16 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



The next marked development in gardening- 

 refers more particularly to the flower-garden 

 itself. It was between the years 1835 and 1840 

 that the mode which we call " bedding-out " 

 began to came into general fashion. John Caie, 

 who was gardener to the Duke of Bedford, and 

 afterwards at Inverary Castle, is often said to 

 have originated the system ; but Mr. Frost, 

 writing from Dropmore to the editor of the 

 Gardener s Chronicle, says : 



" I helped to fill the beds here in the spring of 1823, long before 

 Mr. Caie had charge of the Campden Hill gardens. It was Lady 

 Grenville who began the bedding system in the first place, but she 

 quite abhorred both ribbon and carpet bedding. The dowager 

 Duchess of Bedford used to visit the grounds here, and much 

 admired the garden, and when she went to Campden Hill to live 

 she sent Mr. Caie here to see the place, and very probably to take 

 notes of what he saw." 



It would thus appear that to Lady Grenville 

 in her Dropmore gardens the credit of being 

 the first to bed-out may fairly belong. But 

 some fifteen years passed before the system 

 was generally adopted. It then grew rapidly 

 in favour, and before long it was clear that the 



