May 30, 1872. ] 



JOUBNAIi OF HOBIICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENfiR. 



143 



these Ferns have grown and seeded until the case became too 

 full. Last spring C1871) frost killed very many of them, as the 

 case was in a rojm without a fire. — Camjee. 



PUTTERIDGEBUEY, 

 The Seat of G. Soweebt, Esy. 

 About four miles to the north of the rising town of Lutou is 

 Putteridgebury, the seat of G. Sowerby, Esq., a place whence 

 the readers of The .Jourxal of Hoktici:liure have derived 

 so much instruction from the pen of the worthy garden cliief, 

 Mr. Fish. The situation of tlie mansion and grounds is 

 elevated, the road from Luton (with which there is excellent 

 railway communication) rising nearly the whole w-ay, and 

 showing to the traveller the extent of this thriving country 

 town, in which the blue-slated roofs at once serve to distin- 

 guish the modern from the ancient houses, which are mostly 

 covered with flat tQes. The town, like many others, lies in 

 a valley, and I am not sure that such a site is not the most 

 befitting in a district like this, where water is scarce. I'ur- 

 suing our journey we perceive we are in a district where most 

 of the farming land is in tillage, and Wheat, Barley, and green 

 crops would seem to be the order of the day, as the rising 

 ground enables one to see a large extent of country. The 

 fields are of medium size, divided by neat low hedges ; here 

 and there groups of trees, or rather plantations, in suitable 

 places give that clothing to the scene without which a land- 

 scape would be naked-looking. In certain places trees grouped 

 in greater number indicate the position of some gentleman's 

 seat. A turn of the road shuts out for a time much of the 

 view of the valley of Lutou, and we find ourselves on the 

 summit of one of those irregular' ridges, or rather chains of 

 eminences, on which Putteridgebury stands. 



Putteridgebury is in the parish of LiUey, and county of 

 Herts, a parish recorded in the Domesday Book, with a notice 

 of the .inglo-Saxon who was the proprietor in Edward the 

 Confessor's time. We have no doubt that Putteridgebury was 

 then a named locality, for the name is Anglo-Saxon, meanmg 

 literally " the residence by the lull-path." It is spelt in early 

 documents Putteriggebury and Poderichebm\v. 



The earliest notice of the manor of Putteriggebuiy was when 

 it v.'as possessed by Thomas Cherley, Esq., in 1408. He died 

 in that year, and his widow being tenant of it for Ufe, and 

 mariying Sk Thomas de la Pole, he became its tenant. On 

 her death it returned to the Cherley family, and we next find 

 it possessed by one of them, who was married to William 

 Darell, of Littlecote, in WUtshire. This was in the reign of 

 Edward IV. In 1491 it had come into the jiossession of a 

 widow of one of the Darells, who held it " by fealty and one 

 pound of pepper and another of cummin." The Darells re- 

 tained it untU the reign of Henry VIII. , when they passed it to 

 Hichard Lyster, eventually Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 

 who in 1.52.5 granted it to one of the Westmoreland Docwras. 

 By marriage it passed in 1700 to Su' George Warburton, Bart., 

 who sold it with the manors of Huckwell and Lilley in 1729 to 

 Lord Charles Cavendish, who resold it 17-38 to Sir Benjamin 

 Eawling, whose coheirs sold it in 1788 to John Sowerby Esq., 

 and his family have since continued its jjossessors. 



The house was built by John Docma in Heniy VIII.'s time.] 



Entering the park, and pursuing a well-kept piece of carriage 

 road, I soon found myself in the vicinity of the mansion, and 

 after a heai'ty greeting and welcome from my friend Mr. Fish, 

 I proceeded to take a brief survey of this well-kept place. 



The mansion of Putteridgebuiy is one of those commodious 

 dwellings in which internal comfort has not been sacrificed to 

 outward show, although it is not deficient in the latter respect. 

 The absence of stone in the neighbourhood, and the absence of 

 railways, also, when it was erected, no doubt led to its being 

 built of brick and cemented. The difficulty of making a brick 

 house a dry one, at one time led to many well-built residences 

 being coated with cement, which was thought to be a certain 

 preventive of the bricks being sattirated with moistiu'e, and 

 Putteridgebur}' is one of these. The fresh appearance which 

 a coat of paint gives such a dweUmg makes it stand out well 

 against the mass of foliage by which most country houses are 

 surrounded, so that in the distance mansions of this kind pre- 

 sent a more imposing appearance than tliose either built of 

 brick or stone when not so coloured. Putteridgebury is com- 

 mandingly placed on a nearly level piece of table land. The 

 view over the valley in which Luton is nestled is both varied 

 and extensive, and in other directions as well several objects 



of interest are brought before the observer. In one place an 

 Ivy-clad church is seen amongst trees, in another a quiet 

 country village is just visible, while smUing com fields, or, after 

 they are cut, large breadths of gieen crops, present themselves 

 to view in all dkections, indicating an amount of rural in- 

 dustry which becomes more evident on a closer acquaintance 

 with the population, when it will be learned that many of the 

 female members of the family from a very early age are en- 

 gaged in that calling which, perhaps, more than most others 

 has suft'ered from the caprices of fashion, the platting of straw. 

