NOVEMBER. 327 



trees are broken, a few groups only being left at different distances ; 

 and sometimes a wood, a grove, a coppice, or a thicket, is the apparent 

 boundary, and by them both the shape and the style of the enclosure 

 are varied. 



"The inscriptions which abound in the place are another striking 

 peculiarity ; they are well known and justly admired ; and the elegance 

 of the poetry, and the aptness of the quotations, atone for their length 

 and number ; but, in general, inscriptions please no more than once ; 

 the utmost they can pretend to, except when their allusions are emble- 

 matical, is to point out the beauties, or describe the effects, of the spots 

 they belong to ; but those beauties and those effects must be very faint, 

 which stand in need of the assistance. Inscriptions, however, to com- 

 memorate a departed friend are evidently exempt from this censure ; 

 the monuments would be unintelligible without them ; and an urn, in 

 a lonely grove, or in the midst of a field, is a favourite embellishment 

 at the Leasowes. They are, indeed, amongst the principal ornaments 

 of the place, for the buildings are mostly mere seats, or little root- 

 houses ; a ruin of a priory is the largest, and that has no peculiar 

 beauty to recommend it ; but a multiplicity of objects are unnecessary 

 in the farm ; the country it commands is full of them, and every natural 

 advantage of the place within itself has been discovered, applied, con- 

 trasted, and carried to the ucmost perfection, in the purest taste, and 

 with inexhaustible fancy." 



THE CAMELLIA. 

 Within the last thirty years or so, Camellias have been planted in the 

 open air, some against walls, and others as bushes ; and provided they 

 are protected a little after planting, till their roots become firmly esta- 

 blished in the soil, they stand as well as the common Laurel, in the 

 climate of London. In Devonshire, Camellias have grown to immense 

 bushes without any protection, and have also ripened seeds, from which 

 young plants have been raised. Camellias, however, succeed best when 

 treated as conservatory plants ; that is, when planted in an open border, 

 under glass, just protected from frost, and freely exposed to light and 

 air ; they then grow to large evergreen bushes, covered with dense 

 foliage, upon which, as on a lovely background, their fine flowers are 

 beautifully relieved : they are then far handsomer objects than when 

 their roots are confined within the limits of a garden pot or box.^ 



The most successful and generally applied method of increasing this 

 family, is by grafting or inarching ; and by these means each variety 

 is extended and perpetuated : the most suitable season for performing 

 the operation is in spring, when the plants have done flowering, and 

 show an inclination to grow ; the re-action of the vital powers does not 

 however take place in all, at any one particular time, on account of 

 Camellias being forced into bloom at different periods ; this point, there- 

 fore, I consider it best to leave to the good judgment and practical 

 experience of the cultivator ; yet those that are done in the latter _ end 

 of March and beginning of April will be most successful. Sometimes 



