452 



JOURNAL OP HORTIODLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 19, 1874. 



It is dotted with some fine Arauearias, WellingtoniaB, Cryp- 

 tomerias, and otiier Conifers. Some of the Arauearias after 

 the dry summer of 1800 appeared to be dying, but Mr. Kipling, 

 the gardener, gave them a good mulching of loam, leaf soU, 

 and a little well-decayed manure, and they improved wonder- 

 fully. The Ivy-covered summer-house on the mound on the 

 south-west side, and which forms a conspicuous object in 

 fig. 129, commands a good view of the flower garden and man- 

 sion, and, in a clear day, of the surrounding country. 



At Knebworth we have not one but many gardens to deal 

 with ; eome of them are very charming, though none very 

 large. Thus we have the bowling-green, another Laurel en- 

 closure of smooth lawn, such as that half-forgotten game re- 

 quires, and in a sheltered secluded spot a hardy fernery. 

 From this, looking through an oval opening in a trellis- 



work, a view is gained of a Heath garden, most noticeable in 

 which are clumps of the Mediterranean Heath ; and passing 

 from this into the adjoining garden, in which is a small 

 temple, we again find lawn surrounded by evergreens and 

 studded with shrubs, and notably the Golden Arbor-Vitse, of 

 which there are several handsome specimens. Here we gain — 

 chiefly through peepholes, which to our taste are somewhat 

 too artificial, and certainly so in their present state — views of 

 the park with its scattered Oaks, its clumps of Elms, its old 

 Horse Chestnut and young Lime tree avenues, and its wood- 

 land masses of Oaks stretching far into the distance. Next 

 comes an old-fashioned Box garden with polychrome walks, 

 which is a deal of trouble, and — but tastes diiier — of no great 

 effect. It is quaint but not old enough to strike one as a reUe 

 of the olden times, and owing to the failure of the coloured 



materials which are employed, as in the case of spar and 

 broken bricks, &o., wherever used in superseding Nature's 

 inimitable tints, it may be questioned whether these would 

 not be much more advantageously and pleasurably substituted, 

 especially in a case where no great antiquity can be claimed. 

 Through the Laurel-surrounding of this garden in an east- 

 ward direction is seen the tower of the mansion at the end of a 

 long vista. In an adjoining garden are a number of fine com- 

 mon Laurels of large size clipped into a circular haystack 

 ghnpp, with handsome low standards of the Portugal by the 

 side of the walk. Ivy baskets and marble busts are also freely 

 introduced, the latter among Yews. Into an adjoining maze 

 we did not enter. 



On the south-west side of the mansion, and entirely shut 

 out from every other part, is what is called Horace's Garden, 

 intended to represent that of a small Roman villa. It is 

 rlentifully adorned with busts, as of Augustus Ciosar, Horace, 

 Virgil, and other classical celebrities; but the Italian Vines 

 have had to be substituted by Hops on the rustic poles on 

 one side of the very poor piece of water running through it. 

 The whole of this somewhat limited area is surrounded by 

 Spruce, Scotch Firs, and Oaks; and as an ideal of what has 

 long since ceased to be, notwithstanding some vegetable 

 anachronisms, is a pleasin;-'-enough spot, and would be all the 

 more so were the water to rival in purity that of the fountain 

 which Horace ^ lauded. 



An old flower garden has been turned into a rosery, in which 

 it is contemplated to carry pillar Roses on arches over the 

 surrounding walks. A good deal, however, will have to be 

 done by the gardener, for near here the chalk crops out to the 

 surface, and Rhododendrons and other chalk-abhorring sub- 

 jects cannot long survive unless provided with peat. Portugal 

 Laurels, of which there are some nice dwarf standards, seem 

 to do well. 



The kitchen garden is by no means neglected, but sadly 

 needs remodelling. The glass houses are too few for a place 

 of such size, and most of them must ere long be replaced ; still 

 in such as there are we noticed good Muscat and Hamburgh 

 Grapes, and we believe Strawberries are forced in considerable 

 numbers. Considerable extension of the glass and a re- 

 arrangement of the two kitchen gardens would add much to 

 the resources of the place, but to keep twelve or thirteen acres 

 of flower garden and pleasure grounds, and two acres of kitchen 

 garden, in the order in which Mr. Kipling does, with the means 

 at his command, must be no easy task. 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBURBAN GARDENING. 



FLO^'EB OABDEN. 



Tnp, recent frosts have rendered it quite? necessary to clear 

 I the beds of their summer occupants ; and, in fact, the whole 

 1 garden must be at ouce gone over. In the first place, if previous 



