December 3, 1874. ] 



JOURNAti OP HORTICULTURE AND OOTTAGE GABDENER. 



497 



the case the tiee is goiug wrong, aud Bbowa a want of vigour 

 which calls for immediate attention ; and in the succeeding 

 season buch a tree oupht not to be allowed to carry much fruit, 

 with a view to encourage all the wood-growth possible ; aud 

 perhaps it will be necessary to take the old soil from its roots 

 and replace it with fresh soil of a loamy nature, but quite fresh. 



Now is the best time of all the year to examine every fruit 

 tree and see if any scale or other disease, such aa American 

 blight, is infesting them ; if so, the wood should be scrubbed 

 over with a stiff brush, and every crevice examined and cleared 

 of the pest ; then dress the tree over from bottom to top with 

 a composition of 8 ozs. of powdered sulphur, -1 oza. of Gishurat 

 compound, two or three handfuls of soot, aud then add enough 

 tobacco water to make up a gallon of liquid ; mix all well toge- 

 ther, and add sufficient pure clay well worked up in it with the 

 hand till it becomes aa thick as paint, and apply it to the tree 

 with an ordinary paint-brush, leaving not a particle of the wood 

 untouched. I do not advise those trees to be dressed that are 

 not infested, but the trees that are so must be done over more 

 than once or twice, and it would be more effectual if the dressing 

 were repeated from time to time for twelve months. — Thom.is 

 Record. 



LANGTON HALL, 



THE SE.\T OF BENNET ROTHES LANGTON, ESQ. 



Before narrating a recent visit to the gardens of the High 

 Sheriff of the county of Lincoln, it can hardly fail to be in- 

 teresting to dwell briefly on an outline of the history of the 

 ancient family of Langton and their time-honoured home. 

 The present Hall (to read history backwards), is a newly-erected 

 mansion ; it is a large handsome building of red biick with 

 rustic stone quoininga, in the Elizabethan style, built in 

 18CC-7 by its present owner at a cost of from eight to ten 

 thousand pounds. It is situated on an acclivity a little north- 

 east of the village, and about half a mile due east of the site of 

 the old moated Hall. It is sheltered ou the north and east by 

 finely timbered woods, and commands an extended view of 

 the surrounding country, and of that particular part of which 

 the author of " Young on Agriculture " said was by far the 

 finest view in the county. On the extreme west of the park, 

 on the lower land, may be traced the extensive enclosure of 

 the old moated Hall burnt down in the reign of Henry VI. 

 whilst occupied by Sir Thomas do Langton, but rebuilt on a 

 Bite iu the centre of the present village in the reign of 

 Elizabeth, boundary lines being still discernible of it in several 

 of the cottage homes, and the noble old Sycamore trees which 

 graced its carriage entrance. 



The family of Dd Langton, which was the original name, is 

 one of the few untitled families who can date their ancestral 

 pedigree from the time of William of Normandy in lOGG, and 

 can boast of many distinguished members sinoe the time when 

 the village name of Long-town became the family surname of 

 Langton. Foremost amongst them, in the reign of King John, 

 was Cardinal Stephen de Langton, who was consecrated in 1200 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, and died in 1228 ; and Simon de 

 Langton, brother of Stephen, was elected Archbishop of York 

 iu 121(j, but was set aside by the Pope. Some members, too, of 

 the family have received the distinguished honour of knight- 

 hood for their services, military and civil, rendered to their 

 country, Thomas de Langton being knighted by Henry VI., and 

 John de Langton by Charles II. Dr. William Langton, Presi- 

 dent of Magdalen College, Oxford, who died in 1C26, was born 

 here, and who gave the loving cup, "the Langton " of the 

 college at this day ; and Bennet Langton the great friend of 

 Dr. Johnson and many others, whose fame as men of letters 

 is handed down to posterity in their autographs attached to 

 the noted " round robin." It should be added that the above- 

 mentioned Stephen de Langton was the wise and good prelate 

 who took a prominent part in the memorable field of Runny- 

 mede on the 19th of June, 1215. He it was who was instru- 

 mental in aiding the barons to draw up the famous document 

 Magna Charta, and was attesting witness to the signature 

 wrung from King .John dealing the death blow to his own 

 despotism, and securing liberty and constitutional freedom to 

 the empire for all time to come. 



We now take a bound of over six hundred years, and leave 

 the ancestor at Bunnymede in 121.5 to take a glance at the 

 home-surroundings of his descendant at Langton, near Spilsby, 

 Lincolnshire, in 1874. The gardens of Langton are not nearly 

 80 great as the history of its family, but if not great they are 

 good — good aUke in style of formation and management. The 

 site is excellent, and Young was not far wrong when In 

 designated it as affording " the finest visw in the county." 



