Garden Memorandums. 



683 



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vatory are ornamented with lead vases painted of a Ba 167 



stone colour {Jig. \ 6'.), in which are placed pots 

 of plants in flower ; the pots concealed by saucers, 

 jgg which are in two parts (Jig. 168.) and 



planted with succulent plants or creep- 

 ers, and which fit into the top of the 

 vase, having an opening in the centre for 

 the stem of the plant in the pot below. 

 By keeping these vases supplied at all 

 seasons with plants in flower, the paths are bordered 

 with a line of rich fringe, which contrasts well with 

 the masses of dark green foliage of camellias, banksias, 

 oranges, &c., in the beds. 



The fruit-room here, and those at Wentworth and Worksop Manor, are 

 very completely fitted up with open shelves and drawers ; the latter for 

 the more select fruit. The names are painted on labels of tinned iron 

 (7%. 169.), which can be hooked on any shelf or drawer at igg 

 pleasure. There is a complete cabinet for seeds, and ano ther 

 for bulbs; pieces of furniture which are too generally wanting 

 in gardens. Indeed, in almost every establishment, the whole 

 system of garden offices, from the pot-shed and tool-house up- 

 wards to the head gardener's house, requires reformation and improvement. 

 Everj' one will allow that the same progress has not been made, during the 

 last twenty years, in these departments, as in others which more immediately 

 strike the eye ; in gardens, as in other places, the eye is to be caught first, 

 and the understanding afterwards. 



The want of good gravel in this part of the country is a considerable 

 drawback from the beauty of garden scenery; in the kitchen-garden it is of 

 less consequence; but we rather wonder that, in such places as Wentworth 

 and Bretton, it should not have been thought worth while to employ Ken- 

 sington gravel in the walks of the pleasure-ground, and in that part of the 

 approach road which is within the kept ground. We think that this ought 

 to be done at every residence having any pretensions to distinction. We 

 have known this gravel employed in very small places in Scotland ; and 

 every body knows that it is employed in many eminent gardens in Poland 

 and Russia, and even in India and South America. At Wentworth crushed 

 bricks, or the debris of brick or tile kilns, are employed as substitutes for 

 gravel in the kitchen-garden, and some of the walks at Bretton are of grass, 

 with a line of flag stones along their centre. We 

 ' should think a very handsome and durable walk might 



be formed by laying the bottom with brick rubbish, 

 or small stones, gravel, &c., with a little lime, and 

 .^— it(, then embedding a thin coat of Kensington gravel in 



I llP^^ Roman cement. Such a walk, formed with care, 



I — ^ 1 might be expected to last many years ; no worms or 



weeds would rise in it, and to prevent moss from 

 appearing it might be watered occasionally with salt 

 water. On leaving Bretton we observed a latch with 

 a stopper (Jig. 170. rt), for preventing a swing gate 

 from rebounding after falling too ; a very useful 

 appendage. 



On the whole, Bretton Hall is a most unsatisfactory 

 residence, though perhaps more money has been laid 

 out on it than on any other place of the same extent in Britain. The grand 

 misfortune is, that there is no marked natural situation for the house ; this 

 building, with the whole of the offices, splendid hot-houses, and gardens, is 

 placed on an inclined plane or bank of considerable steepness, but with 



