September 16, 1876. I 



JOUKNAIi OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



249 



devoid of interest, and certainly very devoid of plants. There 

 was a crop of bay being secured by a set of idle Italians ; 

 though when I speak of its being secured by them it is rather 

 a figure of spuecb, as thoy were one and all lying down under 

 the trees for the middny .^ii'sta. There is also the unfailiug 

 Cafi' Bistoranti, or rather two of them, one at each end of the 

 garden — one raised on a mound of earth, apparently mud 

 dredged out of the Adriatic. There was no attempt, as I 

 said, at flowers, and very little at flowering shrubs; but there 

 were some nice Acacias, and another tree which I did not 

 know, and which I have not yet learned the name of, which 

 was in full flower and very sweet-scented. The flowers are in 

 drooping racemes, white, with a purphsh throat, each flower 

 nearly an inch across when fully expanded. I saw it else- 

 where afterwards — as at Verona, Bellagio, and Lugano — but 

 never learnt the name. I need not detain your readers longer 

 with Venetian gardening. Nor was there anything worthy of 

 note at Verona, which was the next place we went to, except a 

 beautiful avenue of Cypresses. 



From Verona we went to Bellagio on theLago de Como, and 

 here the luxuriance of the foliage was very striking. There 

 are two villa gai'dens here exceedingly well worth seeing — the 

 Villa Serbelloni, where there is a dependance belonging to the 

 Hotel Grande Bretagne, and the Villa Melzi. The grounds of 

 the Villa Serbelloni are very extensive, comprising the wooded 

 kuoU and point projecting into the lake, commanding views of 

 tho three arms of the lake. On one side the winding paths are 

 cut into the face of a rock looking perpendicularly down into 

 the lake a height of lOU or 500 feet. The whole of the wooded 

 kuoll is intersected with paths, with a circuitous driving road, 

 by means of which you can drive by an easy ascent to the top. 

 All the shrubs and many of the best kinds of Pines and firs 

 seem to luxuriate ; and against a wall facing south beneath 

 the villa were two or three beautiful plants of Mandevilla 

 suaveolens just coming into full bloom. In some of the shel- 

 tered nooks were beds of Agaves, Yuccas, Aloes, Uracienas, &o., 

 and in the woods were a great variety of Ferns. The winding 

 paths command at different points the finest views of the lake, 

 and this is the only point where all the three arms of the lake 

 can be seen to perfection. Nothing was more striking than 

 the exceeding verdure of the sides of the hills with the fresh 

 foliage of all the trees which had not as yet suffered from the 

 Bummer's sun. 



The grounds of the Villa Melzi are private, but are shown 

 to the public by payment of a fee. They are close upon the 

 margin of the lake, and equally with the grounds of Villa 

 Serbelloni display great luxuriance of foUage. There was a 

 better attempt here at lawns ; but with the usual fault, the 

 grass not being mown more than once in three or four weeks. 

 The following plants and shrubs were doing well : — Araucaria 

 excelsa, Cocos coronata, Chamserops excelsa, Abies pendula, 

 a beautiful specimen of the Weeping Fir ; PinuB lanceolata ; 

 Sahsburia adiantifolia, a very striking plant ; -Justerenuia 

 violacea, Lagerstrcumia regins, &o. This, which I had only 

 seen before as a denizen of our cool stoves, was quite a large 

 tree, both here and at Villa Serbelloni. The Beuthamia f ragifera, 

 with its yellowish-white cross-shaped flower, was also very con- 

 spicuous. The Bambusa graoihs, and Arundinaria falcata, and 

 other plants of the Bamboo tribe seemed to be much at home 

 in shady places by the water side ; and plants of Sanchezia 

 nobilis plunged in pots had, the gardener told me, done well 

 last year, though they had only just been put out then. The 

 Oranges, Lemons, and Pomegranates were also flourishing ; and 

 though one of our first-class EngUsh gardeners would have 

 made much more of the great opportunities presented by soil 

 and climate, yet the exceeding luxuriance of the early spring 

 growth on the trees and shrubs made the gardens well worth 

 a visit, and we only regretted that our cicerone somewhat 

 hurried us on, as is the manner with some cicerones who 

 expect other visitors and other fees. There is some fine 

 statuary in the house ; but for the description of interior see 

 Murray. I have already been carried away too far with this 

 description of the villa gardening by the side of the lakes. 



