207 



While all the wise people are hurrying 

 out of town to apple orchards, and grassy 

 valleys, and sea-side sands, and breezy 

 hills, most breezy on the shady side, let us 

 dullards, who remain fixed to the spot, 

 like sea anemones, by " urgent private (and 

 public) aifairs," consider how we stand in 

 regard to green stuff. Since tlio first pub- 

 lication of the Citt/ Press, the spirit of 



CITY GAEDENS. 



were circumscribed and limited by law, 

 gardening has undergone a vast change in 

 the City of London, which now has its 

 own annual exhibitions of chrysanthe- 

 mums, of which Messrs. Broome and 

 Dale are the presiding genii, and all the 

 summer long, exhibitions of roses, linie- 

 trees, mignonette, rhododendrons, day 

 lilies, and candytuft, are to be seen here, 



urban horticulture has manifested a fresher | there, and everywhere— under brick walls, 



in little back yards, set out in promenade 

 style, with verdant turf and shining 

 gravel, peering over the tops of houses, 

 screwed-up between Towers of Babel, or 

 flourishing on window-sills and balconies,^ 

 according to the several circumstances of 

 the exhibitors and the subjects of compe- 

 tition. 



But the best of it is, that City gardening 

 is not an affair of mere risk and guess-work 

 — in its way it is reduced to a science, and 

 the sum and substance of what the science 

 teaches is, that some things will grow in 

 cities, and some other things won't ; and 

 further, that those that will grow need a 

 peculiar sort of management, and then 

 " all goes merry as a marriage-bell." 



In the first number of the C/Vj/ Press, 

 we devoted a column to reviewing a hook 

 known as the "Town Garden," ar;d have 

 the pleasure of ouce more giving place to 

 a notice of it, owing to its appearance in 

 a new form, wholly re-written, beautifully 

 illustrated, considerably enlarged, and 

 "complete in every department." 



[After a lengthened analysis of the 

 "Town Grarden," the writer says : -] 



" Spite of what we see in the gardens 

 of the Temple, in the Bank garden, and 

 in the open squares about the inns of law, 

 and in tiie rear of some of the City Com- 

 panies' Halls, we could never have sup- 

 posed that the subject would admit of such 

 ample treatment ; yet there is not a word in 

 excess in the whole 200 pages— sometimes, 

 indeed, we think the author somewhat too 

 brief. Two things we hope and expect. 

 First, that with this work, within reach for 

 a few shilhngs, the citizens of London 

 will cease to regard horticulture as a pur- 

 suit incompatible with urban life ; if there 

 is but a square yard of uncovered ground, 

 have some livuig green thing on it. Se- 

 condly, we hope to see a third, a fourth. 



life than it ever had before, from the time 

 it was nearly extinguished by the pressure 

 of bricks and mortar. London grew and 

 elbowed the green meadows further and 

 further off, and by degi'ees, such few 

 gardens as the streets encircled got smoke- 

 eaten, and, like oases in the desert, were 

 dried up, and all but disappeared. The 

 City was threatened with the speedy anni- 

 hilation of every green leaf it had hitherto 

 hidden and sanctified, as a morsel of na- 

 ture entombed among the monuments of 

 art. But every generation is blessed with 

 a few wise men — men whose hearts refuse 

 to become wholly encrusted with the cares 

 of mammon, and these, in their several 

 places, had each his box of mignonette 

 and his I'eal lime, elm, or ash tree, just to 

 remind the masses around him that a sly 

 corner cf his heart was unoceupied by 

 thoughts of things that pass away and re- 

 ceptive of influences that abide for ever. 

 " Grod made the country and man made 

 the town," and as Clod's words transcend 

 in glory those of human fingers, so do the 

 influences they shed around us and within 

 us, tend to lift us up from the things of 

 time to reflections on creation and eter- 

 nity. 



When the Government befriended us 

 by compelling the big chimneys to swallow 

 their own smoke, the few enthusiasts who 

 had tried to defy the smoke, as Ajax defied 

 the lightning, found themselves suddenly 

 relieved of an incubus ; their crushed pets 

 held up their heads ; there was a new — or 

 rather an old, because natural — music in 

 the rustling of the leaves, and plants that 

 had been for years living in smoke sick- 

 ness, suddenly made a new start, and, 

 wonder of wonders! blossomed ia their 

 season, as if not a single inch of frowning 

 walls encompassed them. A small man 

 undertook to "ignore Spurgeon,' 



but Spurgeon continuedlo shine and grow I an infinity of editions in rapid succession ; 



more lustrous ; whereas, the roses at the 

 Temple G-ardens did ignore London with- 

 out liaving vowed to do it, and so nature 

 was superior to human vanity in that par- 



.V.. those who leave us when the day is 

 over have their pretty gardens out of 

 town, which they may make tenfold more 

 pretty after a careful perusal of Mr. iiib- 



ticular. Yes, since the atmospheric blacks I herd's volume."-- C/^i/ Press 



