April 24, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



313 



the Leicester exhibitors only have clear-headed practical men 

 on their committees, and proper men for judges, they will soon 

 have one of the most important societies in the countiy, and 

 one that must influence the horticultural taste for permanent 

 good. 



I have before remarked that villas are springing up on aU 

 sides ; more particularly in a southern direction are to be 

 found the villas of the mercantile and manufacturing gentry 

 who live out of town, iu fact it is the Glapham of Leicester. I 

 may, as time offers, note some of these places, as well as 

 nurseries ; but there is one deserving of special notice. I was 

 informed that at Glen Magna, a village about seven miles out 

 in a southern direction on the old turnpike road to London, a 

 gentleman, one of the "self-made men," was making a new 

 place. I started oS one day to see, if possible, if it was equal 

 to report. On making inquiry, I found the place was called 

 " Rupert's Rest," and that it was the residence of T. Crick, 

 Esq. I fortunately found Mr. Crick at home, and on stating 

 my errand he, in the kindest manner possible, showed me all 

 over the premises, which I will endeavour to describe. 



The house was originally a small old country villa, with very 

 trifling grounds round it ; traditionally, and I believe vrith 

 more truth than many other traditions, the house in which 

 Prince Rupert slept, surrounded by his soldiers, the night 

 before the battle of Naesby. But what a change of scenery now ! 

 Ah, Rupert ! your soldiers would not so many of them that 

 night have had to sleep in the open air, for the place is indeed 

 altered. A new waU faces the road, with entrance gates to 

 front and back. I am conducted by Mr. C. through the back 

 entrance into a yard, having the house on the left hand, with 

 part of the old boundary wall still standing, and on the right 

 are new stables, coach-house, cow-shed, itc. , with a fruit-room 

 ever the last, and a fowl-rim at the farther end. The glass 

 is opposite me ; the first house we entered was a sunk range in 

 three divisions, intended for Peaches in one, Figs in the centre, 

 and a succession-pit for Pines in the other end. The Peach 

 trees had not done well, but the Fig trees were growing very 

 freely, and the Pines were just commencing. This house is 

 sunk iu the centre or pathway, is span-roofed, and each light 

 is made to open for ventilation. It is 65 feet in length. The 

 first object that attracted mj- attention was a batch of seed- 

 Img Figs which had been sown by Mr. Crick himself, and which 

 were about 12 inches high ; there were also some seedling 

 Grape Vines from a foreign source, and a quantity of seedling 

 Pelargoniums, a cross between Mrs. PoUock and Madame 

 Vaucher, but not sufiicieutly large to give one a correct idea of 

 what they were liiely to be, but one or two had a pretty, 

 clearly-defined zone, as in the mother plant, Mrs. Pollock. 

 There was also hanging from one of the division roofs a good 

 plant of Ipomcea Horsfallije, which, bad been very full of 

 flower, and there was a variety of other plants of which I made 

 no note. 



Ascending three or four steps out of the Peach-house, we 

 next enter a fine curvilinear range with a lanthorn roof for 

 ventilation ; this house is of iron and glass resting on brick 

 walls, is 105 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 15 feet high, and is in 

 three divisions. The iron ribs, which are IJ inch wide by 4i 

 deep, as well as the bars for the glass, are neatly put together 

 with screws and bolts ; on each side are swing-sashes made to 

 open by a very simple contrivance of long rod, wheel, ratchet, 

 screw, and lever ; and advantage was taken in building the 

 walls to let in ventilators under the heating apparatus and 

 pipes, so that the cold air passing in might enter a partially 

 confinetl chamber over the pipes supplying surface-heat, ere 

 it came in contact with the plants — a point too often forgotten 

 in erecting houses especially intended for winter work. The 

 lanthorn on the top of the roof is also made to open in three 

 lengths by a simple contrivance of chain and leverage, so that 

 there is ample ventilation yet simple in its contrivance. On 

 entering from the lower range you find opposite you glass 

 folding-doors leading into a pretty ornamental flower garden, 

 but passing to the right hand you find there is a bed built on 

 arches on each side of the house, with four rows of four-inch 

 pipes imder them for bottom and top heat. In the centre is 

 a bed in two divisions, also with pipes for bottom heat ; and in 

 the centre of one of the four-inch pipes is inserted one half 

 an irch in diameter, and having a tap to supply hot water, so 

 that in watering the plants the gardener has the water at any 

 heat he may think fit to use it. In the right-hand bed are 

 planted a quantity of Grape Tines. " These," said Mr. Crick, 

 "I imported from the continent; those on the other side are 

 the best kinds I could buy from the English niu'serymeu, al- 



though both will be cut down in the spring and be allowed to 

 make another year's growth ere they carry their first crop of 

 fruit ; " yet the difference in growth and strength was very 

 perceptible, although all were treated alike. I would certainly 

 advise lifting the whole of them before they make another 

 year's growth, filling up the borders to the top of the curb 

 with partially decomposed chopped turf, and planting them on 

 the top with at first a slight covering of soil over the roots. 

