1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



283 



is the Rhododendron and other contributions 

 from America, the various Laurels and Bays of 

 Southern Europe, the Roses of Persia, or the 

 Conifera from Japan or our Western shores, that 

 outline the pretty picture; and the tilUng in, by 

 the way of beautiful flowers, has been gathered 

 together from every quarter of the globe. I am 

 anxious to impress this on the reader because 

 there is an impression here that England owes 

 much of its just supremacy in gardening matters 

 to a natural fitness of things, when really nature 

 has done but little. It is the genius of selection, 

 the art to collect and the taste to arrange, the 

 tact to suit foreign matters to native circum- 

 stances, that has given England the gardening 

 fame which she everywhere enjoys. I see clearly 

 that our weakness has been a close copying of 

 other nations. The weakness is only natural, as 

 our literature and all our associations are founded 

 on theirs. We cannot have just what they have, 

 but if we look at our own climate and condi- 

 tions, and select from our materials at home and 

 from abroad just what is adapted to us, I am 

 satisfied that we may have gardening in as great 

 perfection as in any country in the world. 



In the first place our ideas of a garden are too 

 large. The best gardens here are not the large 

 ones. Places of ten to twenty acres, where be- 

 sides the head gardener three to six men are 

 kept, are very abundant, and as a rule, more 

 artistically beautiful than the larger ones. Of 

 course I am speaking of the rule, as I saw some 

 large places of very great beauty. I am credibly 

 informed that the larger places are by no means 

 increasing, and any one looking at gardening from 

 the grandiose point would suppose it to be de- 

 clining; but I am told that these smaller places 

 are increasing rapidly, and that not because 

 there is any decrease in wealth, but because true 

 gardening is more beautiful on the small than on 

 the large scale. There were three places of this 

 character that I visited on the Isle of Wight, all 

 less than twenty acres, probably, and yet perfect 

 pictures of beauty. These were St. Johns, the 

 residence of Mr. Gasson ; Appley, Mr. Clayton's; 

 and St. Clare, the marine residence of Colonel 

 Harcourt, of Buxted Park, Sussex. I visited also 

 Osborne House, the marine residence of Queen 

 Victoria, and though the grounds are on a rather 

 larger scale than the three I have named, they 

 come under the petite class I refer to. 



Mr. Clayton's garden is tinder the charge of 

 Mr. Smith, besides whom about six hands are 

 employed. A good part of the property is cut 



from the main garden by a neat iron fence, and 

 left to grow for hay, and yet the appearance of a 

 park is given to it by trees, singly and in clumps, 

 scattered over the surface. Thus the grass not 

 only helps to keep down the cost of the garden, 

 but is just the thing, to give a country idea to the 

 place. Only just immediately about the house 

 is mowed, the unmowed parts being kept out of 

 sight from the windows so far as the ground sur- 

 face is concerned, but the view not in the least 

 being checked by the design. Near the house^ 

 in its front, a steep bank suddenly descends, and 

 below are planted numerous Oak trees, but 

 these, when they reach the ground level, are cut 

 off to that line, and in this way there is a long 

 level of green leaves, adding by so much to the 

 apparent extent of the flat surface in the front of 

 the house. I never saw so pretty an effect ob- 

 tained in this way. The huge, spreading Elms 

 give of themselves a charm to the place, and a 

 shady retreat in the hottest day. They are about 

 seventy feet high, and are from twelve to thirteen 

 feet in circumference. Many choice trees are 

 scattered about, until we suddenly find ourselves 

 in the garden proper, on which the chief art has 

 been employed. I suggested to Mr. Smith that 

 it was ])robably not over two acres, and was sur- 

 prised to be told that it was barely over half an 

 acre. All of this eflfect is obtained by throwing 

 up the earth in some places and lowering it in 

 others, and by judiciously carrying walks and 

 paths around the well-planted mounds, banks 

 and depressions. It is so arranged that every 

 fifty feet square is totally different from the rest, 

 and in this way there is no end to the variety 

 but the boundary of the whole. Of course no 

 one who is his own gardener could design or 

 execute a piece of work like this. He might as 

 well attempt to make his own Sunday clothes. 

 Even the best practical gardeners, such as Mr. 

 Smith here is, would think it beyond their prov- 

 ince. Mil nor, one of the best landscape garden- 

 ers in England, was employed especially for the 

 work. 



On Mr. Gasson's place is just such another 

 beautiful piece of work, but of a totally diff'erent 

 kind. It was said to be designed by a Mr. Black, 

 of Fulham, near London, and took a long time 

 to execute. I should not think it much over an 

 acre; but here the artist had the advantage of a 

 little water to work with, and he planned out a 

 sort of rock garden. There are jets, cascades, 

 ponds, mounds, gullies, caves, arches, arbors 

 above ground, and cool seats below, and all so 



