Mr. Tristram's account of this interesting spot is the latest which we have to record. He visited it in
1864, taking it on his return route by Damascus and Baalbec. Of the Grove itself, this is his account:
" The snov\Thad been so far melted by the summer sun that we were able to ascend by the highest pass,
very close to the summit of Lebanon, 10,000 feet high, and descend almost directly upon the Cedars. . . .
All was brown and bare, save on one dark spot where stood a clump of trees, the famous Cedar Grove.
Viewed from above, the efTect of that Grove is much more remarkable than when, as is generally the case,
it is approached from below. Insignificant perhaps in itself, it here becomes the one noticeable feature in
a landscape otherwise peculiarly bare and monotonous. . . . A few separate trees stood out from the mass,
but the general appearance of the Grove was of a thick clump, as though it had been a fragment of
some antient forest." *
To the devout spirit of Mr. Tristram, " the breeze, as it soughed through the dark boughs, seemed to
breathe sounds of solemnity and awe, and to proclaim these to be the ' trees of the Lord,' ' the Cedars of
Lebanon,* which He hath planted." But the charm of solitude was no longer there, for within the last few
years a hideous Maronite chapel has been built in the centre of the Grove, which is still more unwelcome
from several fine trees having been cut down to supply wood for its erection; and as an adjunct to his
chapel, the priest has collected around him many of the goatherds of the neighbouring villages, who spend
the summer under the rude shelter of the huts.
The trees are not too close, nor are they entirely confined to the Grove. In the topmost boughs,
ravens, hooded crows, kestrels, hobbys, and wood owls were secreted in abundance; but so lofty are the
trees that Mr. Tristram found the birds out of reach of ordinary shot. The older trees have each several
trunks, and spread themselves widely round, but most of the others are of cone-like form, and do not
send out wide lateral branches.
The following table shews, in a condensed form, the facts relating to the number of the trees
contained in the foregoing quotations:—
?>.»r.)<!ttd
24 or 25
1787 ' I-abiUKMre
iSo; SettMn . . .
1S10 1 Burckhaidt....
13 337
,'5 300^50.
!S); AJd,-on...
' ? ' Lin.!«
1*44 ' X.^-Ae.-hotiTi
The preceding numbers, and the size of the younger trees, prove that a group of old Cedars had
stood in the Grove from 1487 to the present time, numbering twenty-eight in 1550, but now reduced, by
the casualties of time, to nearly the half of that number. These old trees appear to be of various ages ;
and it seems not an improbable supposition that they have existed since long before the days of Solomon.
Then there is a wide gap, probably more than 1000 years, which separates those of the second size from
the older ones; and again, a gap of not less duration between these second-class specimens and the
modern young ones.
How are these alternate periods of growth and barrenness to be accounted for; and to what date
must the birth of each new crop be referred ? We think we can imagine how some of them originated.
Loudon, for instance, embodying the statements of several authors, says " About this period, paying a
visit to the Cedars of Mount Lebanon seems to have been considered as a kind of pilgrimage; and as
every visitor took away some of the wood of the trees to make crosses and tabernacles, the Patriarch of the
Maronites, fearing that the trees would be destroyed, threatened excommunication to all those who should
injure the Cedars, and at the same time exhorted all Christians to preserve trees so celebrated in holy
writ. The Maronites were only allowed to cut the branches of these trees even once a-year, and that was
on the eve of the Transfiguration of our Saviour, which festival occurs in August; and, consequently, at a
suitable period for visiting the mountain. On this festival, the Maronites and pilgrims repaired to Mount
Lebanon, and passing the night in the wood, regaled themselves on wine made from the grapes grown
on the mountain, and lighted their fires with branches cut from the Cedars."
There remains the question, why no plants have grown up subsequent to the young trees noticed
by the travellers whose works we have quoted ? It is the concourse of travellers to visit the Grove. It
was formerly the devotees of religion who did the mischief—it is now the devotees of science and travel.
Not that they do the injury themselves in propria persona. It is indirectly that they do it, through
inducing herds of Arabs to follow in their wake, or to lie in wait for them in the Grove to prey on them,
or profit by their largesse. With them these parasites bring their goats up to browse, and it is the goats
that destroy the young seedlings. Not only is the Grove thus spoiled, but from the same cause there
are no young saplings at the Grove above the village of Ehden, nor can there be any at any other grove
which is subject to the like pasturage. Of course, too, now that a chapel has been actually built in the very
midst of the Grove, and people reside there, the mischief has become past cure, past hope. Independently
of this, however, a week or two's invasion by the squatters and their goats in any year would be
sufficient to destroy all the young plants of that and the two or three preceding seasons. A very little
care and protection would be sufficient to enable them again to make progress, as we see from the
multitudes of seedlings in those groves whose remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved them from
the visits of man—and goats.
The facts which we have above given regarding the history of these trees are genuine, and authenticated
by the best authority,—quotations from the writings of those who have visited them themselves.
Naturally, however, in the case of such interesting objects, there are a number of statements of less
value, traditions and tales flying about, which, by repetition, find their way into works of more or
less authority, and which it may be right that we should caution our readers against accepting until
better vouched.
Modem History in Britain.—The exact date of the introduction of the Cedar of Lebanon into this
country is not known. Nor is it even certain to whom the credit of having introduced it belongs. There
are three or four places at which old Cedars are growing, or have grown, which have been referred to the
date of Queen Elizabeth. One of these was an old tree at Hendon, which was blown down on New
Year's Day, 1779. There is an unsupported tradition that this had been planted by Queen Elizabeth
herself. That sovereign died in 1603. If it were planted by her, it must have been before 1600 ; as for
the