336 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



Glimpses at English Cottntrt Places. — [From 

 a very interesting letter received since our last num- 

 ber, Irom a friend who has lately none abroad to en- 

 joy, amon<T other things, the perfection of European 

 parks and gardens, (and that too with abundant pre- 

 paration for this species of enjoyment,) we extract 

 the following portions, which cannot fail to interest 

 our readers. Ed.T 



I went out to Skirving's nursery, about three 

 miles from Liverpool. He is a tenant of the Earl 

 of Derby, whose place, " Knowsley Hall," is a few 

 miles from there. Mr. Skirving has a nursery of 

 100 acres. There are forty miles of hedges — and 

 such hedges and such walks — bordered bj- Rhodo- 

 dendron, Laurel, Portugal Laurel, and every spe- 

 cies of evergreen shrub. The whole nursery is laid 

 out in squares — of perhaps 50 to 100 feet square, 

 surrounded by privet, thorn, laurel, beech or hollj' 

 hedge, eight feet high, for protection of the plants 

 within the hedges. I saw few deciduous trees ; 

 everything was evergreen. He has sixty-eight va- 

 rieties of evergreen trees that will stand the climate 

 of Ensland. He showed me one patch oi Arauca- 

 ria (Chili pine,)* containing £2000 worth. This 

 is the great tree here now ; they are planting the 

 avenues in the parks with them. I have as yet only 

 seen specimens at Eaton Hall eight feet high ; and 

 I infinitely prefer the Deodar Cedar ; one of the lat- 

 ter at Eaton Hall, about ten feet high, is most ex- 

 quisite. Mr. Skirving had just sent off to the 

 Earl of Hardwick, £400 worth of Araucarias and 

 Deodars at only half a crown, 2s. 6d. sterling, 

 a piece ; something different from our orders to 

 nurserymen. Skirving's house, formerly Walton 

 manor, is 500 years old, and is completely covered 

 with i\"s^ cut out for the windows, and abounding in 

 hundreds of birds — singing and chattering so that 

 you can hardly hear j'ourself talk. The birds are 

 infinitely more numerous and tamer here than in 

 America. There are beds and beds of Rhododen- 

 drons of every colour and all sizes, from 4 shillings 

 per 100 to £10 a piece. So there were thousands of 

 all the beautiful evergreen plants, which will scarce- 

 ly thrive with us, and therefore most tantalizing. 

 As I said before, I saw hardly any deciduous trees ; 

 and on expressing to him my wonder, he said the 

 taste now was all for evergreens ; and that the new 

 parks were all evergreen trees and shrubs — so that 

 in winter, when the proprietors chiefly reside there, 

 the appearance may be the same as in summer. 

 Lord Harrington is even cutting down his decidu- 

 ous trees and planting evergreens in avenues. One 

 of these — an avenue of Araucarias — is seven miles 

 long, one hundred feet broad, and the trees fifty 

 feet apart : imagine the splendor one hundred years 

 hence ! Another of Deodars is three miles long. 



[From our correspondent's account of Eton 

 Hall, the seat of the Marquis of Westminster, we 

 extract the following :] 



The income of the Marquis of Westminster is 

 £416,000 per annum. He does not fancy Eton 



[* For a description of this tree, see vol 1, p. 540. En] 



Hall, and has been for two years altering the house 

 and grounds ; and the alterations will require two 

 years more. We entered this estate by Grosvenor 

 Lodge, a beautiful castellated building, and drove 

 in a straight line eiijht miles, through an avenue of 

 Hollies, Portugal Laurels, and our red dogwood — 

 only about six or eight feet high — backed by trees 

 perhaps twenty or thirty feet. This looked so new 

 from the small size of the border, that I was disap- 

 pointed. Passing another lodge, almost hidden in 

 ivy, we drove through the park to the Hall. The 

 latter was discoloured and moss grown, and the 

 steps to the grand entrance grass grown. Hun- 

 dreds of workmen were about the house and on the 

 lawn, cutting up the latter in all directions, and 

 converting what was lawn into terraces — taking 

 up trees. 



The whole of the space between the house and 

 river — some twelve acres — is to be terraced ; and 

 each terrace is to be thrown into arabesques of 

 flowers, vases, statues, etc. At an immense ex- 

 pense, all the trees remaining are to be trimmed 

 and cut in the old st^'le. In fact, it is to be a revi- 

 val of the old geometric school in gardening on the 

 side of the estate towards Wales. All the new 

 evergreens are being planted at a great rate. I 

 saw them planting some Araucarias. The hole 

 for a tree three feet high was ten feet across and 

 four feet deep. At the bottom were placed ten 

 inches of stone as a drain ; and the tree was plant- 

 ed in prepared soil on a hill, two feet at least above 

 the level. The gardens — pleasure and vegetable — 

 are sixty acres ; the kitchen garden being seven 

 acres. There is a great deal of wall ; the gardens 

 being in squares of, say an acre each. The glass 

 houses were not better or more numerous than Col. 

 Perkins' (near Boston,) and the grapes were cer- 

 tainly inferior to those I left at home, in size of 

 bunch. There were a great many handsome or- 

 chidaceous plants, and an astonishing number of 

 pine pits — perhaps 400 feet — filled with pine apples 

 in every stage of forwardness. The pleasure- 

 grounds consist chiefly of walks, bordered with 

 Rhododendrons and all their evergreen plants^ 

 which, though beautiful as specimens, are uninte- 

 resting from sameness. One of the finest things on 

 the estate is the bridge across the Dee — 150 feet 

 span, in a single arch, all iron, and exceedingly 

 light and elegant, wrought in beautiful scrolls and 

 arabesques. This, we were told, cost £15,000. 

 It is this sort of thing that astonishes the Ameri- 

 cans ! There was one superb view from the west 

 front towards one of the Welsh mountains ; as high, 

 perhaps, as Round Top (of the Catskills,) seen at 

 the end of an avenue three miles long and one hun- 

 dred feet broad, with very fine oaks on either side. 



Eton Hall being comparatively new, I did not 

 expect to see it so dark, moss-grown and stained. 

 I fancied a light Portland stone tint ; whereas, it 

 is a sort of blackish brown, in streaks. They did 

 not admit us, as they were tearing portions down 

 for alterations. Yours, S. Chester, England, Oct. 

 30, 1S47. 



