582 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



December SO, 1875. 



Vine Street, Lambeth, is not only of iutereBt to the anti- 

 quarian as denoting the locality of a very ancient roadway, it 

 is also notable becanse it is said by an old tradition of the 

 neighbourhood to have had vineyards along it a few centuries 

 back. A writer on the history of Surrey, when mentioning 

 this circumstance, takes ocoaBion to say that our forefathers 

 cultivated Vines more for shade and ornament than use, be- 

 cause it was not likely they had Grapes when the climate was 

 more moist and variable than at present. I venture to differ 

 from him. Possibly unlike the fox in the familiar fable, 

 people in the olden time had no objection to sour Grapes, but 

 I do not think they would have grown Vines without obtaining 

 a return of fruit ; and we read in various authors about the 

 manufacture of wine from English (rrapes. Nor is the state- 

 ment about the English climate quite correct. Could it ever 

 have been more variable ? I fancy not, and there is evidence 

 tending to show that the summers were longer and hotter. 



Passing by the Apollo Gardens, Lambeth, and the Mount 

 Gardens, both of dubious history, I should next notice Cuper's 

 Gardens ; because, though afterwards the spot became a notori- 

 ous place of public entertainment, in the first instance there 

 really was a garden in the charge of one Boydell Cuper, who 

 was a dependant of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, whose 

 fame is prolonged by the Arundelian marbles. These gardens 

 were nearly opposite Somerset House, and as Aubrey speaks 

 of the line walks there were in his time, it is supposable that 

 the earl planted the ground with some care and taste, though 

 it is not probable he put in many exotics. Subsequently the 

 estate came into the hands of one of the Oxford colleges, but 

 the gardener of the late earl, by some means or other, became 

 tenant, and removed here sundry fragments of Greek and 

 Roman marbles he had obtained, turning it into a popular 

 resort, which, by accident or joke, was often called Cupid's 

 Gardens, and finally closed in 1753. 



Before leaving this part of Lambeth it should be remembered 

 that some of the Archbishops of Canterbury took much 

 pleasure in plant or tree culture, and visitors from other 

 countries occasionally sought permission to view the nursery 

 and kitchen gardens attached to the palace. Two venerable 

 Fig trees, presumed to have been planted by Cardinal Pole, 

 were objects of special remark until they succumbed with old 

 age. Scions, however, taken from them were flourishing not 

 many years ago, and are probably living still. Archbishop 

 CornwaUis seems to have been one of those rather partial to 

 gardening in the eighteenth century. Oldys, in his casual 

 observations on fruit trees, does not forget to expatiate on the 

 splendid Mulberry trees he saw in July, 1753, in the gardens 

 of Carlisle House, Lambeth Marsh. He computes the shade of 

 one of these as covering 40 yards. It was named after Queen 

 Elizabeth. 



The monument erected at St. Mary's, Lambeth, to the 

 memory of the Tradescauts has been seen by a great many 

 persons doubtless, yet by few horticulturists I imagine, though 

 men who, as one biographer puts it, " introduced botany to this 

 country," are surely worthy of much honour. The Trades- 

 cants, or as their neighbours called them, the " Tradesldns," 

 by a slight distortion, were of Flemish descent, and arrived in 

 England at some period in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

 There must have been something very remarkable about them, 

 for we read that " they travelled art and nature through "^a 

 surprising journey ! Quaint also are these allegorical but un- 

 grammatical lines : — 



*' These famous aQtiiiuariaus that had been 

 Both ganloners to the Eoee and Lily Queen, 

 Transplanted now thomselves, sleep here, and when 

 Ani^'els BhaU with tlioir trumpets waken men, 

 And tire filial] purge the world, these hence shiiU rise 

 And change this garden to a paradise.'" 



