_Of the Horn-beam._
1. _Ostrys_ the horn-beam, (by some called the horse-beech, from the
resemblance of the leaf) in Latin (ignorantly) the _Carpinus_, is
planted of sets; though it may likewise be rais’d from the _jülas_ and
seeds, which being mature in August, should be sown in October, and will
lie a year in the bed, which must be well and carefully shaded so soon
as they peep: But the more expeditious way is by layers or sets, of
about an inch diameter, and cut within half a foot of the earth: Thus it
will advance to a considerable tree. The places it chiefly desires to
grow in are in cold hills, stiff ground, and in the barren and most
expos’d parts of woods. We have it no where more abounding in the south,
than in the woods of Hartfordshire; very few westward.
2. Amongst other uses which it serves for, as mill-cogs, &c. (for which
it excels either yew or crab) yoak-timber (whence of old, and for that
it was as well flexible as tough, ’twas call’d ζυγία) heads of
beetles, stocks and handles of tools: It is likewise for the turners use
excellent; good fire-wood, where it burns like a candle, and was of old
so employ’d;
_Carpinus tædas fissa facesque dabit._
(For all which purposes its extream toughness and whiteness commends it
to the husbandman.) Being planted in small fosses or trenches, at half a
foot interval, and in the single row, it makes the noblest and the
stateliest hedges for long walks in gardens, or parks, of any tree
whatsoever whose leaves are deciduous, and forsake their branches in
winter; because it grows tall, and so sturdy, as not to be wronged by
the winds: Besides, it will furnish to the very foot of the stem, and
flourishes with a glossie and polish’d verdure, which is exceeding
delightful, of long continuance, and of all other the harder woods, the
speediest grower; maintaining a slender, upright-stem, which does not
come to be bare and sticky in many years; it has yet this (shall I call
it) infirmity, that keeping on its leaf till new ones thrust them off,
’tis clad in russet all the winter long. That admirable _espalier_-hedge
in the long middle walk of Luxemburgh garden at Paris (than which there
is nothing more graceful) is planted of this tree; and so was that
cradle, or close-walk, with that perplext canopy which lately covered
the seat in his Majesty’s Garden at Hampton-Court, and as now I hear,
they are planted in perfection at New-park, the delicious villa of the
Noble Earl of Rochester, belonging once to a near kinsman of mine, who
parted with it to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory. These hedges
are tonsile; but where they are maintain’d to fifteen or twenty foot
height (which is very frequent in the places before mention’d) they are
to be cut, and kept in order with a syth of four foot long, and very
little falcated; this is fix’d on a long sneed or streight handle, and
does wonderfully expedite the trimming of these and the like hedges: An
oblong square, palisado’d with this plant, or the Flemish _ormus_, as is
that I am going to describe, and may be seen in that inexhaustible
magazine at Brompton Park (cultivated by those two industrious
fellow-gardiners, Mr. London, and Mr. Wise) affords such an _umbraculum
frondium_, the most natural, proper station and convenience for the
protection of our orange-trees, myrtles, (and other rare perennials and
exoticks) from the scorching darts of the sun, and heat of summer;
placing the cases, pots, &c. under this shelter, when either at the
first peeping out of the winter concleave, or during the increasing heat
of summer, they so are ranged and disposed, as to adorn a noble area of
a most magnificent paradisian dining-room to the top of hortulan pomp
and bliss, superior to all the artificial furniture of the greatest
prince’s court: Here the Indian narcissus, tuberoses, Japan-lillies,
jasmines, jonquills, lalaes, periclymena, roses, carnations, (with all
the pride of the _parter_) intermixt between the tree-cases, flowry
vasas, busts and statues, entertain the eye, and breath their redolent
odors and perfumes to the smell: The golden fruit and apples of
Hesperides, gratifie the taste, with the delicious annanas, affecting
all the sensories; whilst the chearful ditties of _canorus_ birds,
recording their innocent _amours_ to the murmurs of the bubling
fountain, delight the ear, and with the charming accents of the fair and
vertuous sex, (preferable to all the admired composure of the most
skilful musitians) join consort in hymns and hallelujahs to the
bountiful and glorious Creator, who has left none of the senses, which
he has not gratify’d at once, with their most agreeable and proper
objects.
