CHAP. VIII.] MAKING OF GAKDEN AT WALLINGTON. 71 



my father's attention to Wallington. Already, in 1858, he had 

 rented that fishery, and a little later obtained a narrow strip 

 of land, where he grew a few peas, beans, &c. At that time 

 what is now " my garden " was a barren field, which it was 

 impossible to walk across without sinking above your knees in 

 water. A few willows divided the field almost midway, and along 

 the side of the road it was skirted by tall elms, and a little thicket 

 of trees in Beddington Park enclosed it on another side. This 

 field, this waste land, the soil of which was singularly devoid of 

 vegetative qualities, Alfred Smee converted into an experimental 

 garden where there is grown the largest collection of fruit-trees 

 and other species of plants of any private collection in Europe, 

 for the description of which I must refer the reader to his great 

 work, ' My Garden.' The forming of this garden, and the experi- 

 ments he there carried on for the cultivation of various plants, 

 were ever the recreation of my father from his multifarious mental 

 labours and anxieties of life. The objects of this garden are seen 

 in my father's dedication" In Lucem, Lucrum, Ludum." The 

 dedication of a garden is new in England, yet in Italy it fre- 

 quently occurs, and it was from the latter country that my 

 father borrowed the idea. From the year 1859, most of the 

 Saturdays were spent in this garden, among his beloved plants, 

 and here he would throw off all cares, and show in a remarkable 

 way how his genius was not to be confined in one path. In the 

 memoir of him in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' * we read that this 

 garden 



contains something of everything. Though the surface is flat, landscape 

 effects and artistic surprises are numerous. The visitor passes in a 

 moment from a bold bit of lake scenery to a tiny fern-clad ravine, through 

 which meanders a crystal stream, laving as it goes a host of lovely bog- 

 plants. A turn, and the visitor is in a rose-garden, or admiring a choice 

 collection of alpines. Now long shady walks invite attention ; now the 

 treasures of the herbaceous border attract notice. Nor is the more 

 utilitarian part of gardening omitted: on the contrary, it is in places 

 somewhat too obtrusively prominent. Be this as it may, the collection 

 of vegetables, and specially of fruit-trees, is very remarkable. No mere 

 amateur's collection within our experience rivals this one in extent and 

 variety. As to the houses and garden structures, they are numerous and 

 efficient. They have no architectural pretensions ; indeed, one object of the 

 proprietor was to show how, at a comparatively very slight expense, men 

 of very moderate means might enjoy the pleasures and luxuries of a green- 

 house, a fernery, a stove, or a vinery. Mr. Smee's " poor man's houses " 



* See ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' January 27th, 1877. 



