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JOUENAL OF HOETIOULTURE AND OOTTAGR GABDENBB. 



[ April 26, 1877. 



altogether? Not likely. He wonid try again, and so did I; 

 and although I have not been able to prevent gnmming, I 

 have succeeded in checking the baneful eiifeots produced by its 

 bursting through the bark of ita own accord. By a timely 

 enrgieal operation I have cured many a wound, and for three 

 BuccesBive years have had fruit of the best quality by thousands. 



The trees are not long-lived hero, and they probably never 

 will be, owing, I fear, to ciroumBtances over which I have no 

 control. 



I have had considerable experience in the neighbouring 

 county to that in which Mr. Simpson resides, and found Peaoh- 

 growing there a much easier matter than it is here ; but let not 

 Mr. Simpson make me say that Yorkshire is a better cUmate 

 than Wiltshire. What I infer is, that some spots in the f onthern 

 counties are no better than a few favoured ones in the ncrlh 

 of England and some parts of Scotland. — William Taylok. 



IN FLORA'S DOMAIN. 

 Who would not if it were possible dwell for ever in a region 

 so delightful, so full of beauty, so redolent of fragrance, an 

 Flora's domain ? — a kingdom where trouble seems never to 

 enter, where peace and tranquillity should have an endless 

 reign, where all the paths should be strewn with Roses, where 

 we find flowers for every season, for all times ; flowers greeting 

 with smiles the advent of spring ; flowers breathing out sweet 

 essences at the kiss of the summer sun ; flowers interwoven 

 in the golden garlands of autumn, and braving the witheriug 

 frowns of inclement winter. Every season, yea, every month, 

 we may visit Flora's domain and find some swret blossom to 

 interest, some opening bud to observe in its gradual unfolding. 

 " In the cottage of the rudest peasant, 



In anctstral homes, Tvhose crumbling towers, 

 Speaking of the past unto the present. 

 Tell U8 of the ancient games of flowers. 

 " In all places, then, and in all seasons, 

 Flowers expand their lit^-ht and soul-like wings, 

 Teaohing us by most perfiuasive reasons 

 How akin Ihey aro to human things." 

 And the more we study them, the more we cherish them, the 

 more endeared do they bpoome to us. We regard their deve- 

 lopment with somewhat of the afftetion with which we watch 

 the growth of a child ; and as the love of a mother is often 

 greatest for the crippled or sickly offspring whose life is a per- 

 petual source of care and anxiety to her, so do we see the 

 enthusiastic horticulturist tend with the most unremitting 

 pains that plant which least repays his care. 



In Flora's domain many of the sweetest blossoms are almost 

 of spontaneous growth. Once started into life they thrive and 

 bloom under the most adverse circumstances ; but where the 

 surroundings are propitious to their well-being they grow and 

 blossom and form a very bower of beauty, wherein we may 

 dwell and contemplate their charms — aye, and more than 

 their charms, for in language as true as it is beautiful has not 

 the poet told us how akin are flowers to " human things ?" — 

 " Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tisanes. 

 Flaunting gaily in the golden light ; 

 Large desires with most uncertain issues; 

 Tender wishes blossoming at night. 

 " These in flowers and men are more than seeming; 

 Workings aro they of the self-same powers 

 'Which the poet, in no idle dreaminij, 

 Secth in himseif and in the flowers." 



But Flora's domain is not alone a paradise for dreams and 

 reveries. The Sybarite and the idler may enjoy its beauties ; 