The mansion (_/iy. 112), is built on the south-western slipe of a 

 circular range of hills, aud in the front is, as it were, a ba»inof 

 some five or six miles iu diameter of some of the finest land 

 ever devoted to agriculture. It is, moreover, mostly pasture and 

 grazing land, and interspersed as it is with trees under which 

 the herds and flocks shelter, and skirted by an amphitheatre of 

 hills from which the spires of half a dozen parish churches 

 point their fingered index to the skies, we have a pastoral scene 

 not easy to surpass. Through a break in this range of up- 

 lands are visible on a clear day the surging waves of the 

 German ocean, distant about fourteen miles. 



The grounds, like the Hall, are new — that is, they were, with 

 the fish ponds, designed and completed under the supervision 

 of the eminent nurserymen and landscape gardeners, Messrs. 

 Veitoh of Chelsea, who have done their work thoroughly well 

 aud in excellent taste. To better secure the privacy of the 

 mansion, which was inconveniently near the public highway, 

 the plan adopted was to make the lodge entrance a consider- 

 able distance away, and parallel with the road to throw up an 

 extensive enbankment. This at once effected the object, and 

 afforded at the same time a fine site for shrubs, and secured 

 a broad lengthy easy sweep of carriage-drive, which is one of 

 the main ornaments of the place. This bank being composed 

 of good soil, the shrubs have prospered surprisingly. Owing 

 to the openness aud airiness of the situation their habit is 

 close and the colour a dense green, indicative of hardy robust 

 health. The best kinds of Conifers were planted at intervals, 

 interspersed with Hollies iu variety, and a due proportion of 

 flowering deciduous trees to brighten and lighten the more 

 sombre masses, the background and intervening spices being 

 occupied principally with Laurels. 



And now a groan, or a grumble, or a sigh of pity cannot be 

 suppressed. I never go with a preconceived idea of lavithing 

 indiscriminate praise on every part of a place, and never will. 

 Mere description without a germ of instruction is not fair to 

 the public, and flattery is not honest on the part of the nar- 

 rator nor just to the proprietor of a place under notice, because 

 it may do injury by misleading. It is pardonable of a gentle- 

 man (and how many of such there are !) who has purchased 

 and planted shrubs, and watched with pleasure their onward 

 progress, to dread in any way their mutilation ; they would 

 cherish and conserve every twig and leaf. It is a worthy feel- 

 ing, but an immense mistake. The shrubs at Laugtou mu^t 

 suffer — no, it ia not mutilation — but necessary amputation to 

 prevent a certain deformity. The Laurels must be headed- 

 down to permit the plants of pyramidal habit to show their 

 distinctive features aud proportions above them. To leave 

 these coarser evergreens to unchecked growth ia to produce in 

 no long time a forest of leggy ugliness, to be levelled to the 



' ground by some severe frost, dealing death also to better 

 things made tender by their embraces. This common bush 



; must be removed from that choice Cypress, which is eating 

 away its beauty ; that gross Weigela must be routed from 



' that charming Cryptomeria, which is being robbed of its grace 



' and life; and so on to the end of the chapter. Mr. Rogers, the 

 able gardener, is fully — painfully, alive to all this, aud it is 

 hoped that his kind employer will give him authority and lati- 



I tude to save his choice shrubs in all their attractive features 

 before it is too late. The Cryptomerias at this place are in 

 beautiful health. What a fine feature it would be in this drive, 

 with the rising bank on either hand, if the broad grass verge 

 were taken up and round a number of these and other speci- 

 mens at distant intervals, clearing away all encroachments, 

 the only relief being the smooth velvety turf to show their 

 elegant forms to perfection. An idea pomething like this care- 

 fully carried out would make something like a drive, and one 

 which in a year or two Mr. Veitch, the planter, would glory 

 in. There is so much ruin amongst shrubs by want of timely 

 thinning, that a straight-home word of warning is, if not 

 always acceptaljle, certainly not unseasonable. Other groups 

 of shrubs are tastefully disposed on different parts of the lawn, 

 and the only natural and unpreventible obstacle to their future 

 form and well-being is the unbroken sweep of the southern 

 and western winds to which they are exposed. 



A stroll round the pleasant walks brings us suddenly on the 

 flower garden {fig. llS). Thh is the principal feature of Lang- 

 ton. It is not large, but gave evidence of skill, pains, labour, 

 and taste in bringing it to the state of perfection as seen under 

 the burning sun of a tropical summer. Nothing but thorough 

 culture and unremiltiug work could have filled the beds, even 

 Verbenas, on that sultry aspect in the state of perfection they 

 presented in August. I am bound in justice to say that 



