e would
have flourished on the Thames Embankment, in consequence of the current
of fresh air caused by the river. Imagine the Embankment with double
rows of oaks, elms, or beeches; or, if not, even with limes or
horse-chestnuts! To these certainly birds would have resorted--possibly
rooks, which do not fear cities. On such a site the experiment would
have been worth making.

If in the semi-country seats fast-growing trees are needed, there are,
as I have observed, the lime and horse-chestnut; and if more variety be
desired, add the Spanish chestnut and the walnut. The Spanish chestnut
is a very fine tree; the walnut, it is true, grows slowly. If as many
beeches as cedar deodaras and laurels and planes were planted in these
grounds, in due course of time the tap of the woodpecker would be heard:
a sound truly worth ten thousand laurels. At Kew, far closer to town
than many of the semi-country seats are now, all our trees flourish in
perfection.

Hardy birches, too, will grow in thin soil. Just compare the delicate
drooping boughs of birch--they could not have been more delicate if
sketched with a pencil--compare these with the gaunt planes!

Of all the foreign shrubs that have been brought to these shores, there
is not one that presents us with so beautiful a spectacle as the bloom
of the common old English hawthorn in May. The mass of blossom, the
pleasant fragrance, its divided and elegant leaf, place it far above any
of the importations. Besides which, the traditions and associations of
the May give it a human interest.

The hawthorn is a part of natural English life--country life. It stands
side by side with the Englishman, as the palm tree is pictured side by
side with the Arab. You cannot pick up an old play, or book of the time
when old English life was in the prime, without finding some reference
to the hawthorn. There is nothing of this in the laurel, or any shrub
whatever that may be thrust in with a ticket to tell you its name; it
has a ticket because it has no interest, or else you would know it.

For use there is nothing like hawthorn; it will trim into a thick hedge,
defending the enclosure from trespassers, and warding off the bitter
winds; or it will grow into a tree. Again, the old hedge-crab--the
common, despised crab-apple--in spring is covered with blossom, such a
mass of blossom that it may be distinguished a mile. Did any one ever
see a plane or a laurel look like that?

How pleasant, too, to