October 31,1865. 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



359 



Crapelet, Madame Boutin, Madame de Stella. Madame Julie 

 Daran, Maurice Bernardiu, MaK'chal Vaillant, Guufral Jac- 

 queminot, Due do Cii7.es, and Prince Camillc do Rohan. 



The following newer kinds would probably equal many and 

 Burjiass Borne of the foregoing. To list 1 : Princess Ijichsten- 

 stein, as a white variety, seems promi^iing so far as yet proved ; 

 Duchesse de C'aylus, Kushton Radclyffo, Madame Victor Verdier, 

 and Eugene Verdier. Lord Maeaulay is one of the very best 

 crimson scarlet Roses, and rather dwarf and compact in habit. 

 To list 2 Elizabeth Vignerou would be an acquisition, it grows 

 very freely and far sirrpasses Liolia or Louise Peyronny. A 

 bloom of it sent to me by Mr. W. Paul, in September, was 

 really grand in form and colour. Pierre Netting, as a darker 

 crimson than Charles Lefebvro, is also a valuable addition. 

 Beauty of Westerham is very free blooming in autumn and very 

 fragrant, but hardly full enough for exhibition. Recent in- 

 formation on the newer sorts will also readily suggest other ad- 

 ditions. — Adolphus H. Kent, Blcchinglexj, Surroj. 



ON AND ABOUT THE EOCKS AND SANDS 

 OF TENBY.— No. 4. 



Let me gather together, in conclusion, the fragments remain- 

 ing scattered through my note book. 



Is it not Burlchardt who tells of leaning over an autograph 

 on the wall of the Pyramid, and of the memories and thoughts 

 which that autograph summoned forth ? — for it was the haud- 

 ^vritinp of an old and far-off friend. Such memories and such 

 thoughts — some more sad, probably, than Burkhardt's — were 

 mine when I came to a memorial cross beneath the giant rocks 

 of tiiltar Point ; it is on the verge of the sand in Lydstep Bay, 

 and bears this inscription : — 



" To the memory of John Cockburn Thomson, who near this spot was 

 accidentnlly drowned whilst Imthins, May 2Gth, 1860. This stone is 

 raised by his affectiouate sister H. God touched him, and he fell 

 asleep." 



He was no commonly-gifted man. Great were the hopes justly 

 fostered that he would take a high rank in the sacred profes- 

 sion to which he was dedicated, and it is no mere smooth 

 monumental sentence which records of him elsewhere that he 

 was noble, gentle, charitable, and devout. Yet I would not 

 have jotted down this note had he not been the son of one still 

 better known — Dr. Anthony Todd Thomson, one of the earliest 

 lecturers in London on botany. In 1822 he published the tirst, 

 and it is to be regretted that it was also the last, volume of his 

 " Lectures on Botany." They first enunciated much before 

 ■unrecorded relative to the physiology of plants, and deserve 

 especially to be noted as evidence of microscopical research, 

 when the use of the microscope for such a pm'pose had fallen 

 into neglect. All the engravings and woodcuts are from Dr. 

 Thomson's owni drawings, and comprise illustrations of the 

 vessels, glands, pores, forms of leaves, and other parts of plants 

 far exceeding those in any other work known to me. 



I passed on, revisited the wondrous Lydstep caverns, 

 mounted to the summit of the cliffs above them, and pursued 

 my way to Manorbeer. What a quaint old church is there ! 

 arches without shafts, its ribbed vaulting, and the tomb of a 

 De Barri. Who was thus memorialed by this mailed, cross- 

 legged, recumbent figure ? — the s.rmour partly ring and partly 

 plate, the shield emblazoned with the De Barri arms, the foot 

 resting upon a couchant Uon ; but the natives maintain it is a 

 bear, and that the warrior when he attacked the beast shouted, 

 as to the issue of the encounter, " Man or bear,"' and that the 

 place of conflict has retained that as a commemorative name ! 

 How etymologists agree to differ ; some maintain that this 

 locality was named from old British words meaning the Mansion 

 of Pyrrhus (ifaenor Pyrr), whilst others maintain that it is 

 merely a corruption of the words Manor of Bare, as Barry was 

 often spelt ! 



No matter — the district is replete with interest, and foremost 

 among the iiotabilia is the castle. Its ample ruins show that 

 it was of irregular form, surroimded by a high, embattled wall, 

 having no windows outwardly, nor any other openings but 

 such narrow apertiu'es as sei'ved for observation or the dis- 

 charge of missOes. Into the inner court all the windows 

 opened ; and with the same aspect is the not miusual dovecote 

 made by omitting bricks in a chequered arrangement from one 

 cf the walls. It would not harmonise with your purposes to 

 describe the ruins more in detail, but I may add that the park 

 waD, of some extemt, is stiU traceible, and between it aud the 

 ntain road a nanow wooded valley marks where the garden. 



orchard, and vineyard, and Hazels were when (iiraldus wrote 

 some six centuries since, and the little stream trickles on 

 which he mentions, and which sustained the fish-ponds of his 

 boyhood. 



