Public Botanical and Horticultural Gardens. 415 



fires for the iiieht at five o'clock, without needing to look at 

 them again till the following morning at eight or nine. The 

 houses were always as hot as could be wished, and might 

 have been kept at 100°, if it had been thought necessary. A 

 young gardener, from Mr. Mearns at Shobden Court, who 

 had been accustomed, when there, to sit up half the night, 

 during winter, to keep up the fires to the smoke-flues, was 

 overcome with delight when he came here, and found how 

 easy the task of foreman of the houses was likely to prove to 

 him, as far as concerned the fires and nightwork. We are 

 quite at a loss to conceive how Mr. Paxton can reconcile 

 himself to smoke-flues, with evidence of this kind before him. 

 We mention this, not so much for the sake of Mr. Paxton's 

 hot-house productions, as for the sake of his men, and for the 

 sake of other men in similar cases. 



We cannot quit the subject of the Manchester botanic gar- 

 den without mentioning a few traits of liberality in the parties 

 connected with it; the noble result, as we think, of the influ- 

 ence of commercial prosperity in liberalising the mind. Mr. 

 Traffbrd, the owner of the ground, offered it for whatever 

 price the committee chose to give for it. The committee took 

 it at its value to a common farmer, and obtained a lease of 

 the 16 statute acres (10 Lancashire) for 99 years, renewable 

 for ever, at 120/. a year.* The committee advertised for 

 plans, and not only gave the premiums they promised, but 

 some artists who failed in winning prizes were presented with 

 sums on account of the trouble they had taken. The most 

 liberal donations of trees, plants, and books, have been made 

 by surrounding gentlemen ; and Mr. John Smith of the 

 Throstle Nest paper mills, at old TrafFord, who has an ele- 

 vated cistern of water supplied by machinery from the Irwell, 

 seeing a situation in the garden marked out for a fountain, has 

 kindly offered to supply the water, if the committee think it 

 worth while to lay down pipes. 



* The rent paid to Lord Calthorpe for the Birmingham garden, of exactly 

 the same extent, on a 60 years' lease, is considerably more than double this 

 sum. On our suggesting to the committee that they ought to remonstrate 

 with Lord Calthorpe on the extravagance of the rent, considering that the 

 garden would greatly benefit his surrounding estates, we were answered 

 that Lord Calthorpe, being only a life holder, could not let his land for less 

 than the highest price it would fetch, without committing an act of injus- 

 tice towards his heirs, the estate being entailed. So much for the entail 

 system, which, with the law of primogeniture, wUl, we hope, be speedily 

 done away with. We detest such excuses. Mr. Trafford has a large family ; 

 Lord Calthorpe has neither wife nor child, nor any direct heir. He would 

 not have been guilty of excessive liberality if he had granted the land for 

 nothing. Let him do so still during his lifetime, and the committee will 

 take the chance of what may happen after his death. 



