Denhighs, Ashtead PatJc. 



595 



fixed obliquely to a long handle {fig. 1 35.), used as a daisy-rake for cutting off 

 flowers and herbs which obtrude themselves on grass lawns. For using this 

 daisy-knife the handle is held with both hands, and the blade is moved to 

 the right and left along the surface of the grass ; the operator advancing 

 from behind the work, as in mowing. 



Denbighs. — This house is on the top of a hill, which commands a fine 

 prospect, with the town of Dorking at its base ; and beyond that, Deepdene. 

 The approach is a mile and a quarter in length ; great part of it through a 

 plantation, mixed with spruce firs, which, notwithstanding the dry calca- 

 reous soil, in 1827 made shoots from 2 to 4 ft. in length. This is the more 

 remarkable, since the natural soil of the spruce fir is soft and moist, as in 

 the north of Prussia, and in the Black Forest on the Rhine. 



Ashtead Park; Col. Howard. August 18. — The house is a plain substan- 

 tial building, in a situation not much marked, either by nature or art, but 

 surrounded by turf and good trees, the latter not badly disposed. The 

 kitchen-garden is the best managed of any which we have seen during this 

 tour. The soil is very unfavourable ; but Mr. Hislop has overcome this, and 

 every other difficulty, so as to produce excellent crops both of fruit and 

 vegetables, and no garden was ever in more perfect order and neatness. 



At one end of the house is a flower-garden [.fig. 1 26.) on the open lawn, in 

 the form of a parallelogram, surrounded by a gravel walk (a), and the whole 



126 



enclosed by a light wire sheep fence : it is simple, but suitable to the house, 

 and the effect is good. It consists of three compound clumps (i to g\ and 



