June 16, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



ADMITTING GARDENERS and OTHER VISITORS 

 TO GENTLEMEN'S GARDENS. 



AM in receipt of " The Horticultural Di- 

 rectory," which is a very useful publication. 

 I think Elvaston Castle, Derbj'shire, ought 

 to be excluded from that Directory, as Lord 

 Harrington allows no one to see it. I went 

 a short time sinca with a leading gardener 

 of this neighbourhood, and although we met 

 with Mr. Brown, the gardener, we were re- 

 fused admission. I have visited the principal 

 gardens in England and Scotland, and was 

 never before refused admission. — John Pearson, Range- 

 more Gardens, Burton-on-Trent. 



[We feel very strongly upon this subject, for we hold it 

 to be a duty to admit gardeners; such admission is one 

 of the best sources of improvement. Restrictions and set 

 days for the public are not objectionable, but gardeners 

 should be admitted whenever able to call. Having this 

 conviction, but wishing to know the opinion upon it of a 

 gardener of sound judgment, we sent the letter to Mr. R. 

 Fish, and we now publish his commentary. — Eds.] 



I wish the subject had been broached when the evenings 

 are long, so that I should have had time to arrange my 

 thoughts, instead of throwing them down pell-mell in the 

 few minutes that can be spared at this busy season. 



First, then, as to the desirability of gardeners visiting 

 other gardens there can be no question. I know of nothing 

 so calculated to take self-conceit and narrowmindedness 

 out of a man, to give him fresh and new ideas, as seeing 

 what other gardeners are doing. Owing to circumstances 

 I have visited little of late, but if spared in health I mean 

 to visit more ; and although I can join Mr. Pearson in 

 saying I have seen some of the best places in the three 

 kingdoms, I can conscientiously add that I have rarely 

 turned into a garden, even if there was only a man and a 

 boy, or a man only, but I have left with a sense of having 

 gained something. It was no mere burst of enthusiasm, 

 then, that led me years ago to urge on employers, even in 

 their own interests, not only to give their gardeners reason- 

 able time to visit some of the best places, but also to pay 

 their expenses. Many a man must stay at home because 

 he cannot aiford to go much out, and also because, for a 

 similar reason, of which more anon, he cannot afford to 

 receive so many visitors as he would wish to do. In the 

 interests, then, of gardeners and employers alike, and more 

 especially of the latter, I hold it to be a matter fully esta- 

 blished that a gardener should see some of the best gardens 

 and the results of cultural skill in shows, &c, every year. 

 The " stick-at-home " may be slightly better than " the 

 ever-out;" but if an employer suffers in the latter case 

 from things being neglected, he will be sure to suffer in 

 the former from self-satisfaction and want of emulation. 

 A moderate use of visiting will be beneficial to employer 

 and employed. 



But, again, if there are proprietors of fine gardens who 

 resolve to keep their places for the gratification of their 



No. 181.— Vol. XVTJtl., New Series. 



own eyes alone, what are you to do, what can you do, with 

 them ? Would it be of any use to keep such places out of 

 the " Directory ? " Would it not be better to write against 

 them, "Not to be seen'.'" Perhaps it would be quite as 

 well to do nothing at all. We all know that property has 

 its duties as well as its rights, but there is also something 

 in a man being able to do " what he likes with his own." 

 It seems very difficult for some minds to comprehend the 

 simple fact, that narrowmindedness and exclusiveness ever 

 bring their own punishment. When I have looked on 

 beautiful suburban gardens, with nothing but an open 

 fence to keep them from the roadway, I have felt a thank- 

 ful sympathy with the proprietors, because I knew that 

 they enjoyed the beauties in front of their windows all the 

 more from knowing that every passer- by was free to ad- 

 mire and enjoy them too, and by " right of eye " to make 

 them, as it were, his own. When I have come to similar 

 enclosures walled-in, and even the gate boarded so that no 

 passing peep could be obtained, most other feelings became 

 merged in that of pity that the owner so resolutely de- 

 prived himself of that happiness which can only be realised 

 when based upon and co- existent with the happiness and 

 pleasure of others. 



As to specifying the places where access is freely given 

 to gardeners, I should only be enumerating the Trenthams, 

 the Chatsworths, the Envilles, the Bictons, the Dalkeiths, 

 multiplied in less places by thousands, where gardeners 

 may freely go on appointed days on notice given, or at any 

 time without notice at all. I was under the impression 

 that Elvaston was open to visitors on certain days for 

 many years past. It is rather singular that it is the only 

 place to which a courteous denial of admission was given, 

 as I got no farther than the gardener's office. This was 

 many years ago, and as I had walked across the country 

 from between Stafford and Rugeley — a long tramp too — I 

 recollect of expressing myself in Loudon's " Gardener's 

 Magazine" somewhat to the effect, that it would be de- 

 sirable that the places from which gardeners were excluded 

 should be named, so that a long journey might not go for 

 nothing. In only one other instance did I get anything 

 but a courteous refusal — attention to business was assigned 

 as a reason why no attention could be given to visitors. 

 In every other instance of visiting a place I have met with 

 the greatest courtesy, in a great many cases with the 

 greatest kindness. 



It has not escaped my observation that, though more 

 gentlemen are opening their grounds to the public on 

 certain days and under certain regulations, that others 

 are curtailing or withdrawing the privilege, and that 

 though as a general rule gardeners are admitted, there is 

 in many cases less of heartiness and open straightforward- 

 ness in the matter than there used to be. 



In the first place, as respects the public, many of such 

 changes are owing to the proprietors getting tired of the mere 

 bustle of crowds of visitors. Something, again, is owing 

 to a few unmanageable folk appearing among the generally- 

 well-conducted public. One gentleman justly observed, 

 that although he opened his grounds, that was no reason 

 why the public should take possession of his house, and 

 No, 1133.— Vol. XLIIL, Old Series. 



