THE ROSE GARDENS OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 65 



Eastern Railway. The drive to it is prettily varied by hill 

 and dale ; and the park, which contains some magnificent 

 specimens of English oak, has a surface prettily and greatly 

 diversified. The subsoil at a foot below the surface is clay, 

 the surface soil is loam. The first group of Roses visited 

 was at the back of the kitchen-garden adjoining the park ; 

 they formed two long beds of three rows each, a straight 

 walk passing between, the edgings to which were composed 

 of the Red Fairy Rose arranged six inches apart. This 

 pretty miniature, which is richly deserving of more general 

 culture, makes very neat edgings, flowers during the whole 

 of the summer and autumn, and is never injured by frost. 

 In this instance it was adorned with thousands of its 

 beautiful ruby blossoms, whose brightness was rendered 

 more striking by the multitude of dark green leaves with 

 which they were surrounded. Among the kinds most 

 conspicuous here we noticed French: Colonel Coombs. 

 Hybrid Chinese, &c : Blairii No. 2, Brennus, Triomphe de 

 Laqueue, Charles Duval. Noisette: Bouton Nankin, Jaune 

 Desprez. Tea- Scented : Moiret. Microphylla: Double 

 Red. Chinese: Lady Warrender, Eugene Beauharnais. 

 Bourbon: Madame Desprez, Julie Deloynes. These and 

 other popular kinds are planted indiscriminately. Passing 

 thence we entered a small garden of a semicircular form, 

 one side of which is supported by a handsome belt of 

 spruce firs, and the other lies open to the sun. The 

 first object observed here was a bed of mixed kinds, 

 standards and half-standards, the former being planted in 

 the centre, and the ground beneath covered with dwarf 

 plants of the old Cabbage Rose. In this bed we parti- 

 cularly admired Bourbon : Georges Cuvier. Noisette : 

 Solfaterre. Hybrid Perpetual: Lady Alice Peel. Chinese: 

 Tancredi, foliage and flowers very fine. Tea- Scented: 

 Narcisse. Following a walk running by the side of the 

 spruce firs, we found many beauties to admire in a 

 border planted with standards. Noisettes: Euphrosyne 

 and Ophirie. Tea-Scented: Buret, Caroline, Pactolus, 

 E 