 There has been many a change of fashion since the days of the 

 old Dunstable bonnets, but Lutou, having eclipsed Dunstable, 

 is still the centre of a large trade in plait. 



The cai-riage entrance to the mansion is on the north side ; 

 the east, south, and a portion of the west sides front the 

 dressed grounds, and at the north-west corner are the offices, 

 occupying a considerable space. Then we reach the eastern 

 wall of the kitchen garden, a parallelogram, with good walls 

 all round, those running east and west being the longest. To 

 the west of the kitchen garden is the frame ground, where a 

 senes of cold and partially heated pits are made to contain all 

 the requisites for the flower garden. Southward of this kitchen 

 garden, as well as southward of an interesting corridor and con- 

 seiwatory which unite the south-east corner of the kitchen 

 garden with the mansion, is all dressed gi'ounds, which also 

 extend some distance farther west than the garden itself. 



Beginning with this corridor, at the time of my visit an 

 artist in rockwork, Mr. Pugh, of London, was engaged in con- 

 verting the commencement of the corridor into a fernery, and 

 I have no doubt when finished and planted it will be an 

 interesting place, communicating as it does directly with the 

 mansion. Following the corridor, which takes a somewhat 

 curved direction, I reached the conservator}-, but as it was 

 being painted during the fine weather of last September, of 

 course all moveable plants were set outside. 



Leaving the conservator}' I next entered the flower garden 

 proper, which may be divided into three or rather four distinct 

 parts, the first beuig an Italian garden in a sunk panel ; the 

 I second a series of circular beds about 9 feet in diameter, each 

 placed in two rows about 30 feet apart from centre to centre, 

 and something less than that, saj' 24 feet apart in the row. 

 This for the sake of distinction I wUl call the avenue of 

 beds. Thirdly, there are two fine ribbon borders of great 

 length, each 8 or 10 feet wide. Lastly, there are a great 

 number of other beds and borders, which cannot be said to 

 form a uniform whole, but which are, nevertheless, each of 

 them entitled to notice. This class of bedding I shall call the 

 promiscuous beds, for they are scattered in various places, and 

 are certainly as essential as any of those previously described. 

 The Italian garden, which Ues to the south of the mansion, is 

 a square of perhaps 200 feet, sunk some 3J feet below the 

 terrace walk next the mansion, and, in fact, the high ground 

 which surrounds it , for it is enclosed on all sides by turf banks 

 of uniform slope, giving the depth above stated. A fountain 

 and basin occupy the centre. The rest is a group of flower-beds 

 of a simple pattern on grass. The number of these beds is 

 about eighty — too many in my estimation, as there is too little 

 space between, but at the time of my visit they were all well 

 filled. I had not time to go into details. Passing on to the 

 next series, the avenue of beds ; there being more space for 

 these to show themselves, they present a better appearance. I 

 will not attempt to describe them hi detail, but may state that 

 they were planted in pairs, and the plants used were so skil- 

 fully arranged as regards height, that the general outline of 

 each bed was somewhat in the shape of a low tent — for a tall 

 pointed plant Uke a Fuchsia forms the centre, next come others 

 much shorter, while still dwarfer plants are placed near the 

 edge. The neatness and regularity with which this was done 

 reflected great credit on Mr. Fish, who has two great diffi- 

 culties to encounter : First of all he has but Utile room in 

 which to winter and prepare his plants ; and secondly, he has 

 to contend against the evils of planting the same beds year 

 after year without being able to renovate the soil . Yet the 

 beds looked well, not a blank spot was visible, and the avenue 

 of beds pointing in a south-westerly direction formed one of 

 the prettiest features of the place. They commenced near to 

 the Italian garden previously described, and terminated in 

 some shrubbery that enclosed a fernery and other rustic work. 

 I now come to the ribbon borders by the side of the south 

 wall of this kitchen garden. One of these may be called the 

 wall border, being next to it ; the other is on the opposite side 

 of a walk, and having its outer side on the turf of the pleasure 



