esteemed good turnip soil. Here, he says, they made great pits, for the reception of trees. They then cut off their heads; and, having filled the pits with a composition of cow-dung diluted with water, and worked to the consistency of the finest puddle or pap, they immersed the roots in it, and carefully replaced the turf upon the surface, as before. These Limes, as Evelyn adds, " prospered rarely well," exposed as they were, during the whole operation, to the scorching rays of the sun. And this he justly considers as "a singular example of removing so great trees at such a season ;"* or, in other words, that it is not easy to kill the Lime, in whatever way you treat it. But Louis XIV. was, without doubt, the greatest Transplanter of modern times, and the individual, whose example operated more powerfully than any other, in bringing the art into fashion in Europe, in the seventeenth century. From the researches of the learned Jesuits, and others, who, by this Prince's order, had rendered the Classics familiar to the Dauphin, he learned, that the practice was well known to the Greeks and Romans ; and he resolved to rival, and, if possible, to eclipse whatever had been done in this way, by those distinguished nations. Accordingly, among the stupendous changes, * Silva, Vol. I. pp. 102, 205. which he made on the face of nature at Versailles, and other royal residences, that by means of Transplanting was not omitted. All the arts of ingenuity, and all the efforts of expense and labour were employed, in constructing machinery for so novel an undertaking. Under the direction of Le Notre, his favourite Engineer in this department,* the most extraordinary feats in Transplanting were performed, both at Versailles and Trianon. Immense Trees were torn up by the roots, erected on carriages, and removed at the will and pleasure of the royal planter. Almost the whole Bois de Boulogne was, in this way, said to be transported from Versailles to its present site, a distance of about two leagues and a half. To order the march of an army, was the effort of common men, and every-day commanders; to order the removal of a Forest, seemed to suit the magnificent conceptions of a prince, who, in all his enterprizes, affected to act upon a scale immeasurably greater than that of his contemporaries, and who probably was the most powerful monarch in Europe, whether of his own, or of any other age. In the Bois de Boulogne, in spite of military devastation, the curious eye may still distinguish the traces of this extraordinary achievement, in the rectilinear disposition of the Trees, which were removed on that occasion. * NOTE XII. Respecting the success of the work, executed probably about 1670, it is not easy, at this distance of time, to speak with certainty. That the Trees were lopped or mutilated we are well aware; and that little science was employed, excepting in the mechanical skill, displayed in the transportation. Of the trees, therefore, many must have died, for want of roots, and of sap to support them, although their places were afterwards supplied; and many must have lost their tops, had they not been severely lopped, or altogether decapitated. The lapse, however, of more than a century and a half, a space far surpassing the age of man, has supplied these defects. While it has brought the trees to maturity, it has covered with oblivion all the imperfections of the process; and the former promise long to remain a monument of so stupendous an exertion of physical force. Sturm, a German traveller, who visited France about the year 1730, relates, that the Great Transplanting Machine, used on this memorable occasion (Die grosse Garten-Machine)*, was still shown at Versailles, and it must long after have been seen by others. But, from its late disappearance, we may conclude, that it was pulled to pieces, and the iron-work probably converted into pikes, on the breaking out of the French Revolution. * Sturm's Travels, p. 113. Besides this celebrated effort in the vicinity of the capital, we should be inclined to imagine, from what is said by contemporary writers, that Lewis succeeded still better in the provinces, in giving Immediate Effect to Wood. At Mont-Louis, a small town in the territory of Rousillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees, which he built and embellished, and which was named after him, he made the most surprising improvements of every sort. And, unless the imagination of a poet of the time has too highly coloured the description, the Transplanted Groves, at this sequestered spot, rose with such sudden luxuriance, that the birds at once flocked to them, and, nestling among the branches, filled the air with their melodious notes. In nemus repentè natum Aves undique devolant, Nidosque ponunt, hospitis sub frondibus, About the middle of the seventeenth century, as we learn from Evelyn, the practice of Transplanting in the French way came much into use in England. No Tree, he observes, was found to bear the process better than the Elm, or recover sooner from its severity. He himself, he says, "had frequently removed Trees of this sort almost as big as his waist:" But he first carefully "disbranched" them, leaving the whole summit entire. Men of rank and affluence, we find, about *Commirii. Op. Post. p. 41. C the same era, transplanted great Trees of various kinds, with vast labour and expence; and a Devonshire nobleman, in particular, whose name has not been recorded, removed Oaks as large as twelve oxen could draw, for the purpose of supplying a defect in an avenue leading to one of his residences.* The first attempt at anything like knowledge in the art was made by a Lord Fitzharding of this period. That nobleman, as it appears, was a contemporary of Evelyn's, and Lord Treasurer of the Household to King Charles II. But his experiments were limited to subjects of far smaller magnitude. His method with the Oak was, to select a tree of the size of his thigh, which probably might be about 26 or 28 inches in girth. Having removed the earth, and cut all the collateral roots, he forced it down upon its side, so as to come at the taproot, which was immediately cut off. The Tree was then raised up; the mould was returned into the pit, and the Tree left standing, for a twelvemonth or more, until a fresh growth of roots and fibres enabled him to remove it with advantage. Another method was, after laying bare the roots, and leaving four main ones untouched on the four opposite sides, in the form of a cross, for supporting the Tree, to cut away only those in the intervals. The mould was then, as before, returned *Silva, Vol. I. pp. 102, 125. |