Preface. xi 



and it is known that a celebrated confectioner (Lord 

 Albermarle's)* complained that after having prepared 

 a middle dish of gods and goddesses eighteen feet 

 high, his lord would not cause the ceiling of his 

 parlour to be demolished, to facilitate their entree." 

 " Imaginez vous, " said he, "qtie milord n'a pas voulu 

 faire oter le plafond." 



Though table ornaments and dainty dishes have 

 long tried the skill of many an artist, as much seems 

 now to be devoted to plants for adorning the tables 

 and rooms of the rich, as in the last century was 

 bestowed upon painted china and devices of spun 

 sugar. This branch of our subject, or that which is 

 called town gardening, would alone supply material 

 for a Treatise ; and daily something new attracts 

 the amateur's attention. Even within the last few 

 days I have been surprised by seeing varieties of 

 Camellia in beautiful bloom in a conservatory off a 

 landing in a dwelling-house in so central a part of 

 Dublin as Harcourt-street. Here Mr. Cornwall 



* Here I may mention, in reply to inquiries I have often read in 

 public print Who composed and who was the hero of the popular song 

 Robin Adair ? Lady Caroline Keppel, daughter of the second Earl of 

 Albeniarle, composed it, and Kobert Adair, whom she afterwards mar- 

 ried, and who was surgeon-general to King George the Third, and 

 second son of Sir Robert Adair, who fought for King William at the 

 Boyne,. and died in College-green, Dublin, in 1745, was the hero. 



