ise 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 22, 1867. 



m the ordinary way, by boiling it with sagar. It forms a 

 rich prCBerve of a novel character, and its kernels contribnte 

 to it a fine almond flavour. He has also dried the Iruit and 

 oeed it in the same way as grocers' Currants. 



RAMBLES IN CO^VDR^IY PARK. 



As well as being a most charming spot, few places in this 

 country are considered more beneincial to health than that 

 part of Sussex in and near Midhurst. The eastern suburbs of 

 this rural town connect it with the domain of Cowdray, one of 

 the residences of the Earl of Egmont. It is bounded on the 

 south by the South Downs, which here run inland, and almost 

 join the Surrey hills ; thus placing the district, as it were, in 

 the centre of a basin made by the curvature of the hills that 

 surround it. 



Three centuries have nearly passed away since the existence 

 of Sir William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, in whose 

 days was raised a stately edifice, now an irretrievable ruin, on 

 the borders of the extensive piece of ground which he had pre- 

 viously obtained a royal license to enclose and name Cowdray 

 Park. I After the death of this nobleman it became the property 

 of the Viscount Montagne, and it is with the events relative to 

 this family that interest is awakened in the history of the place. 

 Although his lordship was a staunch Roman Catholic, yet his 

 fidelity to Queen Elizabeth was not impaired by his religion ; 

 for history tells us that, in 1591, she stayed five days at Cow- 

 dray on a visit to Lord Montague, who had attended her at 

 West Tilbury with two hundred horsemen. 



In one of the " close walks " a round open spot is preserved, 

 which, we are told, is where the Queen once dined in a summer- 

 house overshadowed by Yews, which here flourish in great 

 luxuriance and beauty. 



About a mile from this spot another relic of the past may be 

 seen. It is " Queen Elizabeth's Oak," traditionally said to be 

 that under which Her Majesty stood, and brought down with a 

 crossbow several deer that were driven past her. This lordly 

 tree has now a most picturesque appearance, and carries its 

 trunk to a great height, where it sends forth its huge majestic 

 branches far and wide in the air : at 4 feet from the ground 

 the trunk measures 36 feet in circumference.* 



The descendants of Lord Montague appear to have adhered 

 to the religion of their ancestors until the seventh of the line, 

 who became a Protestant. He enlarged and improved the park, 

 and we are told that a magnificent clump of Chestnuts close to 

 the town was planted by him. 



The fate of his son and successor, the last Lord Montagne, 

 will never lose hold upon the mind of those who are told the 

 story. In the summer of 1793 he left England on a continental 

 tour, and on arriving at the famous falls of Schaffhansen, in 

 Switzerland, made a rash attempt to navigate the cataracts in 

 a flat-bottomed boat, and was drowned. Before the melan- 

 choly news reached England his ancestral home was laid in 

 ruins by fire, and the splendid paintings and the beautiful 

 statues, together with the curious antique fittings and furni- 

 ture, besides other valuables which had adorned the walls for 

 ages, were no more seen ; in fact, everything was destroyed, 

 with the exception of a few relics, which are of but little value, 

 and are now preserved at the gardener's house. Tracings of 

 the paintings may be seen even to this day, and the windows 

 of the hall and chapel are nearly entire ; also, inside of the 

 quadrangle lies a piece of the carving in wood which belonged 

 to the "Buck Hall," and the entrance gateway is adorned 

 with the arms of Sir Anthony Browne, favourite of Henry VIII., 

 and Standard-bearer of England. 



The estate of Cowdray now devolved upon Lord Montague's 

 sister, and this lady became the wife of W. S. Poyntz, Esq., 

 who, about a mile from the ruins, built a cottage ornfie, and 

 called the same Cowdray Lodge, which, though not possessing 

 any features of architectural interest, is a comfortable and 

 commodious house. There is now a fine Camellia trained 

 against the front, and it frequently bears upwards of a thousand 

 flowers. 



After the death of Mr. and Lady Poyntz, this house was sold, 

 in 1843, with the demesne, to the Earl of Egmont, the present 

 owner of the estate. Although the original license to impark 

 gave the limit of six hundred acres, I believe its present size 



• In one of Mr. Murray's handbooks, recently written for the nge of 

 travelleTS in Torkehire, I find that the famous " Cowthorpe " Oak is 

 S6 feet 8 inches in girth, consequently only 3 inches more than " Queen 

 SUzabeth'B." 



to be abont eight hundred acres, and that there is nearly the 

 same number of deer kept here. 



