Jnly SO, 1874. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



93 



Bpaoe for getting amongst the growing plants. In each of 

 these long beds there are two rows of dwarf Roses on the 

 Manetti, and occasionally between them, so as to break the uni- 

 form height of the plants, a few as standards. It will thus be 

 seen that they are not very large plants ; but as each is attended 

 to, they are kept in good shape, and nothing can be better than 

 the foliage. Mr. Mount ia very careful as to giving them proper 

 Boil, and renews it annually, giving them some fresh nourish- 

 ment to feed upon, besides affording them a liberal supply of 

 cow manure in the autumn. I saw no trace of orange fungus, 

 and he suffers little apparently from mildew. Although the 

 river runs at the bottom of his garden, he very wisely, I think, 

 does not rely on it for his supply of water, for tanyards and 

 such other abominations do not tend to improve its quality ; 

 he has water laid on, and can consequently syringe and water 

 freely. 



It would he useless and tedious for me to enumerate the 

 varieties of Eoses that Mr. Mount grows. As a careful amateur 

 he will not spend his money on plants of the merits of which 

 he is ignorant ; but all the well-known and approved varieties 

 are to be found there, and also many novelties. I saw, for 

 instance, Eeynolds Hole in good flower, although it was early 

 in the season, while Alfred Colomb, Mrs. Elvers, which does 

 exceedingly well there, Franc,'oi6 Michelon, and all the leading 

 sorts were well represented. Along the fence which surrounds 

 it on one side were trained Mareobal Niel and other Noisette 

 and Tea Eoees; while a small greenhouse, 20 feet by 12, at 

 one corner had been erected especially in honour of the same 

 class of Eoses ; and from the fine plant of Maiechal Niel, 

 ■which is ripidly filling the house, had been gathered over five 

 hundred fine blooms in May. Surely no Eose has ever been 

 so honoured as this has been. 



I was particularly struck with the colouring of Mr. Mount's 

 flowers, and this, too, in a season which has not been favour- 

 able for high or delicate colouring. He informs me that when 

 they are showing colour he gives them a watering of guano, 

 1 oz. to the gallon, and a quarter of an ounce of sulphate of 

 ammonia. This, with a good dressing of cow dung in the 

 winter, he considers the best stimulant ; he also gives a second 

 ■watering when the flowers are forming for the second crop, 

 and adds that he should probably do it oftener but for the 

 expense. 



Let me add that one great charm of this garden is that it is 

 kept scrupulously clean ; not a weed is to be seen, the paths 

 are in good order, and flowers are cut off as they decay ; and 

 if in thus giving a brief description of this model Eose garden 

 I can in any way encourage a struggling amateur, I shall not 

 have written this short notice in vain. — D., Deal. 



IN AND OUT OF ABERYSTWITH.— No. 1. 



Never was place more appropriately named than this. Aher, 

 the mouth, and yslwyth, winding, being descriptive of the 

 situation and of the river ; and what a bay that mouth opens 

 into ! Cardigan Bay is the Bay of Naples enlarged. And then 

 the mountains, whose feet come up to the wall of the garden 

 where I am writing ! Noble and, unlike the Neapolitan, nu- 

 merous and not volcanic. From my window I can see to the 

 south the Strumble Head of Pembrokeshire, and to the north 

 the Silurian rocks of Towyn, and within lUO yards there are 

 many nymphs bathing ; these last are more attractive than the 

 distant boundaries, and render it more difficult to write sedately 

 as becometh a reporter of The Journal of Hokticultcee. 



However, having moved from the window, let me tell that 

 this morning I set forth to the mother church of this place 

 — LlanbadarnFfawr. There are 458 places in Wales the names 

 of which begin with Llan, which originally meant only a sheep- 

 fold, but was most appropriately transferred to any place 

 having a church. Then Badarn is a corruption of Padarii. 

 St. Padarn, or St. Patarnus, came here from Brittany and 

 founded a college here in 524. Ffaior is glorious, so the parish 

 name is Glorious Church of St. Patarn ; and though it does not 

 deserve that title now, it once did, for it once was a bishopric, 

 and its bishop was at the Council of St. Augustine in the year 

 60.3. The church has been destroyed by Danes and others 

 many times, and the present structure is not of earlier date 

 than the twelfth century. Over that and its monuments I 

 must not linger for your pages, nor over its ancient church- 

 yard crosses, and its seated Lich-gate. Yes, I will pause here 

 to observe that the path beneath the Lich-gate is ingeniously 

 grated with iron bars, so that when the gate is open straying 

 cattle are afraid to walk over it. Around the churchyard are 



unsurpassed fine specimens of Ash trees ; and this tree is a 

 usual ornament of the Welsh " God's Acre," it being esteemed 

 in the days of our forefathers a barrier not to be passed by 

 evil spirits. Nor is the prevalence of this tree confined to tho 

 churchyard, for it is so prevalent that it may be said to be 

 always found near old residences. 



