332 



JOURNAL OF HOETICTJLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 30, 1873. 



totanisit, vfe shall probably satisfy him by pointing out the 

 main features worthy of attention in the Garden and its 

 museums. 



The public are more familiar with the entrance from the 

 Green than with any of the other entrances from the Rich- 

 mond Road, or from 'the towing-path facing the Brentford and 

 Isleworth ferries. The tine old gateway, a specimen of iron- 

 work but rarely met with, seems to smile upon the holiday 

 folks who, hot from toiling over the Kew Bridge, huilt after the 

 Chinese ideas of such a structure, are gratified both in eye and 

 mind by the luxuriant verdure that meets their eye imme- 

 diately they pass these portals. It is no spick-and-span new 

 garden they look upon ; the turf speaks of ages of careful cul- 

 ture, the trees rise to a noble altitude, and then- foliage strikes 

 them as something rare and beautiful. And well it may ; for 

 the spot immediately within view is the old arboretum. Here 

 for two hundred years at least all the rare trees of the old 

 and new world have been collected and carefully tended. The 

 buildings, too, wear an air of picturesque beauty which speaks 

 of the past. The old Kew Palace, somewhat retired on the 

 right hand, speaks of the days when solid building in fine red- 

 brick, which harmonised so well with the Terdure around, was 

 a hying fashion. It seems, like all the old buildings of that 

 age, to have a history, and that history, as we know, was 

 associated with the latter years of the poor, blind, old king, 

 which were spent within its walls. At that time the grounds 

 around the palace were not nearly so open as they are now, 

 the paths wound about amid shrubs ; and here, on one oc- 

 casion, as Fanny Burney tells us in her autobiography, the 

 poor king, escaping from his keepers, pursued her, as she fled 

 terrified through the garden to escape him. Here, also. Queen 

 Charlotte lived many years after his decease, and closed her 

 days. But scientifically as well as socially this spot is famous. 

 Looking over the wire fence which separates the royal grounds 

 from the garden — for they still belong to the Crown — we see a 

 sundial mounted on an antique pedestal. This site marks one 

 of the great astronomical triumphs of the past. The curious 

 si)ectator may not have an opportunity of reading the in- 

 scription which is engraved upon it, which we therefore 

 give— 



" On this spot, in 1725, the Piev. James Bradley made the first 

 observations which led to his two gr-eat discoveries — the aber- 

 ration of light, and the nutation of the earth's axis. The tele- 

 scope he used had been erected by Samuel Molyneux, Esq., in a 

 house which afterwards became a royal residence, and was taken 

 down in 1803. To perpetuate the memory of so important a 

 station, this dial was placed on it in 1832, by command of Hia 

 Most Gracious Majesty King Wilham IV." 



Thus by a most happy coincidence this ground may be con- 

 sidered sacred to the great explorers of the skies and the earth 

 — the one a searcher of the starry heavens, the other of the 

 rarities of mother e.arth ; and in the names of Bradley, the 

 Astronomer Royal, and Sir AVilHam Hooker, the creator, so to 

 speak, of these gardens in a scientific sense, may be traced the 

 origin of the two scientific establishments, the Kew Gardens 

 and the Kew Observatory. 



But to turn once more to the cool shade of the noble trees 

 which tempt the lounger, scientifical or otherwise, in these de- 

 lightful gardens. As we have said, many of them are now in 

 their prime, and all are more or less rare as well as beautiful. 

 Very many of them are exotic, and were removed here by the 

 Duke of Argyle, termed by Horace Walpole " the tree-monger," 

 from his famous garden at Whitton, near Hounslow. Among 

 the most umbrageous of these trees we may note the Turkey 

 or Mossy-cupped Oak of South Europe and Asia Minor. The 

 noble .spreading branches of this tree always attract the visitor, 

 and around the Cork Oak near at hand it has been found 

 necessary to put up an iron fence to keep off visitors, the treo 

 having been nearly destroyed by the anxiety of the curious to 

 take away trophies of its living bark. On the lawn near the 

 pathway leading to the herbaceous grounds may be seen a 

 Weeping Willow that possesses an historic interest, inasmuch 

 as it is grown from a cutting taken from the tree growing over 

 the grave in which the Emperor Napoleon was buried at St. 

