St. Margaret's. HI 



that a hint has been taken from the mode practised by the gar- 

 deners in the vicinity of Paris for forcing asparagus, a notice of 

 which will be found in this Magazine, Vol. X. p. 147. and 

 p. 293. The well-kept gravel walks, and cleanliness of the 

 quarters, in this garden, together with the state of the many fine 

 young fruit trees against the walls, and the abundance of fruit 

 they already produce, are highly creditable to Mr. Over. 



St. Margaret's ; Marquess of Ailsa. — This place nearly ad- 

 joins that of Lady Cooper, on the Twickenham side ; and is 

 situated, also, on the banks of the Thames, from which the lawn 

 is separated by a wall to its level, on which is constructed a 

 substantial iron palisade. In taking a rapid glance through the 

 kitchen-garden, 1 observed some asparagus pits, constructed 

 similarly to those at Lady Cooper's. There is a considerable 

 length of wall in this garden. One of the walls is devoted to 

 pears : the trees are fine, and the walls well filled. In the 

 border in front of this wall, a fanciful mode of pear-training is 

 carrying on, by training the trees to circular iron trellises, of 

 about 7 ft. in diameter, formed exactly in the shape of an in- 

 verted umbrella ; the stocks of the trees being about 9 in. high. 

 There being no pines grown here, the forcing-houses are all 

 devoted to peaches, grapes, &c., of which there are several 

 ranges, placed in different parts of the garden. At the back of 

 a lawn, the exterior of which forms the section of a circle, stands 

 a plant-house, with two circular ends, projecting in front con- 

 siderably beyond the line of the centre. Round the back of the 

 lawn is a laurel hedge ; and inside the hedge a permanent iron 

 stage is placed, of three or four steps high, to receive the green- 

 house plants in summer. At the extremity of the lawn, on the 

 Isleworth side, stands an opaque-roofed green-house, which is 

 now (Oct. 12.) furnished with hybrid rhododendrons in large 

 pots. Nothing can exceed the beauty of these plants, as respects 

 their handsome growth and luxuriancy of foliage. One of them, 

 I was given to understand, was purchased at the enormous price 

 of thirty guineas. On the lawn are some of the largest speci- 

 mens of the abele tree that I ever saw, with other trees of in- 

 ferior note, both with respect to size and ornament. Leaving the 

 front lawn, from which the observatory at Richmond is seen, 

 and proceeding by the walk which leads towards the Twicken- 

 ham side, we enter the flower-garden, which is laid out with 

 gravel walks, but has the flower-beds on gi'ass. At the back of 

 the flower-garden, the shape of which is the segment of a circle, 

 stands the orangery, consisting of a centre and two wings, the 

 centre running back some 30 ft. beyond the back line of the 

 wings. There are some orange trees, with the finest heads I 

 have seen for many years : I counted ten among them, the 

 average of the heads of which was about 10 ft. in diameter; 



