firs, Elms, and other ample,, shady,, and venerable trees as adorn New-Hallin Efsex, the seat of that Suffolk Knight near. Yarmouth; our neigh-■bouring pastures at Barnes; with what has been planted:of later years bythe illustrious Marquis of Worcester; the most accomplished. Earl of Es-sex ; and even in lefs fertile soils, though purer air, at. Euston, by theRight Hon. the Earl of Arlington, Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty’s.Household; and at Cornbury, by the late Lord Chancellor,, the Earl ofClarendon; and what is done nearer this imperial city by the Earl of Danby,late Lord High Treasurer of England, at Wimbleton; the Noble Earl ofRochester (succeedinghim in that supreme Office) at New-Park; tlie Dukeof Norfolk at Albery,. now the Lord Guernsey’s; Sir Robert Coke atdDurdans, near Epsom , now my Lord Berkeley’s; and at Beddington,_art;antient seat of the Carews, famous for the first Orange-trees planted inthe. naked earth one hundred years since, and still flourishing..

Besides what might, have been seen, (as by me they were in perfectionand with admiration) the Royal Seats of Oatland,. Richmond, and aboveall Nonsuch, described by the judicious Camden, with deserved Eulogies .

All these,, and more, in my own sweet county of Surrey , inferior tonone for pleasure and salubrity of the air; to which we add. the princelySejourns of the adjoining county,. Eltham, and- Greenwich for its parkand prospect, not only emulous, but in many respects exceeding thahof the famous Thracian Bosphorus from Constantinople ; That palace,namely at Greenwich, now turned into a statelyand capacious college (theincomparable work of that accomplished architect Sir Christopher Wrenn)of which I had the honour to lay the first foundation stone, as the FirstTreasurer of that, royal structure, erected for the reception and e.ncou-