372 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



foliago is ample, ovate lanceolate, acuminate, and of a beautiful 

 deep, glo3sy green; the flowers are large, exactly imbrioated, 

 and of a vivid carmine crimson, becoming shaded with rose at 

 the margin. It is a most valuable vaiiety for general culti- 

 vation — 'not yet well enough known, nor widely enough dis- 

 tributed." — (Florist and Pomolngist, 3 £., iii. 97.) 



RAMBLES IN KENTISH ORCHARDS. 



CRITTENDEN'S PROLIFIC DASISON. 

 DunisG one of those fine, sunny inorninga. so frequent towards the 

 end of April, I took a Bhort stroll, accompanied by a friend, amongst 

 (lie orchards which abound on the banks of the Medway. Shaping 

 our course from this place, Linton, a few minutes' walk' brought ns 

 into a district where straight, neat hedjes, and square or oblong 

 enclosures, showed that they had had their origin at some not-far" 

 distant period. The great impulse given to agriculture from 1814 to 

 lt!20 led to many wastes being enclosed, and the smiling district we 

 traversed was, previous to that period, a dry, upland moor, in which 

 G-orsc and a wiry kind of grass formed the principal vegetation, broken 

 in places by gravel pits and the like. 



This elevated region, although still retaining the name it had during 

 the last and preceding centuries, now bears no resemblance to what 

 that name implies, as the last fifty years have effected a wonderful 

 change. Still it is termed Coxheath, the same as of yore, and old 

 People point out to the traveller the spot where such and such a tout 

 stood, occupied by some officer connected with that armv of observa- 

 tion which was encamped there for some months to repel the threatened 

 French invasion in 1806, and I believe also on another occasion, when 

 18,000 men or more were assembled. Fortunately the time ns well 

 as the site is altered since then, and the Coxheath of the present day, 

 instead of witnessing an array of armed men, vies with any district of 

 similar extent in cultivating the arts of husbandry and horticulture. 

 The once-unpromising waste, which even in its tilled condition has au 

 uninviting appearance to the farmer fresh from the rich plains of Lin- 

 colnshire or Oxfordshire, is, nevertheless, adapted for some crops of 

 much importance, and I question if either of these counties, or those 

 adjoining them, possess better quickset hedges than ere to be fouud on 

 Coxheath. It is no unusual boast of the occupiers of land in this 

 district to affirm that a hare oonld not get out of many of their fields 

 excepting at the gate, the fences being simply quickset, planted in the 

 ■evelground, without either mound or ditch. Trees of certain lands 

 also do well, and some bush fruits ; but, on the whole, the land is not 

 adapted for grass, nor are the Wheat and Baricy so good as we find in 

 many places. There are, however, many thriving orchards of mixed 

 fruits, Hop plantations, now and then plots of Chestnut coppice to 

 furnish poles for the Hops, and I believe there are plenty of iu.tancea 

 where coppices of this description of ten years' growth have sold for 

 1)40 per acre and upwards, the buyer cutting it and doing everything 

 needful. More has often been given, but the importation of Hop 

 poles from Scotland and other parts of late years has kept prices 

 down. 



As our journey was to extend further than Coxheath, which at the 

 place we cross it is not a mile wide, it is easy to discover where its 

 former boundaries were, by the crooked fences and lanes, and the 

 hedges, especially those by the sides of the roads, being often composed 

 of many kinds of buBh wood, besides quickset. This mixed kind 

 of hedge is more frequent by the sides of the lanes than in the in- 

 terior. , As the lanes are very narrow (the land on one side often not 

 Iwslonging to the samo proprietor as that on the other), and as the 

 increased value of land induces each proprietor to scrupulously guard 

 ocery inch of his holding, there is an unwillingness to do away with 

 some of these old fences, because the law would compel the landowner 

 to set a new oue a little further back where the road is narrow. How- 

 ever, all is done that can be done to render them as little cumbersome 

 as possible, as they are invariably trimmed and kept low even where 

 they bound a piece of coppice and form part of it. The admirer of 

 landscape scenery prefers these tortuous lanes aud fences ; the former 

 especially, bringing out fresh views at each turning, as in the 

 parish we havo now entered, East Farleigh. FirBt, a piece of serpen- 

 tine road is bounded on one side by a Hop garden, where it will be 

 perceived that however much the direction of the road set squares and 

 straight lines at defiance, the Hops are, at least, adjusted in straight 

 lines, while the hedge that separates them from the adjoining field" is 

 equally faultless in the direction it points to ; and although it may be 

 a formidable fenco in its way, capable of keeping out cattle, and eveu 

 tbe majority of hunters, it does not take up more crround than a 

 brick wall, as a aeatl-y trimmed hedge is eenerallv under a foot in 

 thickness. On the other side of the lane is, perhaps, an orchard 

 planted with as great accuracy as the Hops, and containing standard 

 Apple, Pear, and Plum trees, 20 feet or more apart, with Cobs or 

 Filbert bushes underneath ; the latter pruned with a severity that few 

 truits excepting the Vine have to submit to. 



