186 



JOUENAL OF HOKTICULTTJRE AND COTTAGE GABDEKEE. 



[ September 8, 1863. 



upon for the present. It was agreed, however, that at an 

 eai'ly date a Committee should he formed to fix the dates 

 and make up a schedule, which, from the liberality of 

 the active Manager's suggestions, we doubt not will con- 

 trast favourably, as regards amount of prizes, with some of 

 the schedules of leading Societies. 



NOTES ON GAEDENS PUBLIC AND PEIVATE. 



No. 4. — -Lord Leconfield's, Petv.'orth House, Sussex. 

 With strange feelings one revisits the scenes of boyish 

 days; and how wisely ordered is it that, in looking back, 

 all the disagreeables connected with the past vanish away, 

 and one only recalls those days which in modern parlance 

 would be called "jolly ! " Her? was I within a few mUes 

 of my former school-place — Medhm-st. There flowed the 

 Bother, in which I had had many a plunge ; in the Park 

 were the noble Chestnut trees, oif which some of " ours " 

 who had connections in Petworth used to levy toU; and 

 vividly came before one all the happy hom-s of one's boyish 

 days. I did just think of the many times when, instead of 

 enjoying a quiet dip, one of the big boys would take me by 

 the nape and one leg, and pitch me into a hole some 10 feet 

 deep, where another was waiting to receive me; and then 

 one reeoUeeted what terrible work it was to get up early 

 and have to clean my "master's" boots and shoes, or to 

 fag out at cricket, and such little disadvautages. But, after 

 all, these left a very faint line in one's recollection, like those 

 of whom we read — that they forgot soon all their hard ser- 

 vitude, but remembei-ed the " fruit that they did eat in 

 Egypt freely, the Cucumbers, and the Melons, and the Leeks, 

 and the Onions, and the Garlic't." But one's views had 

 quite changed : flowers which then would have been nowhere 

 comijared with a game of cricket or three-hole-span, were 

 now the i-uling powers ; and to visit the gardens of Lord 

 Leconfield one object which I had ijroposed to myself in my 

 short visit to my friends at Petworth ; and of some of the 

 most notable things it is my desire to give a brief record. 



I found, as I have invariably found to be the rule, that 

 on telling tlie object of my visit every infonnation is most 

 readily and cheerfully given ; and Mr. Jones, the able and 

 intelligent gardener, on whose shoulders no small amount 

 of responsibility rests, was kind enough to go with me over 

 the gardens and grounds, and 1 only regretted that the 

 shortness of my visit prevented me from gaining much and 

 valuable information in the various departments of horti- 

 culture. The extent of walled-in garden ground wliich 

 Mr. Jones lias under his care amounts to foui'teen acres ; 

 and some idea of the work that this involves may be gathered 

 from the fact that he has two miles and a half of nailing to 

 get througii ! Now one does expect in a royal establish- 

 ment like Frogmore to find things done on a large scale ; 

 but this conveys to my mind a wondrous notion of the 

 princely manner in which our gre.".t magnates of the aris- 

 tocracy live on theu' estates. Nor is Lord Leconfield one 

 of those who think that work is to be done without hands. 

 He employs liberally, and allows Mr. Jones to feel tlia.t he 

 is not required to have work done any way. Thus, while I 

 believe at Frogmore, where (owing, doubtless, to parlia,- 

 mentary revision looming in the background), one man is 

 allowed to an acre, here twenty men are allowed for the 

 fovu'teen acres, besides whatever additional help may be 

 needed — and surely t'nis is the wisest plan and truest eco- 

 nomy. As a consequence everything was in excellent order. 

 and signs of jsrogress visible on every side. The range of 

 houses is not extensive, many of the old ones having disap- 

 peared, and new ones not yet having supplied their place ; 

 but some are being buUt, and the most is made both of the 

 houses and ranges of pits and frames which the garden 

 contains ; for it is in fruit and vegetables that the glory of 

 this establishment consists, for, save one long walk running 

 down the centre of the garden, which has been most suc- 

 cessfully managed, there is no attempt at a flower garden. 

 Would that I had the ear of his lordship, and I would most 

 assirredly ask whether something might not be done to 

 give a moi-e ornamental character to the place. Witli such 

 a park I can quite understand that a nobleman might wish 

 to have the noble herds that adorn the park coming close 

 up to the windows of the mansion ; but surely the view 



would be none the worse for having a brilliant parterre 

 between them and it. At any rate, in some place or other 

 I should like to see a gardener of Mr. Jones's evident skiU 

 and taste having a scojje for his talents, for I am sure the 

 result would be worth looking at. 



