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Registered Charity
1071012
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Andrew Marvell
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The gods, who mortal beauty chase,
Still in a tree did end their race.
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Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole in 1737
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"...both hill and vale is covered over with the most venerable beeches, and
other very reverend vegetables, that like most other ancient people, are
always dreaming out their old stories to the wind." |
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A journalist writing about Epping Forest Hornbeams - |
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'short, shabby, scrubby undescribably mean and ugly they were, something
like warty railway sleepers with a shock head of twigs.' |
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William Sawrey Gilpin (1762-1843)
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"What is more beautiful? than an old tree with a hollow trunk? or with a
dead arm, a drooping bough, or a decaying branch?"
William Sawrey Gilpin was a famous landscape designer in the period after
Brown and Repton, and wrote "Practical Hints for Landscape Gardening" in
1832.
Sent in by Keith Alexander. |
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Andrew White. 1633. Voyage to Maryland (Relatio Itineris in Marilandiam) |
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"After eight or nine days of generous treatment we set sail on the third of
March and, having travelled into Chesapeake Bay, we turned our course to the
north, in order to reach the Potomac River. Chesapeake Bay flows gently
between the shores; it is ten leagues wide, four, five, six and seven
fathoms deep, and teeming with fish, when it is the right time of the year.
you will hardly find a more pleasant, evenly flowing river. Nonetheless, it
yields to the Potomac River, which we named after St. Gregory.
Since we had already reached the desired region, we distributed names
according to the circumstances. And in fact we dedicated the promontory,
which is located towards the south, to the honor of St. Gregory, the northen
one to St. Michael, naming it so in honor of all the angels of Maryland. I
have never seen a greater and more delightful river; compared to it the
Thames seems a mere rivulet. It is not tainted by swamps, but on both sides
wonderful forests of fine trees rise up on solid ground, not made
inaccessible by thornhedges and underbrush, but just as if planted
spaciously by hand so that one could easily drive a chariot drawn by four
horses between the trees". |
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