20 GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 



thirteen times Mr. Fairchild's garden at Hoxton; 

 and frequently speaks of the delight of a Mr. Balle's 

 garden at Campden House. 



The curious garden of the vicarage house at St. 

 Just, near Falmouth, is, I am told, now kept up in 

 nearly its ancient style ; so, I am told, is Lord Fal- 

 mouth's garden at Flushing, near Penryn. 



It is too late in the day now to expect to obtain 

 drawings of any of those gardens, * large, beautiful, 

 and planted with trees,' which the citizens of London 



to make an oak grow, and where no other large tree could be 

 prevented from being blown out of the ground.' In his description 

 of the Grab he says, ' In hedges it is very beautiful in the spring, 

 and also in independent trees, covered with blossoms as bright as 

 those of the carnation, and a great deal larger. When the coppices 

 are cut, the crabs, if they go up in a single stem, are generally left 

 as the oaks are ; and in the month of May, the garlands presented 

 by the crab-trees, while the primroses bespangle the ground beneath, 

 and while the birds are singing all around, certainly gives up 

 altogether something more delightful than almost anything else 

 accessible to our senses.' In his English Gardener, he thus 

 mentions an almost unheeded shrub, ' The Box is at once the most 

 efficient of all possible things, and the prettiest plant that can 

 possibly be conceived : the colour of its leaf, the form of its leaf, its 

 docility as to height, width, and shape, the compactness of its little 

 branches, its great durability as a plant, its thriving in all sorts of 

 soils and in all sorts of aspects, its freshness under the hottest sun, 

 and its defiance of all shade and all drip ; these are beauties and 

 qualities which, for ages upon ages, have marked it out as the 

 chosen plant for this very important purpose. ' And after describing 

 how it should be clipped, he says, ' If there is a more neat and 

 beautiful thing than this in the world, all I can say is, that I never 

 saw that thing.' 