Fruit is managed here on a somewhat extensive scale. 

 Thus, during last year there wore cut in nine months 260 

 Melons. To effect this in by no means a large space, and 

 to run it over so long a period of time, shows good gardening 

 and management. The Pines were also in excellent con- 

 dition, the Queen being that most in use ; and as many as 

 forty Pines weighing fi-om 31 to 4i lbs. have been sent in 

 at one time for preserring, and, of course, a tolerably con- 

 stant supply for the ordinary use of the house is maintained. 

 In the Peach-house the greater quantity of the fruit had 

 been gati:ered, but there was stUl some left of excellent 

 quality. Of this house Mr. Jones mentioned a curious fact 

 — th.at when he was making the house ready it so happened 

 that there was considerable delay, and that the trees were 

 ready long before the house was — that ho had to keep his 

 trees out of doors under walls, moviug them about from 

 time to time — that they were not planted untU they were 

 in full bloom, and yet that he gathered 40 dozen of Peaches 

 from that house the fii-st season. This led on to the subject 

 of orchai-d-houses ; and I may just mention that Mr. Jones, 

 who is a " thorougMy practical man," stated that he had 

 carefully examined the subject, both on the score of economy 

 and efficiency. He had determined to suggest to his em- 

 ployer the propriety of building a regular Peach-house in 

 preference to an orchard-house, and that he had heard or 

 seen nothing since to cause him to regret his determination. 

 Grapes were, as might be supposed, excellent ; and Spary's 

 fumigator has been found to be of great service in prevent- 

 ing the progress of mildew — in fact, far superior to anything 

 else. The very simple manner in w'nich the pulling up and 

 down of the sashes was managed struck me very forcibly — 

 so much so that I have obtained a sketch of it. which I 

 hope wUl shortly appear in The Joup-nal of Horticultuhe. 

 StrawbeiTies are gi-own extensively, and the soil siuts 

 them well. British Queens were stUl in bearing, while 

 Keens' Seedli:;g was just coming in. As forcing is exten- 

 sively practised, the plan here is to use a large number of 

 plants for this jjiii-pose, and when they have finished to turn 

 them out in a carefully jjrepared quarter, to attend to them 

 regularly in the matter of watering, &c., and to look con- 

 fidently for the result : a good crop of Strawbenies coming 

 in immediately after the British Queens are over, and last- 

 ing on throughout -August, thus efl'ectiag what none of the 

 so-called late Strawberries do — a prolongation of the ft^iit- 

 ing season. I dare say this may be a very ordinary method 

 of procedure ; but it was new to me, at any rate upon such 

 a scale as practised here. 



On the walls was, of course, to be found .an immense 

 quantity of fruit, although some of the trees were very old 

 and exliibited e\'ident symptoms of decay, some of the Pear 

 trees bearing the mark of 1803 on them. Nor were humbler 

 fruits neglected. There is an immense collection of Goose- 

 ben-ies comprising 130 sorts, many of them good, others 

 having only their size to recommend them, and others abso- 

 lutely worthless ; while a bod of Cr.anberries, a fruit little 

 known or appreciated in this counti-y, fm-nishes .an ample 

 supply of a vei-y nice ingredient for tarts, &c. The bed is 

 30 feet wide, and was in fuU vigour. I must not forget to 

 mention a Fig tree in a house. It is of the Nerii variety, 

 and is believed to be one of the oldest of the kind in Eng- 

 land. From it last year Mr. Jones gathered 5000 fr-uit in 

 September, and the last sent in was on Januai-y 7th. 



Vegetables are cultivated on the same extensive scale as 

 fruit, and present as striking features. Thus Dwarf Kidney 

 Beans are obtainable every day in the year. They .are sown, 

 not in i)ots, but in pits, precisely as in the open ground; 

 and a succession is sown every three weeks untU the out-of- 

 door crop can be iised. Peas were liere, as in most other 

 places, sufl'oring fi-om mUdew ; but one sort partioulaa-ly 

 struck me, and Mr. Jones stated it to be one of the best 

 Peas grown. It is called Cai-penter's Express. A crop was 

 sown on November 20, and was gathered from on May 7. 

 Then, again. Cucumbers were excellently managed. They 

 had been in bearing since the 7th of Januaiy ; and Mi\ 

 Jones was now cutting back some of the plants -irith stems 



