47( 



HOKTICULTURi: 



November 4, 1905 



while the wages of under gardeners 

 have increased only about 35 percent. 

 Thus, while a carpenter or a mason is 

 able to earn 50 shillings per week, an 

 under gardener can earn only 18 or 20 

 shillings. Again, in the hours of la- 

 bor, the gardener must work an aver- 

 age of ten or ten and one-half hours 

 per day, while the mechanic is required 

 to work only nine hours per day. This 

 state of affairs offers no inducement to 

 bright young men to enter the garden- 

 ing business; better wages and a more 

 promising field take them elsewhere. 

 The result of this is, according to my 

 observation, that in England garden- 

 ing as a business is in a decadent con- 

 dition. The young men engaged in it 

 must, under these conditions, average 

 lower in intelligence and ambition 

 than obtained 25 or 30 years ago. 



Mr. George Nicholson wrote me, at 

 Queenstown, to delay making any plans 

 until my arrival in London, when he 

 would be glad to assist in mapping out 

 a route, and, what was better, offered 

 to accompany me. This was beyond 

 my expectation, and I gladly changed 

 the plans I had made and posted to 

 London. He appeared l)right and early 

 at my hotel, the morning after my ar- 

 rival. You will be glad to hear that 

 Mr. Nicholson is looking remarkably 

 well, and I can vouch for his physical 

 endurance, remembering how he tested 

 mine. What more could I desire than 

 Mr. Nicholson's congenial companion- 

 ship? Who could know the places, the 

 men and the things I wanted to see 

 better than he? We took a long bus 

 ride a's a starter, which I think is a 

 very good thing to do in visiting a 

 strange city, and had I not been fa- 

 vored with a guide, I should have sat 

 next to the driver of the bus (as after- 

 wards I learned to do) ; they are most- 

 ly good fellows, and can spot a seeker 

 after information. The little tip given 

 at the end of the trip is usually well 

 earned. So much can be seen from the 

 top of a London bus that a day so 

 spent is well spent. 



The first thing that impresses a vis- 

 itor to London is the manner in which 

 street traffic is regulated; it is simply 

 perfect. Every vehicle seems to be a 

 part of a complex machine, running, in 

 spite of the enormous traffic, without a 

 hitch or jar. There is only one rule, 

 keep to the left; the drivers obey it 

 implicitly. At the street crossings the 

 police regulate the traffic by alternate- 

 ly opening each street for crossing. 

 The understanding between drivers 

 and police is quite clear. 



That London is a clean city is quite 

 apparent. The city house-cleaning is 

 of the first order. One feels even some 

 compunction in throwing a cigar stump 

 into the gutter, they are so clean. 

 This cleanliness is not confined to one 

 locality, but extends over hundreds of 

 miles of streets. The even grade of 

 the sidewalks is a noticeable fact; 

 there are no jogs or depressed cross- 

 ings 'for vehicles, everything is on a 

 level grade. On streets level or nearly 

 so, by locating the gutter catch basins 

 at some distance away from the cross- 

 ings, the street crossing grades are 

 brought to a level with the sidewalk 

 grade, making street crossings and 

 walks on a perfectly even grade. It is 

 astonishing how far the regulation of 

 these seemingly simple matters go to- 

 wards making city life pleasant, and 

 how much it is responsible for the 



fact that London is considered to be 

 one of the best governed cities in the 

 world. 



While in London I called upon Wil- 

 liam Robinson, to whom I had a letter 

 of introduction from Professor Sar- 

 gent. He kindly invited me to visit 

 him at Gravetye Manor, located in Sur- 

 rey, about thirty miles from London. 

 Gravetye is an old Saxon word mean- 

 ing a house in the hollow. The name, 

 however, does not designate correctly 

 the position of Gravetye Manor, which 

 is placed on a gently sloping hillside 

 overlooking the course of a stream, 

 which has been dammed lower down, 

 thus forming a very pretty sheet of 

 water in the valley, to which the long 

 reach of lawn slopes in pleasing undu- 

 lations. Wooded hills rise on the op- 

 posite side of the water, while to the 

 left a pretty view of valley is obtained. 

 Behind the house the ground rises and 

 is covered with plantations of pine. 



Gravetye is a fine old manor house 

 of the 17th century. Mr. Robinson has 

 made many additions and improve- 

 ments, both to the house and the 

 grounds. The wing which has been 

 added to the house has been done with 

 such rare taste and fidelity to harmony 

 that it seems a part of the old house 

 itself. The material of the building is 

 a soft native sandstone, even the roof- 

 ing is of sandstone flags. For the 

 roofing of the new addition the coun- 

 try was scoured to secure weathered 

 flags from old barns and houses. In 

 the restoration of the interior the same 

 care and good taste has been displayed 

 in blending the new with the old. 



