January 4, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBXICULTURB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



15 



moving up and down the liver ; and much of WeBtminster 

 proper was garden gronud Rttaclied to hon6e3 down to Stuart 

 times ; not to speak of tlia SpriiJB Gardeua, open to thepnblic, 

 and the wel!-!aid-out rardens of Whitehall Palace, though then 

 St. James's Park was wood and Bwamp. Rfminiecences of 

 the past remain in anch names as " Gardeners' Row," in Vine 

 Street — for Westmineter once had some choice Vines — and in 

 Orchard Street, supposed to mark the situation of the old 

 orchard belonging to tho monastery. (The name "orchard," 

 however, may be misleading in a London locality, thus Orchard 

 Street, Portman Square, and is really derived from an estate in 

 Somersetshire). One ppeculates as one walks. Where was the 

 garden belonging to Mrs. Cope, the plants from which were 

 bongbt by the Apothecaries' Company inlGTO, and removed to 

 their Chelsea e^tablifhment ? Was she a pionetr nurseryman — 

 nnrsery-womsn I should say :' Vain it is also to seek for traces 

 of Switzer, whose name bespeaks his foreign extraction, and 

 who advertised that he might be seen at the " Sign of the 

 Flower-pot over against the Court of Common Pleas," and at 

 his gardens on Millbank. He was a man of some impoitanee, 

 at least, in his circle of friends, the author of " louographia 

 Bnstioa," and designed various gardens in England and 

 Ireland. 



Of the other ocenpants of garden gronud at Millbank during 

 the eighteenth century there is nothing of importance asoer- 

 tainable, bat soon after George III. came to the throne they 

 began to give place to houses and factories, and a huge prison 

 or house of corrtction was erected on one plot cloee to the 

 liver. A view of Westminster, taken from Millbank in 1807 

 for publication in " Smith's Antiquities" of that place, is taken 

 from a wood yard, and b;;tween this and the streets surround- 

 ing the Abbey is shown a patch of garden ground on whic'a 

 men and women are gsthering produce. I surmise this is in- 

 tended to represent a market garden, probably occupying a 

 portion of the land onco attached to the old mansion called 

 Peterborough House. In thrd nussvonry locality, the Horse- 

 ferry Boad, there waa a market garden at the commencement 

 of the present century, where there is now a gas factory, this 

 garden being agreeably shaded with rows of Poplars and Elms ; 

 and at an earlier date still, being a place of popular resort for 

 tea-drinking and the like, not far distant from that remarkable 

 district "Palmer's Village," which served to furnish some 

 years ago a sensational article descriptive of a Westminster 

 slum. An old resident remembers a Email market garden 

 which would be on the line, I suppose, of the modern Victoria 

 Street ; for after Millbank was built on there was much open 

 ground at Pimlioo, where Mr. Elliot the brewer had an en- 

 closed space which was actually called a park. 



And here, before we proceed further in our exploration of 

 the Pimlico district, let me rfmind the reader that the iirst 

 nnrserymau in Piuilico was King James I. He had an idea 

 that tho culture of silk could bo made highly profitable in 

 England, so he obtained from the continent many thousands 

 of youD;.' Mulberry treec, and in 1609 spent about a thousand 

 pounds in planting a nursery of Mulberry trees at Pimlico, on 

 the site of Buckingham Palace or its grounds. He also distri- 

 buted Mulberry plants in various districts of England, and it 

 would appear that at this Pimlioo establishment, which was 

 Oilled the '-Mulberry Garden," the experiment had a measure of 

 success. We have no weather registers of so old a date as the 

 Stuart period; but some think that as the average Euglijh 

 winter was far colder then than it is now, the summers were 

 warmer and more equable, allowing under certain conditions 

 of the breeding of tilkworms in the open air. Charles I. in 

 1629 frranted by letters patent to Lord Aston the custody of 

 " the gar.leus, Mulberry tree?, and silkworms near St. James's," 

 for his own and his son's life ; the Civil War and its troubles 

 probably put an end to this little arrangement. Are there now 

 any descendants of those Mulberries surviving ? Pimlico was 

 open enough in that day ; and long subsequently its common, 

 locally known aa the " Five Fields," and to which reference has 

 been made in a previoun paper, was partially cultivated by 

 Chelsea maiket gardenerti, though more of the garden land lay 

 in the vicinity of the Neat hcuses. Many living in tho neigh- 

 bourhood can rememlier when nearly all South Belgravia was 

 fields ; and as a proof how sparingly the houses wore scattered 

 in this mighbourhood and in tho opposite districts of Surrey, 

 an old gentleman has been heard to relate how he had, when 

 out for a mor&ing walk, stood on a hill at Norwood and seen 

 by a glass his children playing in his garden at Pimlioo. There 

 are traditions, to", of nightingales having been heard singing 

 in Bhrubberies at Kaightsbiicgs. 



