428 Gardens and Country Residences 



effect. The walks in this garden are very wide and of grass. 

 Three radiate from a summer-house at the south side of the 

 garden, wliich from that point have a very good effect. The 

 pleasure-grounds are extensive, and contain some excellent 

 Portugal and common laurels, and American plants. There 

 are also some good old plants in the hot and green houses ; 

 amongst them a particularly fine Acacia armata. 



Barkby Hall ; Ceorge Pochin, Esq. — Four miles north-east 

 of Leicester. The gardens large and good, with a most ex- 

 cellent range of glass; but it presents a great sameness, from 

 consisting of attached houses with an even and unvaried surface. 

 This range fully justifies your remarks in the E^icyclopcedia 

 of Gardening, where you recommend detached houses for 

 general use. A conservatory has lately been built which will 

 contain a great number of plants for its size, and will no 

 doubt grow them well ; but I think effect has, for such a house, 

 been too much sacrificed to utility. It is by far too low, and 

 the roof decidedly too flat. When I last saw the grounds, 

 about three months ago, several alterations were goiug for- 

 ward, which, in my opinion, will considerably alter the features 

 of the pleasure-grounds for the better. Mr. Cadny, the 

 gardener, is a most excellent grape-grower, and has a volume 

 in preparation for the pi'ess, descriptive of his system, and 

 also of a new pit for cucumbers, with a span roof, which he 

 has invented. 



Baggariff Hall ; Capt. Burnahy. — About nine miles E.N.E. 

 of Leicester. Several very favourable situations for American 

 plants ; some of the best sorts of which have lately been 

 planted here. Near the house is a good piece of water ; but 

 the gardens, for want of assistance, very badly kept up. 



Before I give you a description of the grounds at Lowesby 

 Hall, allow me to record the name of a most indefatigable 

 collector of plants in this immediate neighbourhood, Mr. 

 Francis Needham of Hungerton, who is well known to almost 

 every gardener in the county, as an amateur in the art of 

 gardening, and in the science of botany. He is persevering 

 in collecting and liberal in distributing, and would he only 

 adopt a regular system in his arrangements, and display a 

 little more neatness in his garden, his exertions would merit, 

 and no doubt obtain, the approbation of every sincere lover 

 of gardening. 



Lo-dceshy Hall, the seat of Sir Frederic Gustavus Fowke, Bart. 

 •^-A venerable old building, situated in a good park, the undu- 

 lating surface of which adds much to its beauty. The pleasure- 

 grounds have within the last twelve years been very much 

 extended and improved. The present spirited proprietor, being 



