Angnat 5, 1879. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTDBB AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



117 



family, and thenoe by marriage to the Sydenhams, who sold it 

 in 1696 to John Vandeu Bempde, Esq., whose daughter and 

 Bole heiress brought it by marriage to the family of the John- 

 Btones, and the present mansion was erected by the first 

 baronet of this family at the close of the last century. 



The usual road taken in visiting Hackness Hall is along 

 what is most inappropriately named Forge Valley, for few 

 valleys of England are more beautiful, and now there is in it 

 no forge. Its sides — beautifully wooded, but not so densely as 

 to conceal the tnrf, wild flowers, and Ferns beneath — rise 

 rapidly to a height of 300 feet j the Derwent flows beside the 

 road, and on some of the turfy promontories of its windings 

 were groups of pic-nickers and gatherers of wild Strawberries. 

 The trees are mostly Beech, and towards the close of the valley 

 near the Hall they are partly of the copper-coloured variety, 

 and all of very large stature. That close of the valley is i 



superlatively beautiful, for the valley branches there, and peep- 

 ing from among varied groups of varied trees, and widely 

 apart on varied elevations, are the residences of the vicar, the 

 steward, and the church, forming a combination that the 

 pencU and not the pen can represent. 



Having mentioned the wild flowers I will add that than in 

 this vicinity nowhere are they to be found in greater profu- 

 sion ; of those of commonest occurrence I will only name the 

 numerous species of Grasses and the Ladies' Bedstraw — the 

 grey and purple flowers of the first and the yellow flowers of 

 the other are in masses spread far and wide. Of the rarer 

 species I gathered the Lesser Twayblade (Ophrys cordata) and 

 the Nettle-leaved Bellflower (Campanula trachelium), the latter 

 towering at intervals above all the others, and its fine delicate 

 pale blue flowers rendering it aristocratic-looking among its 

 humbler-statured companions. Prominent among these was 



^. 10.— HACKNE33 n/-LL. 



Geranium eylvaticum, a northern perennial found from the 

 midland counties northward until it reaches 2700 of elevation 

 in the Highlands. On the moors near in one or two very 

 restricted localities is found the rarer Comas Buecica. 



Mr. Sowerby met me courteously at the gate admitting from 

 the road to the kitchen garden, which is of four acres extent, 

 and enclosed by a 12-foot wall. On these are Plums, Cherries, 

 Apples, and Pears. Even the Nonpareil requires the wall. Of 

 Pears Mr. Sowerby finds the Glont Mori;ean and Crasanne 

 the most certain croppers, but the Jargonelle very uncertain, 

 and the Van Mens productive but almost worthless. There 

 are seven small lean-to Vine and Peach houses, and the crops 

 were very abundant and healthy. Mr. Sowerby thins the 

 bunches of Grapes very freely, and the berries are proportion- 

 ately large. There is no early forcing, for the family are away 

 until August, and for the early months of the year the late- 

 keeping of the Lady Downes' is relied upon. The other 

 varieties of Grapes are Muscadines, Black Frontignan, and 

 Muscat of Alexandria. The crops of the Peach Eoyal George 

 and Nectarine Violet Hdtive are excellent. One of the houses 

 is devoted to flowering plants. Perns, and fine-foliaged plants 

 for the house decoration. Another house is devoted to winter- 

 ing bedding plants, and its entire roof is covered with Stepha- 

 notis floribunda, most profuse of flowers when I was there. 

 The kitchen garden was well cropped, and on the walk-borders 



were eepaliers and dwarf standards of Apples, the boisterous 

 winds sweeping the valley forbidding full standards. 



From the kitchen garden we passed under a deneely-foliaged 

 arched pathway to the lawn before the south-west front of the 

 Hall. That arched pathway reminded me of one possessed in 

 former years by my family, and which the gardener, quite 

 innocent of punning, called " the subtreeanean path." 



The lawn occupies six acres and there is no other dressed 

 ground, nor is any more needed, for it is most beautiful. In 

 whichever direction you look there is a foreground of bright 

 turf enamelled with beds, mostly circular, filled some with Rosea 

 trained over their surface, others with Geraniums, and others 

 with bedding plants such as Golden Pyrethrum, Alternanthera, 

 with Lobelia and Sedums for edgings. Then, there are large 

 rustic baskets filled with Geraniums and elevated on rustic 

 pedestals, and Roses grouped and trained to stakes so as to 

 form pUlars about 5 feet high. This foreground is enclosed 

 by groups of trees, there are no continuous lines. Weeping 

 Limes, noble Beeches, and Conifers all fine and feathered to 

 the ground. Among them I noted an Abies Douglasii 50 feet 

 high though only forty years old. Over these groups of trees, 

 for the mansion is on a very elevated site, the eye looks upon 

 the river Derwent in the valley below, and over a tract of 

 richly wooded country to an horizon many mUes distant. 



The prospect to the mansion's right including the church in 