Is an allusion here made to the churchyard or to the actual 

 garden of the Tradeecants ? That was in South Lambeth ; on 

 the assertion of Peter Cunningham we have it that the Nine 

 Elms Brewery occupies the site, a woeful descent from the 

 beauties of Flora. A house, subsequently called Turrit House, 

 was occupied by Tradesoant the younger, if not by his father 

 before him ; it was situate in the South Lambeth Road. The 

 physic or nursery garden could not have been of any consider- 

 able extent, though Tradescant the younger deemed it worthy 

 of having a printed catalosue of the plants it contained, which 

 was published in 1656. How John Tradescant, sen., acquired 

 this property is uncertain. That he must have been well con- 

 nected is clear from his having the title of gardener (honorary ?) 

 to Charles I. One of the most remarkable achievements 



attributed to him was his obtaining the Apricot from Algeria 

 at the risk of his life and property as weU, though we have 

 not the exact details. In bis travels he obtained a variety of 

 slips and seeds, and deposited them in his South Lambeth 

 garden, and his son followed his example, visiting America, 

 which does not appear to have been honoured by the presence 

 of the elder Tradescant, despite the assertion about the wide 

 range of his travels. At some date in 174fl the Royal Society 

 paid a formal visit of inspection to this plot of ground, but 

 could not discover more than a dozen or so of trees that they 

 thought themselves justified in attributing to one or other of 

 the Tradescants. And that there should not be lacking the 

 sombre side in the history of this garden, it is stated that 

 when John Tradescant, jun., died in the reign of Charles II., 

 he left to Ellas Ashmole the antiquary his miscellaneona 

 gathering of curiosities, and about these there arose a litigation. 

 This with other unfortunate circumstances so aiJected his 

 widow that she drowned herself in a pond on her premises in 

 1677 ; and as the epitaph at Lambeth records the previous 

 death of her son, I presume this branch of the Tradescants 

 thus became extinct. 



In No. 454 of the " Spectator " this curious passage occurs : — 

 " I landed with ten sail of Apricock boats at Strand Bridge, 

 after having put in at Nine Elms, and taken in Melons con- 

 signed to Mr. Cuffe of that place to Sarah Sewell and 

 Company at their staU in Covent Garden." This points to a 

 largish production of Apricots in the early part of last centary, 

 if the incident is not imaginary. As for Mr. Cuffe, we might 

 never have heard of him had he not been embalmed in the pages 

 of the great British essayist. Where he grew Melons at Nine 

 Elms is quite as uncertain as is the identification of the planter 

 of the nine Elms that gave name to the district. Doubtless 

 Melons would succeed well in a locality then quite as watery 

 as Lambeth, and not much better now. Old Vauxhall was 

 not, I believe, ever a market garden, though an antique print 

 shows beside it several strips of laud with growing Cabbages 

 and other vegetables. There were small market gardeners 

 hereabouts when Vauxhall was in the height of its popularity 

 in the days of Tyas, who with all his energy and perseverance 

 had a melancholy way of looking at things, and was decidedly 

 unfortunate in his weather on ffte days. As the tale goes, 

 when some special affair was coming off, one of his horticul- 

 tural neighbours came up to him with a face expressing 

 anxiety, wishing to know if the night was positively fixed. 

 Tyas told him, but as he walked oU called him back to in- 

 quire why he was so earnest about it. "Why?" said the 

 gardener, "Because I mean to choose that day to sow seeds, 

 for it will be sure to rain in the evening." — C. 



HARDTVICK HALL. 



THE SEAT OF THE MARQUIS OF HAETINGTON, M.P. 



At the distance of two miles from the main road leading 

 from Chesterfield to Mansfield stands the celebrated mansion 

 of Hard wick Hall, the seat of the Marquis of Hartington. It 

 is situated on a gentle eminence 594 feet above the level of 

 the sea, in tho midst of a finely wooded and undulating park 

 of 744 acres, in which are many venerable Onke, probably 

 indicating that it once formed a part of the forest of Sherwood. 

 The mansion was built in the reign of Queen EUzabeth by 

 the Countess of Shrewsbury, the third daughter, and after her 

 husband's death the co-heiress, of John Hardwick, Esq., who 

 brought this estate to her second husband Sir William 

 Cavendish, from whom it has descended to the present noble 

 owner. 



The Hall, which is in every essential part just as the 

 Countess left it, was commenced about the year 157G. It is 

 of striking proportions, the length being 210 feet, the width 

 100 feet, and the height 98 feet. The windows are so large 

 and numerous as to have given rise to the saying in the 

 neighbourhood — 



"Hardwick Hall, 

 More glass than wall. 



And the six towers with which it is crowned are surmounted 

 by open parapets of btone, in which occur the oft-repeated 

 initials " E. S." 



The flower garden before the west front, immediately opposite 

 the mansion, is surrounded by a wall with quaint ornaments 

 of stone, and is entered from the park by large doors between 

 two picturesque lodges ; and horticulture, like architecture, is 

 made to do homage to the memory of E. S., these initials 



