358 London Niir series 



a retired coach proprietor. Near the turnpike-gate, beyond Brentford, in 

 the Duke of Northumberland's grounds, a large handsome myrobalan 

 plum tree, in full flower. The father of Mason, the author of the jE.s5flj/ 

 on Design in Gardening, was a distiller in Brentford. George Mason died 

 fifteen or twenty years ago. What has become of his books ? Did he 

 leave any manuscripts ? Can and will any of our readers oblige us with 

 information concerning this gentleman ? There must certainly be some 

 person living at Brentford, or some one connected with the Sun Fire 

 Insurance Office, of v/hich Mason was a director, who could gratify our 

 curiosity. Mason's Essay was published before Whately's Observations. 

 Another fine myrobalan plum in Ronalds's nursery, and near it some fine 

 yellow-barked ash trees : these must have an enlivening effect among ever- 

 greens ; indeed, evergreens in quantity, without a judicious sprinkling of 

 deciduous, gay-bai'ked, or eai'ly flowering trees or shrubs, always look dark 

 and heavy in spring. The yellow ash, golden willow, snake-barked maple, 

 white-barked birch, red dogwood, white-barked honeysuckle, and some 

 others that may be observed in walking round Loddiges's arboretum 

 at tliis season, are fitting plants for the purpose in view. A number of 

 modern street-like cottage buildings, forming a sort of village a little beyond 

 Ronalds's nursery, on the Isleworth Road. As the gardens here have been 

 lately planted, they afford a fair specimen of the degree of progress which 

 cottage ornamental gardening has attained in the western neighbom'hood of 

 London. The most showy plants at the present time are the almond, the 

 Cydonia japonica, and Kern'a japonica. Chma roses trained between the 

 doors and windows, and vines on the upper part of the house, are common. 

 Among the flowers, violets, ^'rabis albida, daffodils, crocuses, polyanthuses, 

 wall-flowers, daisies, PuUuonaria officinalis, and others. In ten yeai's the 

 Ribes sanguineum will certainly be added to the shrubs and tulips, hya- 

 cinths, and other bulbs, with numerous Cruciferae and North American 

 Labiatae and ^axifrageae to the herbaceous plants In the hedges farther 

 on, Ficaria, Glechoma, the barren strawberry, daisy, dandelion, and the 

 large fiirze in flower. Various species of poplar in blossom ; one, the 

 Carolina, we believe, with long pendent bright red catkins; the hoary 

 poplar has purple catkins. The ash and elm are also coming into blossom. 

 Passed some very large old oaks, which have evidently been pollarded at 

 some former period ; and hence the trees, though exceedingly picturesque, 

 are of no value as timber. For the same reason they want dignity of 

 character, which in all cases, whether of men or trees, is mainly founded 

 on utility. Even a timber tree, whose wood is not reckoned of much 

 value, such as the alder, the hornbeam, or the willow, whatever may be its 

 form, wants, on that principle, the degree of dignity of character possessed 

 by the oak, the ash, and the elm. 



Fine Situation of Mr. Scott's House at Shepperton. — Fine ; because so 

 placed, on an elbow of the river, as to command extensive v-iews up and 

 down the stream. A house beside a river, on the shores of a lake or of the 

 sea, or at the foot of a mountain, never suffers in grandeur of character from 

 want of territorial extent, because the character of nature in such situations 

 is so powerful as to overcome artificial associations; and no one ever 

 thinks of purchasing a river, a lake, or a mountain ; or regrets his inability 

 to make alterations which he knows it is not in the power of man to effect. 

 No one, also, ever thinks of complaming of the nearness of a boundary 

 which is placed there by nature, on the same principle that no one thinks 

 of cavilling at what is inevitable. In professional language, the views from 

 a gentleman's seat so situated appropriate the grand feature of nature as 

 a part of the demesne ; and the same thing may be stated of the views 

 from all the houses of all the inhabitants of districts of country abound- 

 ing in such scenery. Hence the real and very considerable difference 

 in character between the native of the champaign and of the alpine 