Mr. Robinson would have done much 

 for gardening had he written nothing 

 more than The English Garden and 

 Wild Gardening. He has, however, 

 done much more, and, what is better, 

 has put into practice at Gravetye the 

 principles he has so earnestly taught 

 in his writings. In the construction of 

 a terrace garden old weathered flags 

 were obtained with which to pave the 

 walks. The beds are arranged in an 

 old-fashioned style and planted with 

 old-fashioned flowers. Roses predomi- 

 nate, of which Mr. Robinson has a 

 large collection. A pretty feature of 

 the garden is Tropaeolum speciosum, 

 blooming freely in gorgeous clusters. 

 as are also wall plants, which are en- 

 couraged to colonize. Beyond the ter- 

 race garden is a cosy ramble, the bor- 

 ders of which abound in good shrubs, 

 herbaceous plants and bulbs. Beyond 

 is situated the walled vegetable and 

 fruit garden. The sheet of water in 

 the valley is bordered by a walk, along 

 which the planting of shrubs and her- 

 baceous plants has been done in a 

 manner to give a very natural effect. 

 The same may be said of the shore 

 line, at which water lilies and other 

 aquatic and semi-aquatic plants have 

 been planted. The atmosphere of the 

 entire place is restful, quaint and beau- 

 tiful, on natural lines. The absence 

 of variegated and other abnormal forms 

 of vegetation is conspicuous, as might 

 be expected. The estate comprises 

 about 400 acres, some of which is old 

 woodland. A large area has been 

 planted by Mr. Robinson with pines 

 (Pinus sylvestris and Pinus laricio), 

 which show excellent growth, some of 

 them being twenty or more feet in 

 height. Our white pine (Pinus stro- 

 bus) has proved a failure, which Mr. 

 Robinson regrets very much. Many 



grew well at first, then suddenly died 

 oft. 



At the close of a very enjoyable day 

 my host drove with me to the station. 

 On the way he pointed out a railroad 

 bank, on which he scattered the seed 

 of Spanish broom a few years ago, now 

 a sheet of yellow bloom as a reward 

 for the forethought and public spirit of 

 the planter. 



The love of flowers is innate in the 

 heart of an Englishman. The same 

 may be said, only in a lesser degree, of 

 the Irishman, the Scotchman and the 

 Frenchman. There are few who have 

 not a garden, or at least a window box. 

 Along the roadside or in country towns 

 and villages, where the houses are 

 often built on the line of the road, a 

 narrow strip of space will be stolen 

 from the sidewalk and planted with 

 climbers to cover the cottage walls. 

 This love for flowers by all classes con- 

 tributes in a great degree to the charm 

 and beauty of English homes. In most 

 parts of England trees are encouraged 

 to grow in the meadows and hedge 

 rows. Even farmers will call your at- 

 tention to their trees, to their fine size 

 or appearance, and to how much they 

 add to the beauty of the landscape. 

 When such a spirit as this is abroad in 

 a land, what wonder that it calls for 

 the admiration of travelers! 



I saw a goodly number of fine trees. 

 At Lannercost Priory, Cumberland, are 

 the finest sycamore trees I ever beheld, 

 many measuring four to five feet in 

 diameter. This tree behaves badly in 

 the States and gives no intimation of 

 its qualities. The Long Walk at Wind- 

 sor Castle is shaded by handsome Eng- 

 lish elms. At Ravensworth Castle, 

 Durham, are good beeches; one I meas- 

 ured has a spread of 95 feet. At Na- 

 worth Castle, Cumberland, are grand 

 oaks, which must have been old when 

 belted Will Howard was warden of the 

 marches. 



At Brinkburn Priory, in Northumber- 

 land, a lot of silvery-leaved firs (which 

 I could not determine), three to three 

 and one-half feet in diameter, rear 

 their heads to a height of ninety or 

 one hundred feet. A plant of Clematis 

 montana, on the Priory walls, meas- 

 ures fifty-four inches around the stem. 

 It might have been planted by the 

 Cistercian monks who founded the 

 monastery. 



In Anthony Waterer's nursery I saw 

 a magnificent specimen of the Weeping 

 Beech, at least sixty feet in diameter 

 of spread of branches. I ought not to 

 stop at this single reference, when so 

 many good things are to be found 

 there. 



The forest of Fontainebleau, thirty 

 miles from Paris, has an area of 42,000 

 acres, in which fine oaks and beeches 

 abound. Of course, everybody knows 

 of the Burnham beeches. There are 

 still many well shaped specimens to be 

 found back in the woods that will well 

 repay the trouble of hunting them up. 

 The old pollarded and decaying trunks 

 are magnificent even in their ruins and 

 recall a long-distant past. 



I will close with a reference to the 

 White Willows of Warwickshire, called 

 regalis in the catalogues, but which 

 Profesor Sargent says is the typical 

 Salix alba. How beautifully their sil- 

 ver foliage lightens and softens the 

 landscape! When once seen they are 

 not apt to be forgotten. 



