MARCH. 85 



Osborne House, on arriving at which I found my clever and indefatigable 

 friend, Mr. Toward, at home, and, by his kind courtesy, I had a great 

 treat here. 



It might be deemed a breach of good faith, and manners too, were I 

 to particularise all I saw at this charming place ; I will therefore only 

 make a few general remarks upon it. 



Osborne House, the marine residence of our gracious Queen, is an 

 elegant Italian villa, built upon a large scale, to suit the requirements 

 of the royal household. It is remarkable for its pure and classic elegance 

 of design. Situated upon high table land, it is surrounded by a spacious 

 and noble terrace garden, enriched with vine-clad arcades ; the walks 

 are made of asphalte, and the margins of the beds formed of the most 

 durable woods, painted and sanded to appear like stone. When I saw 

 it, I was in ecstacies at the brilliancy of colouring which the well-filled 

 beds displayed — it presented a tout ensemble, such as has, I think, been 

 rarely seen, and such as the favoured clime of the Isle of Wight can 

 alone depict. Scarlet colour was, in Geraniums, incomparably dazzling 

 — crimsons were rich, in its fullest sense — pinks were peculiarly vivid 

 — blues were ethereal, and white of matchless purity. Beyond the 

 terrace was a noble expanse of unfrittered lawn, and then the eye looked 

 over rich banks of wood, beyond which the bright, blue, and beautiful 

 waters of the Solent Sea extended, till they blended with the horizon. 



In my former Notes I have remarked upon the admirable unity of 

 expression which is evident at Arundel ; Osborne is another exemplifi- 

 cation of that principle of congruity which is so pleasing to a well- 

 regulated mind. Although the character of Arundel is very opposite to 

 that of Osborne — the one being the expression of stern dignity, while 

 the other is an example of all that modern luxury can develope with 

 tasteful propriety — still each is, in its way, charmingly consistent. 



Returning via Basingstoke, I next visited Strathfieldsaye, well known 

 as the seat of the late and present Duke of WeUington, and formerly 

 belonging to Lord Rivers. 



This place is about eight miles from Reading, and is upon the London 

 clay ; a cold, wet, and — until of late years — an undrained district. 

 The visitations of early autumnal and late spring frosts are most severe, 

 and my intelligent friend, Mr. Johnson, his grace's gardener there, has 

 for years lost his crops of fruit; till, under the advice of Mr. Parkes, the 

 eminent drainer, he adopted the Deanston plan of deep drainage, 

 coupling with it an efficient canvas screen, with temporary coping, 

 removable at pleasure. He had previously drained but two feet deep, 

 fearing the water would not soak through the unctuous and stiff clay, 

 but at the instigation of Mr. Parkes, he lowered all the drains to four 

 and five feet deep. The result was, that from being the latest garden 

 in the neighbourhood it has become one of the earliest. One drain, five 

 feet in depth, was made on the south side of a wall, the north side of 

 which was covered with trees of the Morello Cherry ; these ripened 

 their fruit very late in the season, made wood which was ill matured, 

 and were mossy. The drain was made in March, when a thermometer 

 placed in it indicated 45°, but afterwards, during the summer, it rose 

 gradually to 61°. This, at five feet deep, was very satisfactory, and 