Anthony, the eighth Viscount Montague, employed the cele- 

 brated "Capability Brown" to reconstruct the landscape, but 

 under the auspices of Mr. Gilpin subsequent alterations have 

 been made more in accordance with the natural scenery, and, 

 consequently, in purer taste. 



The fruit and kitchen gardens lie at the south end of the 

 mansion. They are not very extensive, but well planned, and 

 in the best of situations, consisting of 3i acres of gently slop- 

 ing ground, commanding a southern aspect. The walls which 

 enclose these gardens are 11 feet high, and are of great thick- 

 ness. The many fruit trees of various kinds trained against 

 them are in excellent condition, and are this season bearing 

 an abundance of fruit. The fruit also appears to be earlier 

 here than in many other gardens, and this fact coincides with 

 what Mr. Spring informed me with regard to his being pro- 

 vided with ripe fruit from eight to ten days sooner than his 

 neighbours. The reason, I suppose, is the sheltered situation 

 of the gardens. 



In the middle of the kitchen garden is another wall uncon- 

 nected with the walls that surround the gardens. It is 300 feet 

 in length, and is covered on both sides with fine fruit trees. 

 Should the suggestion be ever approved of, an excellent range 

 of vineries might be erected against this wall. No situation 

 here could be better, and this would be the starting of the first 

 noble glass structure at Cowdray gardens, for it is only just to 

 say, that at present this beautiful place is without anything of 

 the kind. 



On the east side of Lord Egmont's cottage is a cleared space 

 of ground of many acres. Here and there stand apart rem- 

 nants of an ancient forest which has long since yielded to the 

 demands of the British Navy, and the felling of these monarehs 

 of the forest in the different parts of the park, has opened up 

 the avenues and "close walks" of Cowdray, which are dis- 

 tinctly seen at a great distance ; indeed, it has much improved 

 the scenery of the park, which it is said surpasses anything of 

 the kind that can be found at Goodwood, Arundel, or any place 

 for miles around. 



Then there are walks bordered with Ehododendrons 15 or 

 20 feet high, and rich with Ferns and Feather-grass ; these 

 wind in every direction, now touching on the park above, now 

 leading to the brook below which divides this part from the 

 meadows, through which flows the Bother, and from the neigh- 

 bouring corn fields. 



In the private walks that lead from the ruins to the gardens, 

 half a mile or more in length, the foliage is of a different 

 character, less grand and massive, but more sylvan, light and 

 elegant boughs interlacing in every direction, and the Ught 

 struggling down in broken patches through their feathery 

 foliage, or some distant vista. In an article recently written 

 on " Our Native Trees," the author says, that " When we look, 

 for beautiful landscape, we look for wood and water ; they are 

 necessary in our conception of natural beauty." And surely 

 they are here in rare perfection, for the scene is one of ex- 

 treme rural lovehness. The whole park is belted in by these 

 extensive avenues and " close walks." 



At the Easebourne gate, two of the splendid avenues meet, 

 one long one of Limes, which diverges towards the Midhnrst 

 gate, and the other, nearly a mile in length, of Spanish Chest- 

 nut trees, of noble size, which extends to a wicket gate that 

 leads from the park into the village of Easebourne. The fruit 

 of the magnificent Chestnuts is given to the poor of the neigh- 

 bourhood, and it is no slight boon, as many as would produce 

 £7 or £S having been gathered from one tree, and there are 

 many hundreds of them. It is said that four hundred bushels 

 of fruit have been gathered from the other trees with which 

 the park abounds, but these are sent to the Loudon market. 

 Close to this avenue is a Beech tree, the stem of which measures 

 22 feet in circumference. I have no doubt that some of your 

 readers have a partiality for famous trees ; I therefore subjoin 

 the measurements of a few of those the park contains, and 

 which, perhaps, have resisted the storms and tempests of a 

 thousand years. All the trees mentioned below were measured 

 at 4 feet from the ground. 



Leaving the avenues for the present, and crossing the brow 

 of the hill, which was once the Easebourne racecourse, three 

 pollard Oaks are visible on the high ground in the distance ; 

 these are called " The Milkmaid's Oaks." Their stems mea- 

 sure respectively 18J, 22, and 23 J feet in circumference. Con- 

 tinuing the walk by the clump of Yew trees on the right, we 

 presently And ourselves on the verge of a valley, which is the 



