182 



HORTICULTURE. 



Scottish 

 gardeners. 



Classific.- 

 lion of. 



der disadvantages ; for in few such gardens can he ac- 

 quire any knowledge of the management of fruit-trees, 

 particularly peaches, apricots, and the finer sort* of 

 pears. 



A young gardener who has spent his time in places 

 where the proper management of fruit-trees was not at- 

 tended to, or where no opportunity of attending to it 

 existed, may possibly be willing to accept lower wages, 

 in order to compensate for the defect of his education. 

 But the proprietor of the garden will soon find him- 

 self a loser by the injudicious economy of employing 

 him : and if it were a general rule steadily followed by 

 gentlemen, not to employ as their gardeners persons 

 who had not duly sought opportunities of gaining an 

 acquaintance with the different branches of their pro- 

 fession, young men of merit would, instead of grasping 

 at the situation of head-gardener immediately upon the 

 expiry of their apprenticeship, be convinced of the ne- 

 cessity of practically studying every department of their 

 " multifarious and numerous employment," as Evelyn 

 happily styles it. In Germany, it may be remarked, 

 a gardener has not only to serve a long apprenticeship, 

 but to pass certain examinations, before he can be re- 

 commended to a situation as head-gardener. In this 

 country there is no such regulation ; and the greater 

 necessity, therefore, for the employer being able to 

 judge of his gardener's qualifications. 



24. Scotland has long been distinguished for produ- 

 cing gardeners in greater numbers than any other coun- 

 try of Europe ; and several of them have risen to the 

 highest eminence in their profession. At the present 

 day many of the nobility and gentry of England em. 

 ploy Scottish head-gardeners ; while the numbers of 

 those of an inferior order, to be found in every county 

 south of the Tweed, is quite surprising. Some of the 

 causes of the very great number, and of the real ex- 

 cellence, of the Scottish gardeners, have been assign- 

 ed in the 9th chapter of the " General Report of Scot- 

 land." One is to be found in the early education se- 

 cured to the children of the labouring class in that 

 country, by the ancient and most laudable institution 

 of parish schools : another, in the hardy mode of life 

 and sober disposition of the young men, which have 

 very generally gained them the esteem of English 

 masters ; and a third, in the tendency which struggling 

 with a very variable climate at home, has to call into 

 action all the powers of the mind, and to create a habit 

 of unceasing attention to the duties of the station. It 

 may here be mentioned as a striking and very honour- 

 able trait in the character of the Scottish master-gar- 

 deners of the last age, (already mentioned, 21.) that it 

 was a common practice among them to spend a part of 

 the evening in instructing their apprentices in different 

 branches of education, particularly arithmetic, mensu- 

 ration, drawing of plans, and botany. Even at this 

 day, there are still in some places of Scotland to be 

 found the remains of this praiseworthy custom. A turn 

 for reading and study was thus created among young 

 operative gardeners ; and to this, their rise in life might 

 in many instances be traced. The taste for reading 

 was perhaps never more prevalent among gardeners 

 than at this day. Nor do they entirely neglect geome- 

 try, though it must be admitted that this kind of 

 knowledge is on the decline among them. It is not, 

 indeed, now nearly so necessary as formerly to the pro- 

 fessional gardener, grounds being no longer planned 

 into regular mathematical figures, and topiary work be- 

 ing altogether exploded. 



25. We have little fear of being accused of partiality 

 when we give a favourable report of the character of 



Scottish gardeners, the justness of their claim of merit Horticul- 

 being universally recognized : but, without enlarging ._) u "'_ r 

 farther on the topic, we proceed to give some very ge- ""V" 

 neral account of the different kinds of gardens now ex- 

 isting in Britain. All of them, we think, may be ar- 

 ranged under one or other of the following divisions, 

 a. Royal gardens, and public botanic gardens, b. The 

 gardens of noblemen and gentlemen of great opulence. 

 c. Villa gardens, d. Cottage gardens, e. The public 

 nurseries, which, especially near London, may without 

 impropriety be ranked as gardens, f. Market gardens. 

 On each of these heads, a few examples and observa- 

 tions seem necessary for illustration, and at the same 

 time they may prove not unentertaining. 



Royal Gardens. 



26. The Royal Gardens at Kew, on the banks of the Royal gar- 

 Thames near London, are perhaps the first in the world dens. 

 for variety of plants. They were originally planned ^ew. 

 by that distinguished character Frederick Prince of 

 Wales, father of King George III. The extent is about 

 120 acres. The surface is flat ; but owing to the taste- 

 ful disposition of trees and shrubs, the grounds exhibit 

 a considerable variety of scenery. They are nearly 

 surrounded by wood, amidst which rises a pagoda, or 

 Chinese temple, to the height of 1 6'0 feet : this was de- 

 signed by Sir William Chambers, who afterwards pub- 

 lished a description of the gardens and palace of Kew, 

 in folio. The exotic garden was established about the 

 year 1760, after the Prince's death, chiefly by the influ- 

 ence of the Marquis of Bute, a great encourager of bo- 

 tany and gardening. He placed it under the care of 

 Mr William Aiton, who had long been assistant to the 

 famous Philip Miller at Chelsea. The principal green- 

 house and orangery is 145 feet long, to high, and 30 

 broad. About 1794, a large green-house, 1 10 feet long, 

 was erected, for the reception of African and Cape 

 plants only. There are twelve other hot- houses of va- 

 rious descriptions. Adding together the lengths of all 

 the hothouses, the garden contains no fewer than 839 

 feet in length of glass ; and besides this, about one- 

 half of the houses have covered borders in front, for the 

 protection of different kinds of bulbs, and alpine plants, 

 during winter. One of the hot- houses is appropriated 

 to the palm and fern tribe, displaying the gigantic 

 species of warm climates almost in their native luxu- 

 riance and beauty. Another is devoted to the plants 

 of New Holland, which have a character of foliage pe- 

 culiar to themselves, so that the botanical visitor finds 

 himself suddenly carried, as it were, into a new world. 

 A third contains chiefly the plants of China, and of these 

 the collection is very rich, a magnificent assortment 

 having some years ago been procured from Canton, ac- 

 companied by a Chinese gardener to take care of them. 

 A catalogue of the plants of the garden, entitled " Hor- 

 tus Kewensis," was first published in 1768 by Dr Hill. 

 A more scientific work, under the same title, was given 

 to the public in 1789, by Mr Aiton the superintendant, 

 assisted by Dr Solander ; this extended to three vo- 

 lumes, octavo. Between 1810 and 1813, an improved 

 and enlarged edition, in five volumes, octavo, was pub- 

 lished by Mr William Townsend Aiton, who had suc- 

 ceeded his father : he was assisted in the first three vo- 

 lumes by the late Mr Dryander, and, after the death 

 of that botanist, in the remaining two volumes, by Mr. 

 Robert Brown, author of the " Prodromus Florae Novse 

 Hollandiae/' and justly considered as one of the very 

 first botanists of the age. 



The Royal Gardens at Hampton Court were laid out Hamptca 

 by London and Wise, already mentioned as nursery- court. 



