122 



THE GARDENER'S MJNrHLY 



I4pri/r 



(lott'nniiii'fl lu iiKikc use of it. ;i> I uiidtTstood In- 

 was (III tlu' L'loiiiiil. I \v;i> (lircctiil lo a room as 

 (lu> Sfirctaiv's (ttlifc. At tin- lar cml Wfic two 

 or tliri'r cli-i-ks Itusy willi tliiMi- pens. It was some 

 timo lu'lon' tlicso Lrcntlrmt'ii (Ici^nfd to laki' any 

 notii-t' of my in(|iiiry il' Mr. Iluirlics was to be 

 tbuiKl. One at last caiiu-to me Imrricdly, and on 

 my n'])i'atinir tlio tiin'stUm lie rcplii'd sharply 

 that he was. hut was ('ii;;aii(Ml and could not he 

 seen. JU'foro scarcoly tlnishinu' his answci- he 

 was ofV, and at his dosk attain. Tln-ro was nolh- 

 inu loft hut to lollow him. wIk*!! I explained 

 that I was fntm America, and was the heai-er of 

 a letter I'roin a friend of Mr. Ilniihes. and where 

 (•ould he he seen ? "You can't see Mr. llunhes 

 now. hut you can leave the letter with me, or 

 you can see the Secretary in that ntnm." I 

 walked into that room, found it empty, came 

 hack and so reported. "Well,l doiTt know where 

 lie is." was the husy man's reply, and he went 

 on with his pen work. It did not seem to 

 mo a matter of supreme imi)ortance to see Mr. 

 Iluirhes. I should probably learn somethintj by 

 ear I could not by eye, but then there was quite 

 enough to keep eye and brain employed without 

 that, so I did not see Mr. ITuiihes and walked 

 awaj' ; and the only reason! mention the circum- 

 stance is to say that such incivility is extremely 

 rare in p]ni;land. I I'ound ollicials occasionally 

 curt, especially on one occasion at ]?ri<4liton, but 

 the mention of the word "American"' had in 

 every other instance, been a complete passport 

 to polite attention, in many cases to a degree I 

 was quite surprised at. 



It was an admirable idea to preserve this 

 building — the first hi the inauiiuratiou of these 

 wonderful exhil)its; and it is to be hoped that 

 the enterprise which has staked so much on the 

 venture will be ultimately successful. The 

 l)uildin<; itself is a sort of a combination of the 

 Main p]xhibition].uildin<r and Horticultural Hall 

 of our Centennial. Iluue Acacias. Myrtles, 

 New Holland Araucarias, with numerous han<r- 

 iiiii baskets oi' Rose (Tcraniums. interspersed with 

 dolphin fountains, adorn the main promenade, 

 while the side portions are used for the various 

 collections f)f art. music halls, c^c. 



The grounds are pretty, but I must say that, 

 considering the reputation of the landscape gar- 

 dener. Paxtoii. I believe, it did not strike me as 

 a first-class specimen of art. In my poor 

 ophiion, it was terraced, va.^ed, and fountained 

 to death. The fountains had no water in them, 

 and the lakes were chiefly dark mud and weeds, 

 rt may be, perhaps, that it was a bad season for 

 these features; and, indeed, the lawns were as 

 brown and burnt as any I ever saw in our own 

 hot-summered country. There is a huge mound, 

 which, after you reach its crown, you wonder 

 what it was made for, for there is no view from 

 it, and it seems almost incredible that it should 

 have been thrown up for no other purpose than 

 to make a base for the flag pole which surmounts 

 it. Indeed, it seemed to be the weak point in 

 the designing of these grounds, that there was 

 no ideal; it is mere ornamentation with 

 nothing to ornament. This ornamentation, in 



itself, was licauliful. Tlic f.uiMl Iiedding was 

 elaborate and lasli I'ul. and I .>-aw few specimens 

 of such work in ICnL'land that was its sunerior- 

 It is worthy of note, that with all our ideas of 

 the superiority of the KnL.'lish cliuiate for garden- 

 ing, they have but a very short season in whiidi 

 to enjoy it, comiiared with what we have. It 

 was then the Kith of .Inly, and some of the beds 

 were only beiny jilanted. It takes thousands 

 and thousands of jilants to carry out the bedding 

 of the English gardeners, because, owing to their 

 sboi't seasons, they have to set the i)lanfs very 

 close together, so that, a day or two after the 

 planting, the bed is a complete carpet at once.. 

 As they have frosts often in September, they 

 have generally little more than two months tok 

 enjoy these beautiful eflt'cts. 



I must pass by the beauties of Hyde Park, and 

 the numerous public parks of London, and take 

 only one for my brief space to make a few notes 

 on, as I thought it the best of its class — Batter- 

 sea Park. It is some miles up the Thames from 

 the heart of London, but the steamer takes you 

 for a few pence, and it seems a very cheap ride; 

 but when I remembered our own beautiful river 

 boats, with their numerous comforts and con- 

 veniences, I had to remember the lesson I fre- 

 quently had taught me in my traveling experi- 

 (Mices, that Europe was a mucii cheaper place to 

 live in than Ameriia. provided you bought 

 nothing. Of course I knew Battersea of all my 

 old haunts. Althou<ih over thirty years ago, I 

 ran my mind through its slimy ditches, and cab- 

 bage gardens, and wild grass, and felt sure I 

 could go right to* the spot where we botanical 

 lioys used to go to get our Rumex Brittanicus. 

 and other rare (for those parts) species of Docks, 

 for these fields wei'c our favorite hunting 

 grounds. But it was not to be, for all around' 

 were beautiful buildings, and a beautiful park 

 was on that very spot. It is perfectly amazing 

 how young old Eondon is. If the author of 

 •''Flora Londoniensis " could see it now, he 

 would want to emigrate to the I'nited States. 

 There is scarcely room even for a dock to grow 

 about old Jjondon now. 



It was. for England, an uncomfortably warm 

 day, though the thermometer was only 70°, and 

 we began to long for some of the pleasant, cool- 

 ing Summer drinks of our OAvn land. There was 

 a fair looking restaurant at the park entrance, 

 with arbors of living vines, and seats and tables 

 that seemed pleasant eiK^ugh. People at the 

 tables were indulging in the favorite national 

 beverage, while our eyes caught si^ht of '' Ices '^ 

 on a piece of pasteboard swinging in the wind. 

 It came in a sort of sherry glass, and in a mo- 

 ment had wholly disappeared. It was a very 

 honneopathic dose I'or so serious an ailment, 

 so we had to take comfort from a newsjiaper by 

 us, which gave a terrible account of the awful 

 death of some one a few days before from eating 

 ice cream. It w^as terrible to think of dying so 

 far away from home, so we asked for glasses of 

 " very cold water," and goblets holding nearly a 

 quart were brought to us. Still it would not go. 

 "We had taken nothini: which need('«l an emetic. 



