If this is sound doctrine, there must be some reason why the Cedar is so generally accepted as the
handmaid of architecture. Why do we recognise its introduction as beautiful, harmonious, and effective,
in Martin's great pictures of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, or of the Fall of Nineveh ? where Cedar
never grew, nor ever could grow. It is, we believe, because there is a certain degree of similarity between
the scenery of its native mountains and the solemn architectural features introduced by that great artist.
Mr. Tristram, in his " Land of Israel," says of the scenery of Lebanon: " Nothing could be more
lovely than the scenery. All mountain ranges seem to have a type of scenery peculiar to themselves—the
Alps, the Pyrenees, the Dovrefjeld, have theirs; nor is that of the Lebanon inferior to others, consisting
of a peculiar combination of grand precipices, with delicate cultivation." Our sketch of Hazar (fig. 31)
illustrates this. Curiously enough, too, the very same character of scenery reappears in, or is prolonged
into, the range of Anti-Taurus, also a habitat of the Cedar, as will be seen from the illustrations
in TchihatchefTs " Asie Mineure."
This character of the scenery of the homes of the Cedar is the very character of the architecture in the
pictures, with which the Cedar seems to associate so grandly.
It may be that this is more.fanciful than real; but at all events, the opinion is almost universal, that
the Cedar harmonises well with man and his dwelling, his houses and his garden, and that it is especially
adapted for an appanage to large and massive country mansions. Loudon, in his " Arboretum," quotes
some very judicious remarks made by Mr. Thomson, an artist (Gard'. Mag. i. 122), on the character of the
buildings which best corresponds with it, condemning it as unsuitable for small villas, and commending it
it as an accompaniment to stately architecture. This is true, but it is also true that it is an ornament and
decoration to every place where it grows well, and where there is space to hold it.
A writer in the Garden (December 6, 1879), says 'hat Mr. Marnock, the Curator of the Royal
Botanic Gardens, told him that he had planted no fewer than twelve thousand Cedars of Lebanon in his
various landscape gardening operations—that is to say, exclusively for ornamental purposes.
Loudon has ransacked the writings of antient authors for notices of the Cedar and the uses to which
it has been put; but as the term Cedar was applied indiscriminately to the Cedar, the Cypress, and
Juniper, and probably to other trees, the information thus obtained is somewhat uncertain.
Great durability has always been one of the chief characteristics ascribed to the Cedar.
The statue of Diana at Saguntum is a case in point, which was carved out of Cedar, which had
formerly been brought from Zante by the inhabitants when they colonised Saguntum. Hannibal, it is
said, found and preserved the statue after the siege of Saguntum, it having escaped destruction through
being in the temple beyond the walls when the city was burned by the inhabitants.
Pliny speaks of a temple of Apollo at Utica in Africa, in which was found Cedar timber that, although
nearly 2000 years old, was still quite sound.
The ceiling of the church of Helena at Bethlehem is reported by the late Dean Stanley, in his
" Sinai and Palestine," p. 435 (1857), to be made of Cedar. This, however, is doubted by M. Salle, who
considers it to be made of wood of larger dimensions than he thinks the Cedar can reach.
It is said to have been the timber that was used to fix the Elgin marbles into the temples from which
they were removed : at least it was said so at the time they were brought over, although others have since
thought it might be the Olive, which appears more probable.
