DECEMBER. 365 



healtliy trees with good crops of fine fi-uit ? The foundation of this 

 success rests on thorough drainage and on the composition of the 

 borders, with proper selection of sorts, proper pruning, &c. 



M. Saul. 

 Stourton. 



ABNEY HALL, CHEADLE, NEAR MANCHESTER. 



This is the seat of James Watts, Esq., a Manchester merchant prince, 

 of whom the Earl of Carlisle's description of successlul mercantile men, 

 " architects of their own fortunes," is, we believe, strictly true, for we 

 have understood that Mr. Watts, who is comparatively a young man, 

 owes the position in life and ample fortune to which he has attained 

 entirely to his own exertions and enterprising spirit in business. But 

 if ]\Ir. Watts, by hard work and the judicious management of a 

 leviathan business, has acquired a fortune rapidly, a glance at Abney 

 Hall, with its princely mansion and gardens, &c., will convince any one 

 that he has as much pleasure in spending money as in gaining it. The 

 site on which this place is built was a decayed print works, and any 

 person who has seen an establishment of this kind, Vv'ith its large 

 reservoirs of water, &c., w^ould not consider it a very suitable position 

 in which to build a mansion and lay out gardens, &c. But the 

 difficulties of a situation like this vanish where expense is no considera- 

 tion ; and when we state that the flower garden occupies the site of an 

 old reservoir, and that this, to the extent of probably an acre and a half, 

 has been raised several feet by soil brought from a distance, at an expense of 

 some four shillings per cart load, and that this is only an average instance 

 of how things have been done here, it will be understood that expense has 

 not been the only thing thought of. The mansion is probably one of the 

 finest in the country, either as regards its external appearance or 

 its internal decorations and furnisliings, but any remarks on this would 

 be stepping beyond our province. 



The gardens were designed and laid out in the first instance by Mr. 

 Skirving, of Liverpool, and afterwards largely altered by JMr. Bigland, of 

 Manchester ; and Mr. Barron, of Elvaston, has also been consulted, and 

 has the credit of one of the best things about the place, viz., an avenue 

 of Chinese Junipers, which, as seen from the principal entrance and the 

 windows of one or two principal rooms, is a striking feature, and 

 well worth whatever it may have cost ; and as the Junijiers — fine large 

 handsome plants some ten or twelve feet high — were brought from 

 Elvaston Castle in nearly their present state as to size, the expense 

 must have been something very considerable. 



The convervatory is an exceedingly handsome erection, forming, as 

 it were, part of the south side of the mansion, and so arranged that a 

 good view of the j)lants is obtained from a jiicture gallery which atljoins 

 it on the north side, and also a charming glimpse across one end from 

 the entrance hall and vestibule, and doors out of the drawing and break- 

 fast rooms open upon opposite ends of the centre passage, so that the 

 plants are seen to advantage Ironi many parts of the ground floor of the 