 but it requires the industry of the worker and the experience 

 of practice to create a kingdom for the goddess in inauspicious 

 places. Flora's favourites will revel on the mountain side, 

 clothe the valley with loveliness, beautify unfrequented places, 

 " and waste their sweetness on the desert air ;" but they must 

 be wooed to the haunts of men, caressed into beauty, and 

 tended with love and care. It is only thus we can ensure their 

 life, and it should be our aim to surround our homes with as 

 many as possible of the captivating beauties, for their very 

 presence adds a charm to the most sumptuous apartment or 

 sheds a grace which half hides the nakedness of poverty-invaded 

 homes. Flora's domain is wide, and it will be my pleasure to 

 regard it from time to time as it lies before me in the outdoor 

 garden, the conservatory, the greenhouse, in the window, on 

 the balcony, where, even in the two latter limited areas. Flora 

 may be induced to smile in return for kindly attentions lovingly 

 bestowed. During weaiy winter weather, debarred in a great 

 measure from the open garden, wo must solace ourselves with 

 those of Flora's train which blossom under glass. Nor need 



our list be very limited. Science and art have combined, and 

 while the sad-coloured winter sky of English towns hangs over 

 our heads, within our dwellings we may be enjoying the con- 

 templation of tropical magnificence, and inhaling perfumes 

 that waft our thoughts to the gorgeous ielands of southern 

 seas. Into this land of enchantment, whether it be in the 

 open ground in summer or beneath the shelter of a crystal 

 roof during winter, my aim will be to note all that is worthy 

 of remark in the glass palaces or extensive grounds of the 

 wealthy cultivator, in the modest garden plot or window 

 of the wayside cottage, or iu those thousands of suburban 

 homes where individual taste is so often expressed in floral 

 decorations. — T. S. J. 



DODDINQTON HALL, NEAR LINCOLN. 



DoDDiNOTON has a very remote history, but I shall confine 

 my remarks chiefly to the present Hall, the building of which 

 dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century. In 1600 

 the male line of the Burgh family became extinct by the death 

 of Eobert the last Lord Burgh, a child of six years, when the 

 property was dividi-d among his four sisters and co-heiresses. 

 At that time their Gainsborough mansion and estate was sold 

 to the Hickman family, the present representative of which is 

 Sir Hickman Bacon, Bart., of Thonock Hall. The property 

 at Doddington passed into the hands of Thomas Taylor ; at 

 all events he was its owner in March, 1004, when, as Thomas 

 T.iylor of Doddington, alias Doddington Pigott, he appears to 

 have been a citizen of Lincoln, where he, or perhaps his father 

 before him, who bore the same name, had made his fortune. 

 The date of his acquirement of the property, the early part of 

 the seventeenth csntury, fixes the date of the present Hall, 

 of which he was the builder. " Tommy Taylor," as he was 

 familiarly called, is the best remembered of any of the former 

 possessors of Doddington, and stories are still told of his eccen- 

 tricity and penuriousness. He is believed to have buried a 

 treasure somewhere about the place, and no great digging 

 works are carried on without many speculations as to the 

 chance of coming upon " Tommy Taylor's chest;" while his 

 oddity of dress is perpetuated in the local, or rather parochial 

 proverb, " Ono large and one small, like Tommy Taylor's 

 buttons." However, to use another local expression, " he must 

 have had all his buttons on," or he could not have planned 

 and built so fine a house, which has lasted in good preservation 

 for nearly three hundred years, and without doubt is one of 

 the oldest mansions in the county. 



It may be that the treasure he is said to have buried at 

 Doddington is a popular reference to the money he spent in 

 the purchase of what must then have been a half-cultivated 

 and comparatively worthless property, left for his successors 

 to discover by the process of enclosing, plonghing-up, and 

 draining the waste land. The only coin we have heard of 

 that he may actually have dropped is a silver shilling of 

 Queen Elizabeth, which was picked up a few years ago. 

 Thomas Taylor was High Sherifi' of Lincolnshire in 1G20 and 

 died unmarried, leaving as his heir his niece Elizabeth, 

 daughter of his sister .Jane Taylor. She by her marriage 

 with Sir Edward Hussey, Bart, of Honington, brought Dod- 

 dington into possession of that family. Ou the death of 

 Mrs. Apreece, the heiress of the Hussey family, in 174',), the 

 Honington estate descended to her son Thomas Apreece, in 

 possession of whose descendants it continued until very late 

 years. By her will, however, she settled Doddington on her 

 daughter Ehoda Apreece, the wife of Francis Blake Deleval, 

 Ecq., and on their second and other sons in Buccossion. It 

 was thus that Doddington became the property of that great 

 northern family who derived their name and descent through 

 the Norman eettlement in Franoe from the petty kings of Dahl 

 in Norway. Lord Doleval had an only son who long pre- 

 deceased him, dying iu 177o. After his son's death he oat 

 down all the valuable trees at Doddington. At that time there 

 were fine Oaks all over the lordship. Old James Hall, who 

 died in 1S58, aged '.lo, rtoollected cutting down seven very 

 large Elms in front of the Hall ; they were beautiful trees, and 

 the wood quite sound and very red. In consequence of this 

 fflliug the only old trees about the place aro the three Spanish 

 Chtstnuts iu the orchard and the great Holly, the etem being 

 11 feet iu girth, which tree, tradition says, once saved a lady's 

 life, she having jumped into it from the roof of the Hall as 

 the only means of preserving her honour. 



The late George KuoUis Jarvis succeeded to the Doddington 

 estates in 1851. He devoted himself to the diligent perform- 



