The Gardens of Bagnell Hall 



AMONG the many folk that, from 

 lands afar, come to Cobourg 

 for rest or pleasure, for scen- 

 ery or superlative ozone, there are 

 very few who do not visit and 

 admire the beautiful gardens of Bagnell 



T. S. Hall-AbcU, B. Sc, Cobourg, Ont. 



any rate, the work was a complete suc- 

 cess, and not one of the trees thus plant- 

 ed succumbed. 



Looking east one sees part of the gar- 

 den in figure two. This view was taken 

 from the tennis court. 



Bagnell Hall : Front Approach, Showing Porte Cochere and Elm* planted only three 



years ago — Fig. 1 



Hall, the residence of Willis F. McCook, 

 Esq. Surely this gentleman^who lis 

 widely known, being a prominent Pitts- 

 burg barrister — can truly say as did the 

 Roman warrior of old, "Veni, vidi, 

 vici." 



He came. 



He saw — a brickyard — a claypit — a 

 mangold wurtzel patch — and by the all- 

 powerful compound of brains plus brawn, 

 he turned this place of ashes and brick- 

 bats into such a garden as one some- 

 times dreams of — old courts scented with 

 sweetbriar and roses — shady nooks and 

 nodding hollyhocks — a bowling green 

 that Sir Francis Drake might have play- 

 ed upon, and in the centre of all a resi- 

 dence such that the most exacting critic 

 cannot find the wherewithal to criticize. 



He conquered. 



His coming was in 1909. In October 

 of tihat year work was commenced under 

 the watchful eyes and to the plans of 

 well-known landscape architects. A 

 general idea was given to them to which 

 to work ; other than this, a free hand 

 was theirs. 



In figure one, one sees the driveway 

 from the old Kingston Road about half 

 a mile east of the Cobourg Post Office. 

 This leads in a graceful curve up to and 

 through a Porte Cochere, below and ad- 

 joining the south-west tower. 



Notice the elms on either side of this 

 drive. They were planted less than 

 three short years ago by means of the 

 misnamed tree-planting machines. At 



Figure three shows the beds for cut 

 flowers — on the left front where bloom 

 asters, verbenas, gladioli, and roses. 

 The ribbon border on the right of this 

 picture was picked out with red and 

 white geraniums and blue lobelias. One 

 is thankful that a combination of red, 

 white and blue is correct in Canada as 

 well as in the United States of America. 



Looking west and to the right of. the 

 drive may be discerned a small brick 

 building. This is the one remaining 

 vestige of brick kiln days. It is the hut 

 in which the men's implements were 

 stored. 



The interior courtyard shows up well 

 in figure four, the decorative effects be- 

 ing done in Roman Stone. To the left 



of this, but not showing here, is the 

 howling green, where one might 



Sit and dream the hours away 



While Raleigh and his Captains play; 



The time they wait for Spain. 



It seems almost impossible that such 

 a complete transformation, of which 

 only a most incomplete account has been 

 given, could have been effected in so 

 short a period ; and any visitor to Co- 

 bourg possessed of a desire to see the 

 "garden beautiful," should certainly not 

 miss the opportunity of paying a visit 

 to Bagnell Hall and its gardens. It is 

 one of the beauty spots of Cobourg, and 

 this is saying a great deal, as Cobourg 

 itself is one of the beauty spots of 

 Canada . 



Utilizing the Small Greenhouse 



By Htnry Gibson, Staatibnrf 



A popular plant that is easily grown, 

 likes a comparatively cool temperature, 

 and is perhaps as serviceable as any- 

 thing that an amateur can grow, is the 

 cyclameni. The one drawback to grow- 

 ing these plants is the length of time it 

 takes them to reach the flowering stage. 

 From twelve to fifteen months is re- 

 quired to produce a good specimen. 

 Seed should be sown in August or Sep- 

 tember in pans of light, sandy soil, and 

 kept growing right along for flowering 

 the following autumn and winter. As 

 soon as the seedlings appear, place them 

 near the glass so that they do not get 

 drawn, and when large enough to 

 handle, prick off several inlto a six-inch 

 pot. In the spring they may be potted 

 singly into three-inch pots and grown in 

 a cold frame all summer, with plenty of 

 air, after becoming established, and 

 shade enough to prevent bright sun from 

 reaching them. By July they will re- 

 quire shifting into five or six inch pots, 

 in which they will flower, and an extra 

 good specimen would be better placed 

 in a seven-inch pot. Good drainage 

 must be ensured and a compost used of 



Bagnell Hall from the Tennis Court, Looking East— Fig. 2 