 In this house was a general collection of plants such as are 

 usually found in a gentleman's place. 



We now pass through a glass door, and wo are in the tropical 

 end, and here we find a good selection of stove and ornamental- 

 foliaged plants, which, when fuUy grown, will merit distinction. 

 The end wall, parting off the potting-shed, is covered with 

 glass cinders, with pots and niches for Ferns, &c. This cinder 

 is formed from old glass bottles, &c., run together in a 

 furnace, and will have a pretty eiiect when filled. We next 

 look into the potting-shed or, as Mr. Crick called it, the work- 

 shop, 19 feet long and the same width, nicely heated from the 

 boiler and pipes, which are below. The boiler is oue suppUed 

 by Applcly, Reneshaw Iron Works, near Derby, and here I 

 may remark that the whole place is supplied with bottom and 

 top heat by the same boiler. The pipes, four-inch, are all 

 separately connected with the boiler by two-inch pipes, with 

 stop-cocks, so that each house can be worked separately. I 

 believe there are nine of these stop-cocks. 



In this shed I saw a quantity of bulbs for spring work, and I 

 was much pleased with the nice genial warmth ; here there 

 is no need to fear bringing out a plant or two to repot, clean, 

 or tie into form from a stove or intermediate-house as is too 

 often the case. I have often seen plants taken from a warm 

 house to a shed almost at the freezing-point, to be repotted 

 or for some other operation to be performed, to the detriment 

 of the plant and the injury of the gardener's constitution. 

 Here everything appears to have been done after well-matured 

 thought. 



We now return through the stove into the house we first 

 entered, only on the other side, until we come to another glass 

 partition. We enter here, and find the house filled with a 

 stage in the centre and on the sides. The end is covered 

 with glass cinders, but here is a portico in artificial rockery, 

 with white spar pillars and capitals, which when filled, as it 

 has been suggested, with Mesembryanthemums and other 

 succulents, will have a pretty effect — iu fact this will be one 

 of the most handsome pieces of artificial rockwork I have 

 ever met with. I much admired the effect of the paths — 

 " Minton tiles," of a pretty design. Passing through the 

 portico and pillars, we enter the conservatory adjoining the 

 dining-room. This has also an iron and glass curvilinear roof, 

 and from the dining-room there wiU be a very fine view when 

 the climbers have made their fuU growth and are hanging in 

 festoons, the glorious Tacsouia manicata and ignea (I beheve 

 it was) mingling with the variegated Cobcea, and the walls 

 covered with Lycopods, Ferns, &c. ;• and on looking through a 

 glass door at the other end, which is 57 feet from the dining- 

 room, some ribbon-borders are seen on the outside. I asked 

 Mr. Crick who was the builder, and his reply was, "We did it 

 ourselves with our own men. I carried out my own ideas." 

 Then, I say, all honour to men of business who earn their own 

 fortunes, and can and do set their own ingenious faculties to 

 work from a pure love of horticulture. 



We pass out into the gr-oimds — here are some handsome 

 polished granite and marble vases, tazzas, pedestals, &o., 

 some of great cost from the Continent. Around some of them 

 there are pretty designs in pebbles of various colours brought 

 from Kent and Surrey. I also noticed a pretty moss house 

 under somj trees, some more massive ornamental vases op- 

 posite a pheasantry and aviary, rockwork, and a cinder flower 

 garden with Roses. We still keep moving — presently we come 

 to the geometrical garden. Here the frost had done its work, 

 so that I could not see what the appearance had been, but I 

 understood that there was to be a rockery formed iu some part 

 adjoining. Here were a nice lot of fruit trees in pots, preparing 

 for a large orchard-house about to bo erected ; also a small 

 \-inery of which the roof, being too flat, was to be raised at 

 the back. Next were several pit-Ughts full of dwarf seedling 

 Chrysanthemums, but none was in bloom. 



But what have we here ? Why certainly these arc Peach 

 trees. Yes, and I exclaimed, a new idea, " good walls for the 

 mUlion." Do not laugh, good readers, at, the idea, it is aa 

 accomplished fact. A Willow wall to train Peaches on, with 

 the wood of the latter good, firm, and brown, buds plump, and, 