Tliat Giraldus de Barri — better known as Giraldus Cam- 

 brousis — was a memorable man ; he was our first topographical 

 writer, and he was born in thist'iistle of Manorbeer in or about 

 11 Ki. He travelled through Wales witii Baldwin Archbishop 

 of Cantorbury in 1188, and witli a feeling with which I fully 

 sympathise, he thus speaks of the place of his birth and boy- 

 hood which he then revisited : — 



" The castle called Maenor Pyrr, or mansion of Pyrrus, is ex- 

 cellently well defended by turrets and bulwarks, and is situated 

 on tlie summit of a hill oxtemling on the western side towards 

 the seaport, having on the northern and southern sides a fine 

 fish-pond under its walls, as conspicuous for its grand appear- 

 ance as for the depth of its waters, and a beautiful orchard on 

 the same side, enclosed on one part by a vineyard, and on the 

 other by a wood remarltable for the projection of its rocks and 



the height of its Hazel trees Maenor Pyrr is the 



pleasautest spot in Wales, aud the author may be pardoned for 

 liaving extolled his native soil, his genial territory, with a 

 prolusion of praise and admiration." 



I could jot do-wn much about this birthplace of old Giraldus, 

 and show of its management and mismanagement, until finally 

 the liing, our fourth Henry, declared it forfeited, and wrenched 

 that and the manor of Penally, with some others, from the 

 De Barry's, and handed them over to a courtier, one John 

 Windsor ; but enough, aud uow for Stackpool Court. 



He who has not passed along the approach to Stackpool 

 Court has yet to be gratified by the sight of one of the finest 

 approaches in the British islands. 



Stackpool Court is a comparatively recent acquisition of the 

 Cawdor family. Its earliest recorded possessor was Sir Ehdur, 

 or Leonard de Stackpool, a crusader, whose cross-legged effigy, 

 in chain armour, reclines in the neighbour church of Gheriton. 

 In the sixteenth century Stackpool had the Vemons as its 

 possessors, from whom it passed to the Lorts, whose heiress 

 at length brought it to the Cawdor family by marriage with 

 Sir Alexander Campbell. 'But again I must whip off' from 

 archaiology, and pursue more congenial game. 



What magnificent Beech trees are at Stackpool, not old 

 picturesque wrecks like those at Bumham, but giants, and 

 giants in the fullest vigour of Beech-hood. But even these 

 are second to the Evergreen Oaks, than which I never saw 

 such magnificent specimens, with stems 3 feet in diameter 

 and 70 feet in height ; and when I mention these and the 

 Beeches as specimens, let it not be concluded that they are 

 few and choice, they are to be counted by hundreds. The 

 climate is all iu their favour, for the grounds have a southern 

 aspect, and slope down to the sea, and the trees descend the 

 slope and dip into the water of one of its estuaries. Rarely is 

 such a combination of mountain, water, and foliage seen ; it is 

 like a section of the Wye taken bodily and deposited here. The 

 abundance of shade is opposed to the display of flower garden- 

 ing. Mr. Slater, the head gardener, has managed to find space 

 for a small geometric garden, but its beauty cannot be appre- 

 ciated from being on such a level that there is no good point to 

 look upon it from. It would appear to more advantage if sunk. 

 Everything looked vigorous aud healthy, and all around the 

 estate I noted that air of comfort in the cottages, an<l that 

 love of window plants, which is to my mind the best evidence 

 that happiness prevails within. Who cares to adorn an un- 

 happy home? 



Since the foregoing was written I find that full forty years 

 siuce the then Earl of Cawdor made especial efforts to promote 

 an attention to gardening among the cottagers. His head 

 gardener, Mr. Buchan, thus writes upon the subject : — 



" His lordship, ever anxious to promote the comforts of his 

 dependants, gave directions for additional chambers, and a 

 better system of ventilation iu his cottages ; to repair the ex- 

 terior in the cottage style, and build new ones where wanted. 

 I was then instructed to put the gardens in a proper form 

 behind each cottage, and to make a court in front, for the cul- 

 tivation of flowers. I furnished them with such fruit trees as 

 were best adapted for that climate, and stocked their courts 

 with herbaceous plants, shrubs, and creepers of the common 

 kinds ; informing the cottagers at the same time that they 

 would have to keep the whole in good order for the future ; 

 and I must here observe, that the information was not received 

 with a good grace by some of them, prejudiced as they were 

 against the introduction of anything new. 



