548 General Results of a Gardening Tour: — 



not help being surprised at the incongi'uity. Were we the 

 Earl of Grosvenor, we should immediately complete this ter- 

 race as it ought to be completed ; and extend from it east- 

 ward, and to the right and left, a highly enriched architectural 

 garden, surrounded by an embattled half-sunk wall, with an 

 accompanying terrace, and connected with the kitchen-garden 

 by a walk. AH the rest of the present pleasure-ground, down 

 to the water, we would throw into the park. If we have 

 sufficient leisure, when giving the details of our tour, we wilt 

 give a plan of the pleasure-ground here as it is, and another 

 as, we feel perfectly confident, it ought to be ; on the prin- 

 ciple of never attempting any thing by art, that nature has 

 rendered it impossible to do well. 



We were rather surprised to find this pleasure-ground in 

 very bad order ; the white clover was flowering on the grass ; 

 on remarking which to an intelligent young man. Mi-. Diifif^s 

 foreman, he stated that the grass was keeping for the farmer, 

 that article being scarce with him this season. This, the family 

 being in London, we consider to a certain extent a legitimate 

 excuse; but we wonder much that a man of the Earl of Gros- 

 venor's rank and wealth, possessing such a truly magnificent 

 palace as Eaton Hall, should not give orders to have it, at all 

 seasons, in the highest style of keeping of which it is suscep- 

 tible. Between the highest degree and mediocrity the differ- 

 ence will not amount to more than the work of half a dozen 

 of labourers in the year. The dug clumps were, in general, 

 what gardeners would call foul, and the edgings to the walks 

 as deep and bare as any we have seen ; and, as a proof that a 

 good deal has been pared off them every year, we observed a 

 margin of clay between the edging and the gravel. 



We should not say so much of these edgings, did we not know 

 Mr. Duff, whom we regret we did not find at home, to be too 

 liberal and enlightened a man to take it amiss; and, to rank 

 too highly in his profession for any thing that we could say 

 to do him the slightest injury. But this very professional 

 eminence on his part renders it the more necessary for us to 

 point out freely what might otherwise be imitated on his 

 authority. 



Lowther Castle is placed in a commanding situation, in a 

 noble park, with an extensive prospect from the entrance 

 front, but with no prospect at all, not even of the home 

 grounds from the other. A great error, in our opinion, has 

 been committed in not forming the entrance front on this 

 unfavoured side; so that the first impressions of the grand 

 distant prospect might have been obtained from the windows. 

 Another lamentable fault is, that the whole building is too 