We met with much the same at Lugano, and again at 

 Baveno, on the Lago Maggiore, where there is a beautifully- 

 kept villa garden, and a new villa built by an Englishman ; 

 but I will not weary yonr readers by a repetition of the names 

 of the shrubs and Firs, A-c., which were planted there. I may 

 mention, however, that the Wellingtonia was developing with 

 great rapidity, making young quick growth, tapering far more 

 than in any English-grown specimen I have yet seen, and 

 the yonng growth of the Finus excelsa and ineignis was Bome- 



thing wonderful. But the gem at the Villa Clara is the little 

 chapel built in an octagon form, beautifully decorated with 

 mosaics, frescoes, encaustic tiles, and painted windows, with 

 a daily service. The chapel is open to all Ruglish visitors at 

 the hotels at Baveno, and it is quite worth while to make it a 

 Sunday resting-place. The chapol is quite perfect in its way. 



From Baveno we crossed into Switzerland by tho St. Gothard 

 Pass, and I will reserve my few remarks on tho vegetation, &o., 

 we saw in route till another paper. — C. P. P. 



EARLY WKITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 7. 

 JOHN EVELYN. 



SwiTZEE, the contemporary of Evelyn, and one of the best 

 practical gardeners, and the best writer on gardening of that 

 period, observed that " Evelyn, like another Virgil, was appointed 

 for the retrieving the calamities of England and reanimating 

 the spirit of his countrymen for their planting and sowing of 

 woods ; to him it is owing that gardening can speak proper 

 English." He was born at Wotton in Surrey, the mansion of 

 his father, on the 31st of October, 1G20. lie commenced his 

 education at Lewes in Sussex, and completed it at Baliol Col- 

 lege, Oxford. In 1010 he entered as a student of the Middle 

 Temple, but proceeded in 1614 on the grand tour of Europe to 

 Italy. Having exerted himself in promoting the restoration 

 of Charles II. he was appointed a commissioner for the sick 

 and wounded during the Dutch war. He was one of the first 

 Fellows and of the Council of the Royal Society on its estab- 

 lishment in 1602. It was by his persuasion that Lord Henry 

 Howard in ICti7 presented the Arundelian marbles to the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford, for which he received its thanks and the 

 degree of Doctor of Laws. He was also appointed one of the 

 Commissioners for rebuilding St. Paul's Cathedral, had a place 

 at the Board of Trade, and was one of the Council for tho 

 management of the Plantations. After the accession of 

 James II. he became one of the Commissioners for executing 

 the office of Lord Privy Seal, and in 1695 Treasurer of Green- 

 wich Hospital. 



Mr. Evelyn became possessed of Sayes Court in 1617 by 

 marrying the only daughter of Sir Richard Browne, tenant 

 under the Crown. Sir Richard, being absent as our repre- 

 sentative in France, allowed Evelyn to reside at Sayes Court 

 in 16.il. 



In the January of 16.53 Evelyn writes, " I began to set out 

 the oval garden at Sayes Court, which was before a rude 

 orchard, and all the rest one intire field of a hundred acres, 

 without any hedge except the hither Holly hedge joining to 

 the bank of the Mount walk. This was the beginning of all 

 the succeeding gardens, walks, groves, enclosures, and planta- 

 tions there." 



" The hithermost garden I planted about 1656, the other 

 beyond it, 1660 ; the lower grove, 16H'2 ; the Holly hedge, even 

 with the Mount hedge below, 16V0." 



Previously to his incurring the expense incident to all these 

 improvements Evelyn had wisely secured to himself and heirs 

 a long possession. The ground belonged to the Crown, and 

 ho obtained in the December of 1662 a warrant to prepare a 

 lease to him of sixty-five acres, the portion of Sayes Court 

 now held by him, for ninety-nine years, though the term 

 greatly exceeds the Lord Treasurer's instruction, on rent to 

 tho Crown of £20 ; and 204 acres, the remaining portion, for 

 thirty-one years at a rent of £40. In 166.3 the lease was 

 finally granted, but the rent was reduced to 22.s. 6d. ! 



In 1683 he " planted all the out-limits of the garden and 

 long walks with Holly," and of one of them he thus speaks — 

 " Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing object 

 of the kind than an impregnable hedge of about 400 feet in 

 length, 9 feet high, and 5 in diameter, which I can show in 

 my now ruined garden at Sayes Court (thanks to the Czar of 

 Muscovy) at any time of the year ? It mocks the rudest 

 assaults of the weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers." This 

 last sentence evidently refers to its being proof against the 

 barbarian amusement of the barbarian Czar of Russia, his 

 temporary tenant, being impeDed through the Sayes Court 

 hedges in a wheelbarrow. 



In 1696 Evelyn let Sayes Court to Captain Benbow, after- 

 wards Admiral, of whom he thus speaks in his diary : — " I 

 have let my house to Captain Benbow, and have the morti- 

 fication of seeing every day much of my former labours and 

 expense there impairing for want of a more polite tenant." 

 In the commencement of the year 1698 Benbow underlet the 



