Domestic Notices : — England. 329 



will be taught, with a library, museum, and botanic garden attached, such 

 as we have suggested in " JDes E'tahlissemens pour V E' ducat ion pubUque" 

 (p. 79.), in every parish in the empire. — Cond. 



Hyde Park. — In consequence of the operations of Mr. Shedden on the 

 surface of this park, with Finlayson's harrow (Vol. II. p. 250. fig. 66.) 

 and with manure, to which we formerly alluded (Vol. III. p. 242.), it is now 

 covered with a finer sward than it undoubtedly ever before exhibited either 

 by nature or art. We regret that government does not think it worth 

 while to introduce in this park, here and there among the existing trees, 

 young specimens of the more hardy and noble North American sorts. Why 

 should not five or six species of oak, and as many of birch, elm, lime, pine, 

 &c., be introduced, as well as the Platanus, which is a North American tree 

 not a whit more hardy or more noble in appearance than fifty trees that 

 might be named ? We never look at this park and at Kensington Gardens 

 without reverting in our mind to the little solicitude which the go- 

 vernment of this country evinces respecting the public taste or the enjoy- 

 ments of the mass of society. Permission, it seems, has been given to the 

 proprietors of the very handsome large houses built on the Bishop of Lon- 

 don's estate, lying along the Bayswater Road, and looking towards Hyde 

 Park, to take down the park wall, and replace it by an open iron railing. 

 This will prove a great enjoyment to these houses, and a great ornament 

 to the public road ; but a portion of the wall opposite certain smaller 

 houses on ground belonging to the vestry of the parish of St. George's is left 

 standing, thus at once insulting the poverty of the inhabitants of these 

 houses, and disfiguring the road, which forms one of the finest entrances 

 to London. Surely a government that can spare money for such a useless 

 object as the bridge, and for such a deformity as the cascade in Hyde Park, 

 and can spend nearly half a million on a palace, that in less than seven 

 years will either be deserted or taken down from the insalubrity of its 

 situation, independently of its architectural defects, might incur the expense 

 of removing this wall for the sake of public ornament. 



We regret to see the wall round Kensington Gardens undergoing repair, 

 and cannot help repeating our opinion (Vol. I. p. 89. and p. 283.) that it 

 would be much better, that is, it would be more ornamental to the metro- 

 polis, and leave Kensington Gardens equally secluded, to replace the wall 

 by an iron railing, planting a border of evergreen shrubs within, which 

 shrubs, for immediate effect, might, if it were thought desirable, be placed on 

 a raised bank, such as may be seen executed in the garden belonging to the 

 Adult Orphan Institution near the Coliseum, Regent's Park, If the Duke of 

 Wellington will put these gardens under our management for ten years, and 

 will allow us reasonable liberty and the same average sum that is at present 

 expended on them, we will, without salary or pecuniary advantage of any 

 kind, show what might be made of them even now. We have before shown 

 what they might have been (Vol. I. p. 280.) by one grand and consistent 

 plan. — Cond. 



Hyacinths in Pots. -—We have observed this season remarkably fine shows 

 of hyacinths in the windows of some of the London seed-shops ; among^ 

 the finest, we think, were those of Noble and Co. (formerly Mason's), in 

 Fleet Street. The roots are planted in autumn, and the pots, being plunged 

 in the opei air and covered 6 or sin. in depth with rotten tan, are taken out 

 during spring as wanted, and placed under glass on a little heat. Those who 

 have neither a garden, nor a hotbed, may effect the same object by setting 

 the pots in any cellar or out-house, or in the comer of a yard, and there cover- 

 ing them with light soil or sand, and, as wanted, taking them out and setting 

 them in a room as near as possible to the window. Messrs. Noble have 

 had upwards of three hundred sorts in their windows at different times this 

 season ; at our request they furnished us with the following select list : — 



