October C, 1863. ] 



JOtTENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



275 



bloom, which rather made a blank. This pleasant walk is 

 again crossed by a noble avenue of beautiful Deodars, each 

 plant being as like and as massive as its neighboxirs, looking 

 almost as if a mould had been made to fashion them. These 

 were planted twenty yeai-s ago, and were raised and re- 

 planted in their present regular position twelve years ago. 

 They now stand from bole to bole across the avenue 33 feet 

 apart, and from bole to bole in line 25 feet apart. Not one 

 was injured at Keele in 1861, though hundreds were de- 

 stroyed in the more sheltered valleys, as at Trentham and 

 other places. 



As already noted, the frosts of May had rendered the 

 fruit more scarce than usual; but the appearance of the 

 standai-d and goblet-trained Apple trees, the pyramidal 

 Pear trees, &c., denoted that in a fine season there would 

 be no lack of fruit. Though we only passed a few hours at 

 Keele HaU, we could have spent a day cheerfully in this 

 general repository alone, there was such a thorough blending 

 of the useful with the beautiful. For instance : In one place 

 in front of these trained trees were fine collections of Eoses, 

 half standard and dwarf, grown in beds 4 feet wide, and 



surrounded with Cotoneaster microphyUa edgings, cut 

 6 inches high and 6 inches across; and then in another 

 place were numbers of beds surrounded with Box similarly 

 managed, and containing collections of herbaceous, and the 

 best bedding plants. In one place, we think here, was a 

 fine piece of Calceolaria canariensis, dwarfer in habit and 

 a more soft yellow than Aurea floribunda. The west side 

 of this garden is bounded by a fine HoUy hedge, and a 

 broad grass avenue separates it from a row of Limes which 

 are to be cut and trained to a definite form. At the north- 

 west comer is a beautiful gate, and a broad gravel walk 

 goes from it along the north side of this garden, backed by 

 perhaps the finest Holly hedge in England. This gate was 

 glazed with strong glass, the first gate I had ever seen so 

 treated. I have omitted to state that from the entrance to 

 the stables a fine view is obtained of the conical-headed 

 Wrekin mountain. From this gate a fine panorama of 

 landscape opens up, terminating with the Welsh mountains ; 

 but the currents of wind were frequently so strong that the 

 pleasure of walking was here greatly diminished, and hence, 

 to keep the wind out, and enjoy the views too, the gate 



Fig. 2. 



has been glazed. This fine hedge (fig. 2) is 200 yards long, 

 24 feet in height, slopes back out of the perpendicular to the 

 top fully 6 feet, is about 6 feet wide at the top, and we pre- 

 sume is about 20 feet wide at the bottom. After passing the 

 eastern boundary an evergreen arch across the walk from 

 the hedge forms a very pleasing view. 



Returning eastward still, we come to the bowling-green 

 flower garden, bounded on the west side with a good Yew 

 hedge, and on most other sides with huge masses of noble 

 plants of the crimson and scarlet Rhododendrons, which 

 here escaped the frost of 1861, though destroyed in many 

 lower places. In this garden the beds are in a panel below 

 the walks ; and though aU were fall and good, the magenta 



Verbena alluded to already and the Gazania splendens and 

 Golden Chain Geranium were much above the average. 

 From this garden we wind through masses of Rhododendrons, 

 Hollies, and other evergreens untU we reach a broad terrace 

 walk above the level of the first kitchen garden waU,%nd 

 from which the whole can be seen at a glance ; but if we 

 wish for something more retiring, we have only to step 

 backwards a little to reach the centre of a fine avenue of 

 floiirishing Spanish Chestnuts, though not come to their 

 best, the avenue being 400 yards long, and many of the 

 trees girthing from 13 to 14 feet at 2 feet from the ground. 

 Passing onwards through a rockwork and fernery on a lower 

 level, we reach the mansion ; and if a shade of regret has 



