March 12, 1874. ] 



JOUENAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



223 



oolleotions will readily imagine. In front of the upper terrace, 

 forming its southern boundary, is a dwarf well-kept Yew hedge 

 with embrasures cut in its top to give a better view of the 

 gardens and valley below, while the narrow border at the 

 back is planted with Hollies and other shrubs, the wall itself 

 being partly clothed with Ivy, partly with Wistaria, Roses, 

 Jasminum nudifiorum, and other suitable plants. 



We nest pass down to a Strawberry garden on a slope, 

 originally designed as a small flower garden, to which purpose 

 it may yet revert ; but this though neat is somewhat out of 

 place. At the east end is a fine Welliugtonia estimated at 

 24 feet high, and various other Conifers which, like the Rho- 

 dodendrons, seem to thiive admirably ; Deodars, Hemlock 

 Spruce, and Araucaria imbrioata bemg represented by several 

 handsome specimens. A beautiful lawn bordered with Rhodo- 

 dendrons is the next feature, and from this the eye catches 



sight of Sydnope Stand on the opposite hill, which in the dis- 

 tance looks like some well-preserved relic of the past, but 

 which a closer inspection shows to be of modern erection, but 

 whether or not built on the site of a structure of more remote 

 date we cannot say. From the extensive range of country 

 which it commands, the probability is in favour of its being in 

 the place of some watch-tower or stronghold of other days. 



Proceeding towards the mansion, on the north side of which 

 the bank is clothed with mixed shrubs, Araucarias, and other 

 Conifers, on the south side we find the walls partly covered 

 with Ivy, and eventually they will in all probability be wholly 

 so clad. On the lawn in front are circular beds of hardy 

 Heaths, as Erica carnea and vulgaris Alportii, which have a 

 neat appearance at all seasons, and accord well in character 

 with the wild beyond, of which there is here an extensive 

 view. There are also some fine standard Portugal Laurels 



averngiijg nearly feet high, and at no c'reat distance oft" is 

 a tasteful fountain. 



We now pass by a rockery walk into what is called the lake 

 garden, from its leading feature being a small piece of water 

 broken up with rockwork. It has no pretensions to being a 

 lake as a landscape gardener would understand the term, for 

 there is no expanse of water, but the rockwork is so well 

 arranged that the effect is pleasing — even bold, for the stones 

 used are the large masses which abound in the district, not 

 cemented bricks and burrs, which in such a county as Derby- 

 shire would be simply ridiculous. At one point a good-sized 

 Deodar with its lower branches drooping into the water has a 

 picturesque and harmonious effect. 



The flower garden, which comes next, is of simple design 

 with a handsome fountain in the centre, but details of its 

 summer planting would be useless without the aid of a diagram. 

 Suffice it, then, to say that Mr. Young, the intelligent gardener, 

 has studied the bedding-out in the London parks, and adopted 

 from the practice there what is suitable to his own particular 

 case. Variegated and coloured-leaved plants, which are more 

 to be depended on in the north than flowers, are the principal 

 materials ; Ceutaurea, Perilla, variegated and Tricolor Gera- 

 niums, and Golden Feather Pyrethrum being those most used. 

 The main feature of these gardens is the rockwork, which is 

 introduced again and again in their various parts, and accords 

 well with the natural surroundings of the grotinds. The stones 



are in great masses of several tons weight, and in their ar- 

 rangement art is not painfully evident ; on the contrary, the 

 whole of this work has a natural and pleasing appearance, 

 water trickling down here and there among the rocks, which 

 afford nooks tor many a Fern, besides holding soU enough in 

 their crevices for the support of low-growing shrubs, and on 

 the upper portions the Lawson Cypress, Deodars, Hollies, and 

 Rhododendrons. Of the latter numerous seedlings have sprung 

 up everywhere, even to the water's edge. The walks, it must 

 j be added, are of Derbyshire spar, which is softer to walk upon 

 i than gravel, and always looks bright and clean, while here, at 

 • least, it has the additional recommendation of cheapness. 

 A woodland walk leads eastward from the dressed ground 

 along the face of a hill, but the transition is not sudden, 

 j as the way is through shrubbery borders and past groups of 

 j Conifers, including Araucarias, WelUngtonias, the Douglas 

 ' Fir, ami several thriving specimens of some of the newer 

 I Pinuses. The hill affords a fine view over Darley Dale, and 

 of the mountains of the Peak, as well as the woods in the 

 i direction of Chatsworth ; while southward the prospect is 

 equally bold and varied. This walk passes over a waterfall 

 which rushes down in a broken stream from a height of some 

 70 feet above the walk, and continues its course into the valley 

 altogether for a distance of about half a mile. In quarrying 



^^ From a photograph by Mr. Clarb, of Matlock. 



