APRIL. 107 



BENNINGBOROUGH HALL, YORKSHIRE, 



THE SEAT OF THE HON. PAINE DOWNEY. 



This beautiful place is six miles west of York. The mansion is 

 situated near the banks of the Ouse. The gardens and grounds are 

 extensive, and kept in the very best order. As a plant place it has 

 attained considerable celebrity, through J\Ir. Foster, the head gardener, 

 having been a leading and successful exhibitor at the shows of the 

 Yorkshire Horticultural Society for the past thirty years. Notwith- 

 standing the very severe winter we have had, this place was already 

 beginning to be gay and attractive, even on the 9th of March, the 

 period of my visit. Considering that the subsoil is of a most retentive 

 nature, and the locality low, I expected to see sad destruction among 

 the ornamental trees and shrubs, but was most agreeably disappointed. 

 On the lawn I observed an immense large tree of the common Arbutus, 

 which, unprotected, has stood, without sustaining any injury, the 

 storms of many a winter. I also noticed a handsome young tree of 

 the Cedrus Deodara, the foliao-e of which was a little browned. Wei- 

 gela rosea stands the winter well here ; some plants of it have already 

 attained a good size. Taxodium sempervirens has survived unpro- 

 tected, but the foliage is a little browned. This tree may be regarded 

 as hardy in this country, for having stood here the past winters close 

 to the Ouse, where the subsoil is most retentive, it will with ordinary 

 attention succeed in any locality ; Cryptomeria japonica is a little 

 bro\vned, but otherwise safe ; Cupressus torulosa has stood the weather 

 miprotected. The common sorts of Rhododendron do well here, not 

 however in the natural soil but in peat. 



In the flower garden are two houses, the one a conservatory, the 

 other a greenhouse ; the former was one blaze of floral beauty, with 

 Cinerarias, Azaleas, Heaths, Cytisus, Chinese Primroses, and all those 

 spring flowers generally found in such structures at this season of the 

 year. Among them I noticed a great many pots of old Lachenaha tricolor. 

 This is a plant that bears forcing well, and may be made to flower at 

 any season, and after done growing may be stowed away under a 

 stage or any place, where, kept dry until wanted, they are easily increased 

 either by offsets or seeds. 



In the greenhouse there is a miscellaneous collection consisting of 

 some good specimen Heaths, Azaleas, and a variety of other hard- 

 wooded plants. 



Stove plants are grown extensively here ; there are three houses devoted 

 to their culture. To enumerate all the good plants would be to occupy too 

 much space, suffice it to say that Mr. Foster has, with proper discernment, 

 whilst adding the really good new plants as they come out, retained such of 

 the old things as are deserving of cultivation ; he has not abandoned his old 

 and tried friends for new ones. This gives his collection a greater variety 

 than is usually met with now-a-days in stoves, and there is scarcely a 

 plant here but what may be called a good specimen. 



In the Peach-house there is the prospect of a good crop. There is 

 only one house here devoted to Pines, which are grown on the Hamil- 



