Queries and Answers. 729 



kind as to make some observations on the queries I asked (Vol. IV. p. 447.), 

 respecting the number of men requisite to keep a gentleman's kitchen and 

 pleasure garden, &c., in good order. They complain that I have given no 

 regular data, therefore, I have taken the pains to explain every circum- 

 stance attending my present case and circumstances. As to situation 1 

 should think this a very bad one. The garden is nearly sixty years old, and 

 the soil is from 3 in. to 6 ft. deep. It is a nasty sour soil, very bad to work 

 in during very wet or very dry weather ; a better soil in appearance for 

 vegetables could not be, but it is so very late. I am taking away both 

 trees and soil from time to time, adding all new in the wall borders, and 

 am double-digging the remaining part of the garden. I have had two men 

 and a boy for a month working hard on about a chain's length of ground 

 before it was fit for tillage, clearing away stones, &c., from old buildings 

 wliich had been thrown down and covered over. We found some stones 

 so very large, about 6 in. deep under some asparagus beds, that I was 

 obliged to get a horse to draw them out. Bad as this may appear, the 

 garden has passed through the hands of several professional English and 

 Scotch gardeners. 



My garden is on the side of a hill, declining so much that it falls 1 J in. 

 at every foot, and leads down to a wood of immensely high timber. The 

 garden is about 150 yards from the top to the bottom. We have to wash 

 all the vegetables and salading, and to carry them into the house; and I 

 have also the care of 5 acres of orcharding to plant, prune, and graft, 

 &c. I have to gather and store up all the fruit for kitchen and parlour 

 use, and to take in desserts and flowers for table, &c. I have to clean 

 the snow from the top of the house when any falls, and it takes all 

 hands from the garden to store ice and snow for summer use which requires 

 a week ; and you must be aware that it takes a great deal of time to get it up 

 for the use of the house, as they use a great quantity : and then the cook 

 must have one from the garden to assist in getting up the ice creams, &c., 

 and she must have one man three hours every day for other house work ; 

 and the butler or footman or some one will come and say, " My employer 

 says one of your men is to go and take this letter somewhere or other." At 

 the same time they were deceiving me. Then there is hay time and 

 harvest, wlien all hands must go to assist the bailiff, with many other jobs 

 too tedious to mention. I have no glass at all, but my trees are infested 

 with canker, mildew, insects, &c. ; for my employer wishes me to grow all 

 the seeds I can, which are taken up to the top of the garden and then up 

 nineteen perpendicular stairs into a fifteen feet room which is all the place 

 I have fit for that use. Then I and all my assistants have to go a mile and 

 a half every night and morning, and leave the garden exposed to every 

 thing. 



With respect to the pleasure-gardens there is as much mowing as two 

 men can do in one day every fortnight with cleaning away the grass. There 

 are also the rolling, and clipping round the flower knots which are cut in the 

 turf, including all the turf clipping 530 yards, 200 yards of edgings of 

 various flowers, 200 yards of dwarf box edging, 250 yards of thrift edging, 

 460 yards of gravel walks (gravel is a very scarce article here), and 780 

 yards of sand walks. All the walks are 5 ft. in width, and there are flower 

 borders to the principal, and all is expected to be kept clean. 



I hope some of your most practical correspondents will handle this to 

 the best of their knowledge for the advantage of gardeners and their em- 

 ployers. I forgot to mention the shrubberies also, besides a vast quantity of 

 plantation, and fishing waters, though there are a bailiff and gamekeeper 

 kept. The walls are from 6 to 30 ft. high. — A Shipston Corresiwndent. 

 March 21. 1829. 



The Poor Widows, and a Proposal/or a Gardeners^ Fund. — Sir, I have 

 taken the liberty to enclose one shilling, sixpence of which I wish to be 



