674 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



trees, — everything else being evergreen ; conse- 

 quently, this gai-den is as fine in winter as in sum- 

 mer. Passing by some immense masses of all 

 our own, and the best English Rhododendrons — 

 twelve or fourteen feet high — all our magnolias, 

 laurels, azaleas, etc., the following plants struck 

 me, and I noted them and their si/e down: 



Rhododendron Smithii, twelve feet high, (one 

 mass of bloom) ; and a very fine new white va- 

 riety, equally gorgeous, eight feet. 



Juniperus pondula, twelve feet, beautifully 

 graceful. 



Araucaria imbricata, thii-teen feet, — said to be 

 the finest specimen but one, in England. 



Abies douglassii, twenty-five feet, — very fine. 



eephalonica, do. do. 



Cedrus deadora, twenty feet, — beautiful. 



Erica arborea, twelve feet, — in bloom. 



Bcrbens asiatica, eight feet 



Rhamnus latifolia, eight feet, — from the Azores. 



Photenia scrriilata, six feet, — China — beautiful. 



Thea viridis, (green tea,) seven feet, — China. 



Ligustrum lueidum, five feet. 



Some of the above have only been planted about 

 five years. These trees wore all perfect in shape 

 and colour, and most luxuriant in their growth. 



Near the house, among other rare trees, were: 



Quercus cervis, thirty feet. 



peduneulata, fourteen feet. 



oBgilops, (from Greece,) nine feet. 



At an angle of the porch, (in the vignette,) 

 you will observe a plant; this is a double red 

 camelia, which was in flower, and which, as well 

 as the Thea viridis, or green tea of China, stands 

 rhe mild winter of this part of England without 

 the least protection. The larger tree beyond, 

 near the next angle, with a drooping head, is a 

 Deodar cedar, nineteen feet high, — not quite as 

 long as the one in the American garden. 



The lawns are mown and swept every week. 

 The park is fed (i. e., the grass kept short,) by 

 deer and sheep. Reyond, and behind the Ameri- 

 can garden, commence the farm lands, of some 

 thirteen hundred acres, divided by iron fences 

 and beautiful hedges, into lots of two, three, ten 

 and fifteen acres, all in the most perfect order. 

 All the farm roads are Macadamized, with raised 

 gravel foot-paths on one side, and are over ten 

 miles in length. All the gates are opened by one 

 key, as also ail the ditterent park gates, where 

 there are no lodges. The laborers' houses are 

 charming; stowed away, every half mile or so, in 

 some cozy recess of the park, or some snug little 

 valley of the farm, and made picturesque by 

 tliateh, ivy, vines and rustic work. No muddy, 

 poached cow-path leads from cottage to cottage, 

 but a nicely gravelled and well edged path; and 

 as you walk or drive by, the pretty, ruddy chil- 

 dren, and their tidy, honest looking mother, come 

 to the door to give you a curtsy or a bow. 



The vegetable gardens, which lie some distance 

 from the hall, consist of four acres, surrounded 

 by a brick wall ten feet high, and divided by cross- 



walks of brick into four other gardens, of one 

 acre each. Nothing can exceed the order and 

 keeping here. Along the walks of red gravel, 

 (with a delicate little, pebbly, paved gutter on 

 each side,) were pears and apples, root-pruned, 

 and not over ten feet high, — but the walls were 

 covered with very fine espaliers, — peach, plum, 

 fig, apricot,* all in bloom, protected by nets, 

 which were kept off from the blossom by iron 

 hooks. 



There were three vineries and two pineries. 

 The vineries containing eighteen varieties of 

 grapes, selected from one hundred sorts which had 

 been tested. The gardener told me his favorite 

 grapes were Black Hamburgh, Muscat of Alex- 

 andria, the three Frontignans, Black St. Peters, 

 the Syrian, and the White Nice. The Syrian, 

 when well grown, with sufficient heat, he thought 

 one of the finest. The two last named sorts he 

 grew to be eight pounds the cluster, and the 

 Black Hamburgh to six pounds. He gets ripe 

 grapes for eight months, and this year he antici- 

 pates having them for ten months. 



These forcing-houses, gardens, lawn and Ameri- 

 can garden, with a small flower garden near the 

 house, are kept up (and Luscorab House has the 

 reputation of being the best kept place in Eng- 

 land) by a gardener and four under-gardeners, 

 with eight men every morning for two hours be- 

 fore breakfast; — the latter being afterwards sent 

 into the plantations and farm. 



I am glad to be able to add to this feature, that 

 the owner of this fine seat is universally beloved 

 here. All the surplus of the place, milk, fruit 

 and vegetables, besides £10,000 or £12,000, 

 ($.50, to $60,000,) are annually given to the poor. 

 Every one in distress comes to Luscomb House, 

 and no one goes away without sympathy or relief. 



Torquay is the wintering place of the English 

 consumptives, instead of Italy, and it is a thou- 

 sand times preferable in climate. The myrtle, 

 oleander, geranium, fuchsia, &c., stand the winter 

 here without protection. 



From Luscomb we drove three miles to Main- 

 head, the seat of Sir Robert Newman, who ex- 

 pended from £80,000 to £90,000 upon his house ! 

 and whose park, for combination of land and sea 

 view, with the river Exe, is unequalled in Eng- 

 land. I have never, in all my experience in Eng- 

 land, had my ideas of park scenery and park 

 trees more entirely satisfied. From the front of 

 the house, which stands on a terrace with a 

 pretty flower garden on one side, you look over a 

 rolling, undulating park, some six miles of glade, 

 and hill, single trees and masses of wood, to the 

 river Exe, and the sea. This park is filled with 

 sheep and cattle, as the trees round the house are 

 with rooks, who, regarding us perhaps as intru- 

 ders from a rival country and republic, across the 

 seas, kept up the most exaggerated cawing. 



* Which were washed wth a composition of lime potash, 

 &.C , and tlicn re-washed with lamp black, to make their 

 colour agreeable to the eye. . 