 Helena. We perceive in Museum No. 1, a portion of the Oak 

 tree under which the great Duke stood and gave his orders at 

 Waterloo ; a seat should be made of this, in order that the 

 visitor may, at his ease, contemplate the relic of the great 

 Emperor. Near at hand is a very curious tree, the Hop Horn- 

 beam, so called on account of the blossoms resembUng those 

 of the Hop. The Black Walnut of the United States and the 

 common Walnnt grow side by Bide.— {Edinburgh liivUu:) 



[The following is from the unpublished journal of a gentle- 

 man who visited St. Helena in 1842 : — 



Left James' Town about eleven to visit Napoleon's tomb, in 

 a little double-bodied phn?ton a little larger than a chOd's 

 carriage, drawn by two strong horses, and the lightness of tha 

 one and the strength of the other were soon found to be de- 

 sirable. Never did I travel over such a road in my life, road 

 only traversable by one carriage except in places, and then in 

 passing another the wheels graze — graze on a ledge with a 

 rock hundreds of feet perpendicular above you, and a chasm 

 hundreds of feet in perpendicular descent on the other side I 

 View of the town in the rocky glen beneath very striking. 

 First, striking, par excellence, where all is striking, is " The- 

 Briars," a large residence lately purchased by Mr. Solomons 

 for £600, and where Bonaparte at first resided until Long- 

 wood was ready for him. It is at the very termination of 

 James' Valley, where it abruptly is concluded by a perpendicular 

 rock, 200 feet perpendicular, down the face of which descends 

 a waterfall, that looks as it falls like a long fillet of waving 

 smoke. 



The next object is the residence of Mr. Young, the Custom- 

 house Collector of the island. It is seated on the summit of 

 one of the loftiest hills, and in the bosom of a very large wood 

 of Scotch Firs. It is just before reaching this that vegetation 

 in healthy greenness first appears, and consists of Mesembry- 

 anthemums. Prickly Pears, coarse grass, and the common 

 Furze, which with its bright golden blossom had quite an 

 Essex look about it. Furze and the wood of the Gum Shrub 

 are the only fuel of the people, excepting that of the slave 

 ships, which now are so continually broken-up at the island^ 

 since it has got an Admiralty Court. Six such vessels, 

 schooners of about 200 tons, were being thus served whilst we 

 were there. The Chief Justice, Mr. Wild, is also Judge of this 

 Court, but without any additional salary. As Chief Justice he 

 has £800 a-year. No barristers. The Town Clerk, an attorney, 

 is Queen's Counsel ! 



About half a mile beyond Mr. Young's residence the road 

 forks, and a board tells you that the left leads to Napoleon's 

 tomb. The descent is frightfully precipitous, and at last the 

 carriage has to be left, and a few hundred yards traversed on 

 foot to the residence of Mrs. Tarbntt, who rents the right of 

 exhibiting the tomb, and for which she charges 3s. Gd. a-head. 

 It is a very small, neat, white cottage, all one floor. 



This was a little cottage whether Mr. Tarbutt (who was a 

 merchant at James' Town, and becoming involved destroyed 

 himself two or three years ago), was accustomed to come of a 

 Sunday, and during the hottest season, with his wife and 

 children. It is about two miles and a half from Longwood, 

 prettily situated on the side of one of the mountain decUvities, 

 and looking down into one of the deep alpine valleys, so wild 

 and so magnificent in this island. This cottage was soon 

 found out bj' Bonaparte, and whenever the family were absent 

 he was accustomed to stroll hither with Count and Madame 

 Bertrand, and read resting upon the horse-hair sofa, still pre- 

 served in the cottage, or, when the season was warm, beneath 

 the trees where his tomb was made. These trees were a few 

 Willows planted in a circle, and leaning inwards to a com- 

 mon centre, planted by Mr. Tarbutt in a little hollow enclosed 

 on three sides by the mountain tops, for the purpose of afford- 

 ing shade to his cows whilst being milked. It is about 

 100 yards from the cottage, and close to a spring of most pure 

 pellucid water, and which Bonaparte drank to the exclusion of 

 all other water during his residence on the island. So quiet, 

 so sheltered, and yet so grand is this little spot, that it is no 

 matter for surprise that Bonaparte should so markedh' express 

 a wish for his remains to repose there if he died upon the 

 island. The English Government resolved to gratify the 

 Emjieror's wish, and so soon as his death was known offered 

 to purchase the plot from Mr. Tarbutt. It was sold to them 

 for £1200, to remain in their possession " so long as the body 

 of Bonaparte remained there interred." This wording secured 

 its return to Mr. Tarbutt so soon as it was exhumed for re- 

 moval to France. On Mr. Tarbutfs death it was sold by his 

 creditors, and the purchaser, a Mr. Pritchard, lets it to Mr. 

 Tarbtitt's widow for £110 a-year. She obtains her living iu 

 the way I have mentioned, and by selling refreshments to the 

 visitors. We had some ale and bread and butter, and Water- 

 cresses fresh from the Napoleon spring. The vault remains 

 open, and the hollow at the bottom precisely as when Napo- 

 leon's coffin was reposing within it. The whole is lined with 

 plaster, is about 8 feet deep, and descended into by a flight of 

 wooden steps, which are already suffering sad dilapidation 