I wandered rouud the village, and noted that though the 

 Apple crop has failed much in England, it is most abundant 

 here. The Apples cluster down the branches as Onions are 

 roped, and so growing are suspended in the fruiterers' windows 

 in Aberystwith. The Green Gages on standards are also most 

 abundant, and even in the shops here are sold for a halfpenny 

 each. 



The market is moderately supplied with all the fruits and 

 vegetables in season, and would be more largely if it were not 

 that the village growers of garden produce come in every 

 morning with basketsful of their commodities. 



In returning from Llanbadarn I was overtaken by a sudden 

 rainfall, such as is only immiuent in mountain districts, and 

 whilst under shelter I noted the high-crowned-hatted women 

 with their baskets of eggs, Potatoes, Beans, Cabbages, and fruit 

 plodding to market, whilst some who came from far rode the 

 probably only horse of their homestead, for the farms are 

 either very small arable, or somewhat larger pasture holdings. 

 An old relative of mine, who resided many years not a hundred 

 miles hence, used to tell of the farmers of his early deys who 

 rode to market, one with a bushel of Oats, another with the 

 same measure of Wheat, and others with divers kinds of farm 

 produce. They had no money, but wrangled at an ale-house 

 door who should pay the reckoning, and he to whose lot it fell 

 always rode back home another ■way ! — G. 



A VISIT TO SCAWBY HALL. 



In out-of-the-way gardens of small extent and unknown to 

 fame, one often, indeed nearly always, sees something worthy 

 of note — something good in itself, or a clever hit making it so. 

 All such hits are instructive. I for one have often found in 

 quite small places gardening fully as good and oftentimes 

 better than in the Duke of So-and-so's great place ; yet the 

 man who does a little in a large place is in popular parlance 

 a " great gun," while he who does much in a little one is a 

 very " small potato." But the place under notice is not a 

 small garden if it is not a large one. It is the seat of one of 

 the old families of Lincolnshire, the honoured name and title 

 of which have lately become extinct — viz., that of Nelthorpe. 

 Were I to jot down all recollections of Scawby Hall, the suc- 

 cesses and failures, the ins and outs, the ups and downs, it 

 would be a very mixed dissertation — in this page a guide, in 

 that a warning. It must be so in any garden in which a man 

 has spent the first seven years seeking knowledge. Such 

 places are never forgotten, and all lifelong they possess an 

 interest which time cannot obliterate. 



My feelings on revisiting the garden were mixed. To see 

 the Eoses in their glory, clean, massive, and fine, aroused the 

 latent enthusiasm, and I recognised the very spot where I put 

 in the first Eose-bud. I put it in by stealth, wrong end up- 

 wards. Never mind, it grew. And now for tho first note on 

 just one Eose, and that Princess Christian. It is a gem of the 

 first water, in form almost perfect, in colour exquisite, in per- 

 fume it has only one equal, and that the old Provence Cabbage. 

 Yet this Eose is not popular, it is not seen everywhere ; and 

 why ? Becairse it does not bloom freely and with certainty. 

 Ordinarily it did not bloom at Scawby, but instead of the 

 orthodox pruning, the gardener tied down the shoots, and 

 then came the flowers. But the heads became unwieldly, and 

 to some extent unsightly. They must be reduced. They were 

 cut boldly into the old black wood, apparently as innocent of 

 eyes as rusty wire, yet they broke freely, but instead of pro- 

 ducing long shoots to tie down again they made medium 

 growth a little over a foot long, and at the top of each a grand 

 Eose. " That's the way," said the gardener, " to prune Princess 

 Christian," and in truth the example was very convincing. 

 But one more note on Roses. In most places of any extent 

 there is a man generally looked to in special matters. Jack 

 was the Rose man. .Jack was only a labourer, yet hard to beat 

 at Roses. I have seen him many times bud Briars in his own 

 garden in early summer, tend them into fine heads the same 

 autumn, and sell them for 12s. per dozen. Well, Jack and his 

 master were bothered with a favourite Gt'o.nt des Batailles in a 

 conspicuous position. It would mildew in spite of doctoring 

 and washing. We will presume they put their heads together 



