writersa“, as did also the effect of a ”silver thaw” on the trees of the woods in winter.845

The aesthetic appreciation of the forests as a component of the landscape — In the very early days of settlement, the problem presented by the forest as a component of the landscape, was that it was all-pervading, or as Johnstone (1822} put it succinctly in the passage cited above: "one cause” of the unattractive appearance of the forests was ”their being so extensive that the eye can discern little else but wood or water every where". And it was this totality of the woods that brought out the negative comments in the early years.846 In fact the very first comment on the forests of the island recorded during the British period — that contained in a letter of Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Rollo, who came to lle Saint-Jean in August 1758 after the fall of Louisbourg, to begin the deportation of the French population — was that the Hillsborough River was similar to the Thames in England except that there was ”too much wood”.847 A similar impression must have been made on the anonymous letter-writer to a newspaper in Belfast in Ireland who said that the woods on the island were ”as thick as ever the trees can stand

I! 848

together .

However, once the ”interminable forest"849 had been broken into by the clearances of the early

8“ MacGregor (1828) wrote: “the peculiar charms and splendour

which this change imparts to American scenery, exhibits one of the richest landscapes in nature, and never could the pencil of an artist be engaged in a more interesting subject", while in the diary of Francis Bain there was the almost obligatory annual paean to the fall colours of the leaves (Bain 1868-1884).

8‘5 Stewart (1806) (pp. 103-04. not extracted), calling the phenomenon a "silver thaW', wrote that “nothing can exceed the splendour of the forest, every branch seems enclosed in diamonds, and reflects the rays of the sun with the utmost brilliancy”; while MacGregor (1828) (calling it a "silver frost"), said that “the forest assumes the most magnificent splendour . The woods, while in this state, especially if the sun shine, exhibit the most brilliant appearance".

8‘6 Anon. (1867), writing retrospectively, described the forests “as a vast unbroken sea of foliage so dense as almost to appear solid".

8‘7 Rollo was actually relaying the opinion of one of his officers, Captain Ralph Hill, whom he had sent up the river, and who had passed this comment on to him.

848

Anon. 1773. 849 The adjective “interminable" is actually applied by John Lawson (1851) to the forests of Nova Scotia — in contrast, he said, to those of the island, which by the time of his writing had been penetrated by roads that were “cultivated more or less on both sides".

127

settlers there was a further deterioration in its contribution to the landscape on account of, as we have seen above, the wind-throws that tended to follow, as well as the effects of the inevitable forest fires. In fact it is not until the 18205, when the coastal areas were beginning to fill up and when some areas had been settled for a couple of generations, that positive comments on the island’s landscape and of the contribution made to that landscape by the forests and its trees begin to be recorded. For, as was so elsewhere in North America”), the landscape that was most appreciated by both the island’s resident writers, as well as by visitors, was the mixed pastoral type of rural landscape that was the aesthetic ideal in the Old Country. Thus, in quite a number of the positive descriptions of the island’s countryside written in the early nineteenth century, though the forest and trees are important components of these descriptions, it is evident that it is the ’alternation’ or ’intermingling' of the woodland with the rural farming landscape that was most appreciated. Some examples:

The resident John MacGregor in 1828, describing the view from Charlottetown:

the distant farms, partial clearings, and grassy glades, intermingled [my italics] with trees of various kinds all combine to form a landscape that would please even the most scrupulous picturesque tourist;851

The visiting proprietor David Stewart in 1831, describing the landscape at Bedeque:

the country here exceedingly beautiful, soft and well wooded; much of it clear and well cultivated;852

The resident John Lewellin in 1832:

the sentimentalist will not want subjects for his pen, when he contemplates the noble navigable river , the

alternate [my italics] forest of varied hue and the well

cultivated farm;853

85" See Nash (1967) (pp. 30-33); and Cox et al. (1985) (pp. 134

35). 55‘ MacGregor 1828. See also his description of the island landscape in general, as well as that of the “beautiful and the interesting" ‘prospect‘ [i.e. scenic view] from ‘Mount Stewart' (the residence of John Stewart), in both of which the forest was an element in a mixed landscape.

852 Stewart 1831. See also his description of the landscape along the road between Charlottetown and St. Peters Bay.

853 Lewellin 1832. This is a generalized description of the island landscape.