I But the story of the Neat houses, so far as the horticultural 

 history of the locality i^ coueerced, goes back to Strype's time, 

 whose entry on the matter is as follows : — "These houtes are 

 seated on tbe banks of the Thame?, and inhabited by gardeners, 

 the place beirg of note for the supplying London and West- 

 mini-ter markets with Asparagirs, Aitichokes, Cauliflowers, 

 MuskmelouB, and the like useful thifgs, which hy reason of 

 their keeping the ground so rich by dunging it, doth make 

 their crops very forward to their great profit." The dwellings, 

 however, did not receive their appellation from their neatness 

 or elegance, but because they stood on a part of tho manor of 

 Neyte or Neate, belonging to the Abbey lauds.* And a later 

 chrotieler remarks that this land, originally under water, was 

 kept in high fertility by quantities of stable dung to the amount 

 of sixty cartloads an acre. Liquorico is also stated to have 

 been grown here to some extent. When Lyeons wrote towards 

 the close of the century, market gardening was already on the 

 decline in this district, from, as I should conjecture, an increase 

 of market gardeners in more favourable spots. But the state- 

 ment must surely be erroneous that there was ever as much as 

 two hundred acres of laud under cultivation, even if Millbank 

 be joined with the Neat district. 



When the last market gardener withdrew from South Bel- 

 gravia I am unable to say positively, but I believe there were BtUl 

 a few fields there in 1849 and 1850. An entomologist formerly 

 resident in Belgrave Place has told me how be obtained cater- 

 pillars of the common white butterflies, for the sake of breed- 

 ing varieties, from the gardeners across the Grosvenor Canal 

 opposite his house ; this would have been about the year 1840. 

 An old house called the White House, once frequented by 

 anglers, overlooking the Thames, long since removed, has been 

 conjectured to mark the position of some one of the Neat 

 houses, but this is doubtful. The ground acquired by Lord 

 Ranolagh when he built his mansion in 1690, end called in 

 old maps " Thames Shot" and "Arnold's Mead," amounting 

 altogether to more than twenty acres, was adjoining or belong- 

 ing to the Neat estate. " Ebury " is a familiar name in 

 Pimlico to this hour — a reminiscence of an old manor called 

 Ejbury, from its watery character, ere the land was under 

 drainage; it is needful, however, to show that " Avery," also 

 occurring here, is no corruption of the former name, but de- 

 scends from the Avery family, who for generations had a farm 

 in Pimlico. Avery Farm was afterwards subdivic'ed into two 

 or thiee market gardens. Where St. Barnabas College now 

 ttands was, at the close of last century, the Orange Tavern 

 and Tea-gardens, and when that establishment failed the ground 

 was still used to produce vegetables for the market. Neiir this 

 spot was the garden belonging to Mr. Dennis, who removed to 

 the King's Road, Chelsea, near Cremorne, some thirty years 

 ago, I think. He was a nurseryman as well as a market gar- 

 dener, and his name is associated with one or two novelties. 



The departure of the nursery which once occupied the centre 

 of a small square in Pimlico, called Ebury Square, was the 

 final knell of the nurseries in the district : this took place 

 about 18G9. The last occupier, I believe, was namid Prior; 

 before him Mr. Larkham, and his predecessor Mr. Brown, 

 carries the history back as far as I can trace it. Possibly be- 

 fore the square was built the garden ground was more exten- 

 sive. — C. 



OUR BOBDER FLOWERS-GUNNEBAS. 



Plants, like old robes, are liable either to bo cast to on© 

 fide, or stored away for nee at another and more convenient 

 time. The world is being sought through lor novelties in the 

 way of plants, but it is astonishing how socu a new intro- 

 duction loses its attractions and is counted as " old." Now 

 that now places are springing up on every side many old 

 plants are also being sought after, and when found they tecure 

 favour. But it must 1 o remembered that border flowers re- 

 quire looking after, or many of them may take their departure 

 without giving us any warning. 



The family of Gunner!\ is small. G. perpensa is figured 

 in the " Botanical Magazine," 2376, and is said to have been 

 introduced in 1688, but I fear that it is smoug the plants 

 of the past. It is a native of the Cape of Godd Hope, 

 yet we have Fome among us of more recent introduction. 

 From South Brazil we have Gunuera manieata, having leaves 

 which with a little support might afford our youngsters a 

 useful fchado in the shape of a parasol. G. tcabra is perhaps 