But our object is further on, aud as each fresh turn brings us in con- 

 tact with fresh features, wo first pause and have a peep at a peaceful 

 cottage nestling behind soma patriarchal fruit trees', the space between 

 i r - and the road being ocenpied by the cottage garden, every inch of which 

 is cropped, aud if we intrude upon tbe premises we shall find that the 

 space at the back is scrupulously made use of for purposes equally 



serviceable to the cottager. First, j«rhape, there may be a heap of 

 faggots, and leaning against them may be a few worn-out Hop poles 

 purchased from the dweller's employer; next a piggery, then some 

 small shed of humble pretensions perhaps shelters the cottager's took ; 

 while in an appropriate corner a hole 3 or 4 feet deep and as much in 

 width receives all the refuse of the cottage and garden, aud is fre- 

 quently cleaned out and its contents dug into the garden. This cess- 

 pool proper is one of the most essential things in a cottage garden, aud 

 ought to be as far away from the back door as possible ; but its 

 existence is a necessity, whatever the opinion of those who lecture on 

 sanitary measures may be. A place of some kind for slops must 

 exist, and where these slops can be turned to useful account so much 

 the better ; and there are many cottagers who know as well as a Liebig 

 or a Playfair, how to take advantage of them. Retracing our step3 

 we simply catch a glimpse of a healthy Morello Cherry, occupying the 

 gable end of the building, which we are told is more profitable than 

 any other tree in the garden, and passing along the front path find the 

 little flower border that margins it contains Borne old favourite plant 

 long discarded from more fashionable quarters, but now auxiously 

 sought for again. Avoiding a salute from the newly-washed clothes 

 that hang on a line by the side of the path, w6 at length reach the 

 outer gate escorted thither by two or three pairs of little feet and as 

 many ruddy faces, and we take another look at the peaceful abode, 

 aud leave the pliilosopher and politician to consider for how much of 

 our country's greatness we are indebted to scenes like this. 



Our guide suddenly takes us through a gate into a footpath, which 

 for a time proceeds by the side of a Hop garden, then takes a diagonal 

 course through it, and we have a clear insight into the mode of culti- 

 vatiug that important plant. But for the present we only notice the 

 footjiataas being a good oue, although merely composed of the ordinary 

 earth and Btones on the spot, but it is slightly raised, and a neat little 

 ditch or furrow made by hand at each side of it keeps it dry. Not a 

 weed is to be seen, and a remark to that effect evokes a reply from 

 our guide, himself the tenant farmer cf upwards of one hundred acres, 

 that he did not believe the most careful collector could find a peck of 

 weeds on his whole farm. The next garden is one of Hops and fruit 

 mixed, Red Currants being planted alternately with the Hops, and the 

 occupier busily engaged amongst them. Passing on through another 

 similar plantation all frait, we are ltd to remark, What a treat it 

 would be to many schoolboys to have a journey through this orchard 

 when its produce was ripe ! but as such fruits are plentiful in the 

 neighbour-hood but little 103S is experienced. Cobruts and Filberts 

 suffer most. 



We again join the lane, and the ring of the bricklayer's trowel 

 reaches the ear, and through some trees we see scaffolding and other 

 tokens of alterations going on at a building erected many years anterior 

 to the Hanoverian succession. The structure we see is the almshouses, 

 which some benevolent individual had erected for a certain number of 

 occupanta in decayed circumstances — six, I believe, and by a tablet in 

 the church a certain yearly allowance is charged for ever on lands for 

 the maintenance of the inmates. A wealthy parishioner has under- 

 taken the task of putting these dwellir-gs in thorough repair. Other 

 dwellings meet the eye at very 6hort distances apart — first, perhaps, 

 a small farmhouse, timber-built, with quaintly carved gables, and the 

 upper storey overhanging the lower one, with lead-casemented windows, 

 and but little altered from what it wa3 a century and a half ago ; while 

 in the next house antiquity has given place to the innovations of 

 tbo day. Further on we come to a modern villa built of Kentish rag 

 with dark-coloured mortar, and which would excite the envy of the 

 wealthy resident of many an expensive villa in the suburbs of large 

 manufacturing towns, where there are only such variations 'as brick 

 aud Bath stoue can give. Here a closely 6haven lawn intervenes 

 between the roadway and the dwelling, and is adorned with choice 

 shrubs. Further on is some uneven ground, but even there the steepest 

 portions are made profitable aa coppice — Hazel, Ash, Maple, in fact, 

 everything useful being planted ; while, on looking over the hedge, a like 

 careful mode of turning every inch to account is seen in the arable 

 fields. The hedges, if of recent growth, are kept clear from weeds to 

 tbe collar, so that the seeds do not ripen there and scatter over the 

 land. Distant views are also here ami there obtained of the country 

 beyond, but the great extent of orchard and eorpices with some 

 timber trees, prevents much of the surface of the ground being seen, 

 but the inequalities and the open spaces on the opposite bank of the 

 Medway give the whole a richness not often met with ; and as, at the 

 timo of our visit, the end of April, these orchards were teeming with 

 blossom, their appearance could not but excite unmixed admiration. 

 The masses of Plum, Cherry, and Pear blossom were just in their 

 prime, and the Apple blossom was just coming on ; and as each orchard 

 differed in some degree from that adjoining it either in the age of tho 

 trees or in some other feature, there was a pleasing diversity. There 

 were, however, but few very old fruit-bearing trees, excepting now and 

 then au old favourite which might be seen in some paddock adjoining 

 the homestead. But as we are traversing a country where utility is 

 as much tjie order of the day, and perhaps more so than in the best 

 farming districts of the kingdom, where even hedges are almost denied 

 an existence, I need hardly say that an orchard is retained no longer 

 thnn it is profitable to do so, and the occupier of it is generally a 

 Bufucient judge when that time has expired. 



My special object in visiting this district was to see au old and 

 esteemed friend, whose residence in East Farleigh dates further back 



