128 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. ._ PART I. 
Gleditschia, Cércis, Cratee‘gus, and Photinia 15 ft. high; some 
of the finest trees of Pyrus nivalis and bollwylleriana in the 
country; of Halésza, Diospyros, Nyssa, Gymnocladus, Planera, 
Jiglans, Stuartia, Latrus, Quércus, Juniperus, Thuja, a remark- 
ably fine Cunninghamza, and many pines, among which are 
the greatest number of Pinus Pallaszdna to be found together 
in any grounds in England. Pinus Cémbra has here attained the 
height of 30 ft. in 35 years; and Larix péndula that of 50 ft. in 
the same time. At Blenheim the duke has introduced the finest 
trees he could procure, in numbers and in masses, as far as he 
was enabled to do so; and Magnolia conspicua, of which seldom 
more than one or two plants are to be found in any one demesne, 
may be there reckoned by dozens. An account of White Knights, 
as far as its picturesque beauty extends, will be found in Hoff- 
lands’s Description of White Knights, Lond. 1819, fol.; and of 
its gardens, in a botanical and horticultural point of view, in the 
Gardener’s Magazine, vol. ix. p. 664.; in which work will also 
be found an account of Blenheim, vol. x. p.99. The Duke of 
Marlborough’s gardener, from the commencement of the duke’s 
gardening operations at White Knights to the present time, has 
been Mr. Jones. White Knights, which is now the property of 
Francis Cholmeley, Esq., has its gardens under the direction of 
Mr. Ward. ‘The house is at present (1835) unoccupied. 
William Beckford, Esq., of Fonthill Abbey, began to plant at 
that place all the rare trees and shrubs which he could procure, 
about the same time as the Duke of Marlborough planted 
White Knights. He paid no attention to house or to herbaceous 
plants, but, like the duke, he planted the choicest trees and 
shrubs, in quantities, without any regard to their cost; paying 
for them, we believe, in ready money. We had the satisfaction 
of inspecting the grounds at Fonthill twice in 1806, when they 
were in their highest beauty and keeping; and we spent two days 
in looking at them again in 1833, when they were in a state of 
neglect, and when the greater number of the rare trees and 
shrubs, and in particular the pinetum, thornery, and rosary, 
were almost obliterated by the growth of common trees and 
shrubs. There are still some fine magnolias, rhododendrons, 
and azaleas in the American ground, which have been hardy 
enough to cope with the native trees which have been planted, 
- or have sprung up fortuitously around them. ‘The scenery of 
Fonthill has somewhat of a Swiss character, from the hilly ridge 
on which the Abbey is built, and the prevalence of the pine and 
fir tribe in the woods; and in it there is an air of melancholy 
grandeur, unlike that of any other place that we are acquainted 
with in Britain. A description of Fonthill Abbey, when in its 
most perfect state, has been given by Britton, in his Wiléshire, 
and a notice of it, as it appeared to us in 1833, will be found in 
the Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 425. 
