160 Biddulph Grange. 



Grange, the residence of James Bateman, Esq., by whom 

 they were wholly designed, and to whose liberality the 

 public are so much indebted for the privilege of admis- 

 sion. A surface favoured by nature with little more than 

 undulation and a stream of water, has been made to 

 supply aspects the most diversified and picturesque ; 

 genius has so combined the exotic and rare with the 

 wild and simple, as to give at every turn the highest 

 pleasures of novelty; a fine scientific purpose has put 

 wealth to noble use by devoting the ground especially 

 to the cultivation of the most curious and beautiful plants 

 'that recent travellers have sent home ; and though last, 

 far from least, the idiosyncrasies of the many little gar- 

 dens that, like the scenes within an epic, lie embedded 

 in the great one, are so perfect and distinct, though at 

 the same time in admirable harmony, that there is a fit- 

 ting place for the humblest flowers of the field and wood- 

 land, (for these are represented in abundance,) as well as 

 for very numerous exotics that are now nearly lost to 

 cultivation. In these days of " bedding-out," when a 

 garden is esteemed in proportion to its gaiety, and half- 

 a-dozen species of plants are thought better than ex- 

 amples of nature's sweet multiformity, it is quite refresh- 

 ing to find, as at every turn in this beautiful garden, 

 scores of the old-fashioned and simple things that de- 

 lighted the poets in times gone by, and that live for 

 ever in their verses, but which the florist disregards, and 

 ordinarily casts away 