But to return to Brompton: ’Tis not to be imagin’d what a surprizing
scene, such a spacious _salone_, tapistried with the natural verdure of
the glittering foliage, present the spectator, and recompenses the toil
of the ingenious planter; when after a little patience, he finds the
slender plants, set but at five or six foot distance, (nor much more in
height, well prun’d and dress’d) ascend to an altitude sufficient to
shade and defend his paradisian treasure without excluding the milder
gleams of the glorious and radiant planet, with his cherishing
influence, and kindly warmth, to all within the inclosure, refreshed
with the cooling and early dew, pregnant with the sweet exhalations
which the indulgent mother and teeming earth sends up, to nourish and
maintain her numerous and tender off-spring.
But after all, let us not dwell here too long, whilst the inferences to
be derived from those tempting and temporary objects, prompt us to raise
our contemplations a little on objects yet more worthy our noblest
speculations, and all our pains and curiosity, representing that happy
state above, namely, the cœlestial paradise: Let us, I say, suspend our
admiration a while, of these terrestrial gayeties, which are of so short
continuance, and raise our thoughts from being too deeply immers’d and
rooted in them, aspiring after those supernal, more lasting and glorious
abodes, namely, a paradise; not like this of ours (with so much pains
and curiosity) made with hands, but eternal in the heavens; where all
the trees are Trees of Life; the flowers all amaranths; all the plants
perennial, ever verdant, ever pregnant; and where those who desire
knowledge, may fully satiate themselves; taste freely of the fruit of
that tree, which cost the first gardiner and posterity so dear; and
where the most voluptuous inclinations to the allurements of the senses,
may take, and eat, and still be innocent; no forbidden fruit; no serpent
to deceive; none to be deceived.
Hail, O hail then, and welcome, you bless’d elyziums, where a new state
of things expects us; where all the pompous and charming delights that
detain us here a while, shall be changed into real and substantial
fruitions, eternal springs, and pleasure intellectual, becoming the
dignity of our nature!
I beg no pardon for the application, but deplore my no better use of it,
and that whilst I am thus upon the wing, I must now descend so soon
again.
Of all the foresters, this preserves it self best from the bruttings of
deer, and therefore to be kindly entertain’d in parks: But the reason
why with us, we rarely find them ample and spreading, is, that our
husbandman suffers too large and grown a lop, before he cuts them off,
which leaves such ghastly wounds, as often proves exitial to the tree,
or causes it to grow deform’d and hollow, and of little worth but for
the fire; whereas, were they oftener taken off, when the lops were
younger, though they did not furnish so great wood, yet the continuance
and flourishing of the tree, would more than recompence it. For this
cause,
3. They very frequently plant a clump of these trees before the entries
of most of the great towns in Germany, to which they apply timber-frames
for convenience, and the people to sit and solace in. _Scamozzi_ the
architect, says, that in his time he found one whose branches extended
seventy foot in breadth; this was at Vuimfen near the Necker, belonging
to the Duke of Wirtemberg: But that which I find planted before the
gates of Strasburgh, is a _platanus_, and a lime-tree growing hard by
one another, in which is erected a _Pergolo_ eight foot from the ground,
of fifty foot wide, having ten arches of twelve foot height, all shaded
with their foliage; and there is besides this, an over-grown oak, which
has an arbour in it of sixty foot diameter: Hear we _Rapinus_ describe
the use of the horn-beam for these and other elegancies.
In walks the horn-beam stands, or in a maze
Through thousand self-entangling labyrinths strays:
So clasp the branches lopp’d on either side,
As though an alley did two walls divide:
This beauty found, order did next adorn
The boughs into a thousand figures shorn,
Which pleasing objects weariness betray’d,
Your feet into a wilderness convey’d.
Nor better leaf on twining arbor spread,
Against the scorching sun to shield your head.{86:1}
Evelyn, _Rapin._
FOOTNOTES:
{86:1}
In tractus longos facilis tibi carpinus ibit,
Mille per errores, indeprehensosque recessus,
Et molles tendens secto ceu pariete ramos,
Præbebit viridem diverso è margine scenam.
Primus honos illi quondam, post additus ordo est,
Attonsæque comæ, & formis quæsita voluptas
Innumeris, furtoque viæ, obliquoque recessu:
In tractus acta est longos & opaca vireta.
Quinetiam egregiæ tendens umbracula frondis
Temperat ardentes ramis ingentibus æstus.