Loudon questions its great durability. He says, " The wood of the Cedar is of a reddish white, light
and spongy, easily worked, but very apt to shrink and warp, and by no means durable," and he quotes,
apparently with approval, some objections taken by Varennes de Fenille to the Cedar of Lebanon having
been the tree out of which the statue of Diana at Saguntum, formerly mentioned, had been formed. He
cannot believe it to have been sculptured of so soft a wood, and one the grain of which was so unequal and
subject to crack. But in our own times it has been applied with success to the same purpose, and therefore
that objection will not hold. The late Dr. Lindley gave in the Gardeners Chronicle (i. p. 733, 1840) a
favourable
favourable account of its application to ornamental carved work. "Mr. Wilcox, of Warwick," he says,
"a most ingenious and skilful carver (in his works little inferior to the celebrated Gibbons), has now in his
rooms some specimens of furniture made of Cedar of Lebanon, ornamented with carved work in flowers,
leaves, &c., in the best taste, and in sharpness and colour so similar to box-wood, that any common observer
would mistake it to be such. It appears that it was by mere accident that Mr. Wilcox discovered the
suitableness of the wood for this purpose. He got some of the wood through one of the many fine Cedars
in the grounds of Warwick Castle having been blown down, when he tried his hand on it, and found it
capable of being carved into the bold festoons of foliage above referred to, as well as into representations
of birds, and even of insects; and it has this advantage, that it is perfectly secure from worms, from which
most of the other soft woods, commonly used in carving, are so liable to suffer.
Another instance of its application to the same purpose is also mentioned in the same journal
(i. p. 782, 1840). "In the old mansion-house, near Camberwell, on the London road, belonging to
Sir E. Smyth, Bart., and now used as a school, there is a small room (I think callcd the Cedar Parlour)
with a Cedar wainscot, round the upper part of which a wreath of fruit and flowers, and in one part
a hawk with wings expanded, are carved of Cedar, with all his usual skill and delicacy, by the celebrated
Grinling Gibbons himself:" but Dr. Lindley, in giving admission to the statement, qualifies it by the very
just doubt whether the wood referred to can be the Cedar of Lebanon, because the tree was not introduced
into England earlier than 1650, probably not earlier than 1680; at any rate it must have been very
rare then; while Gibbons died in 1721.
Cedar parlours were probably never common; but they seem at least to have been a thing that
would have been liked if the wood had been procurable. Those who have read Richardson will
remember the Cedar parlour in Uncle Selby's house. A parlour is said to have been wainscoted with
the timber of some of the Cedars at Whitton, which were raised from seed by the old Duke of Argyle
in 1725 ; and at Cassiobury Park, near Watford, Herts, the seat of the Earl of Essex, " Cedar Cottage,"
erected for the steward of the estate, has its doors and principal woodwork made from the timber of
some Cedars which were blown down on this estate in the year 1857. One Cedar parlour is spoken of as
existing in an old house in Kent; but from the description of that wood it is certainly not the Cedar
of Lebanon, being different in colour and smell, more like the Red Cedar ( J u n i p e r u s virginiana) used
by cabinet-makers for lining drawers and boxes. There is a coarse kind of Cypress common at Bermuda,
often called Cedar, that is sometimes brought to this country. The book-cases in the Library
at Abbotsford were made of this wood.
Dr. Pococke says: " The wood does not differ from white deal in appearance, nor does it seem
to be harder. It has a fine smell, but is not so fragrant as the Juniper of America, which is commonly
called Cedar." Varennes de Fenille, again, says that " the smell of the wood, so far from being fragrant,
greatly resembles that of the Pine." The latter considers that it is the lightest of the resinous woods,
contains very little resin, has a coarse grain, and that the wood is neither so strong nor so durable as
it has the reputation of being; and says that we cannot suppose that the temples of Jerusalem and
Ephesus were of the dimensions stated; or if they were, that the wood of the Cedar of Lebanon
was used in their construction.
The only proofs that he or Loudon give is the statement that the wood " is very liable to warp
and split in drying, on which account it does not hold nails well (a remark which was also made
by Pliny), and that it is unfit for use except in large masses."
But while there is ample evidence of the sempiternal endurance of the Lebanon-grown Cedar,
we are scarcely in a position as yet to give an opinion upon the English-grown timber.
There are no means by which extreme durability in it can yet be proved. The results of the
trial of young and green wood, even if unfavourable, could have little bearing upon the subject, and
it has not been long enough introduced to make a fair test of old wood possible. But there is no