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|  | page 28 [ob]serve that, as many, even of the smallest rills, have  
either found, or made for themselves, recesses in the sides  
of the mountains or in the vales, they have tempted the  
primitive inhabitants to settle near them for shelter; and  
hence, cottages so placed, by seeming to withdraw from the  
eye, are the more endeared to the feelings.
 
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| woods trees
 
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|  | The WOODS consist chiefly of oak, ash, and birch, and here  
and there Wych-elm, with underwood of hazle, the white and  
black thorn, and hollies; in moist places alders and willows 
abound; and yews among the rocks. Formerly the whole country 
must have been covered with wood to a great height up the  
mountains; where native Scotch firs* must have grown  
in great profusion, as they do in the northern part of  
Scotland to this day. But not one of these old inhabitants  
has existed, perhaps, for some hundreds of years; the  
beautiful traces, however, of the universal sylvan†  
appearance the country formerly had, yet survive in the  
native coppice-woods that have been protected by inclosures, 
and also in the forest-trees and hollies, which, though  
disappearing fast, are yet 
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|  | * This species of fir is in character much superior  
to the American which has usurped its place: Where the fir  
is planted for ornament, let it be by all means of the  
aboriginal species, which can only be procured from the  
Scotch nurseries. † A squirrel (so I have heard the old people of  
Wytheburn say) might have gone from their chapel to Keswick  
without alighting on the ground.
 
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