"
But these delightful retreats, like Arcadia of old, have long since
vanished. The _yews_ were cut down in the year 1780; and their
successors fall very short of the luxuriant descriptions of old
topographers. The _box_ has also at various times produced the
proprietors of the estate great profit. In 1608, the receipt for
box-trees cut down upon the sheepwalk on the hill was 50_l_.; in an
account taken in 1712, it is supposed that as much had been cut down,
within a few years before, as amounted to 3,000_l_.; and in 1759, a Mr.
Miller lamented that "the trees on Box Hill had been pretty much
destroyed; though many remained of considerable bigness."
An immense quantity of box is annually consumed in this country, in the
revived art of engraving on wood. The English is esteemed inferior to
that which comes from the Levant; and the American box is said to be
preferable to ours. But the ships from the Levant brought such
quantities of it in ballast, that the wood on Box Hill could not find a
purchaser, and not having been cut for sixty-five years, was growing
cankered.
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