CHATSWORTH. 50 7 



richest dark bronze-green foliage ; and the latter to the finest droop- 

 ing Norway spruce, equally multiplied in the scale of luxuriance 

 and grace. They grow upon a rocky bank, overhanging a pool of 

 clear water, and look as if thoroughly at home, on the slope of a 

 hill-side in Oregon. 



The arboretum walk forms a complete collection of all the 

 hardy trees that will grow out of doors at Chatsworth, with space 

 for planting every new species as it may be introduced into Great 

 Britain. A fine effect is produced by grafting the weeping ash 

 into the top of a common ash tree with a tall trunk thirty feet high, 

 whence it falls on all sides more gracefully and prettily than when 

 grafted low ; a hint that I laid up for easy practice at home. 



A mile further on, and you reach the tower, on the hill top, 

 where the eye commands the whole of Chatsworth valley, such a 

 picture of palace and pleasure-ground, park and forest scenery as 

 can be found, perhaps, nowhere else in the circle of the planet. 



After a long exploration after exhausting all the well-bred ex- 

 pressions of enthusiasm in my vocabulary, and imagining that it was 

 impossible that landscape gardening, and embellishment, and park 

 scenery, and pleasure-ground decoration, could* farther go the 

 Duke reminded me that I had neither seen the kitchen gardens, the 

 great peach-tree, nor the famous new water lily the Victoria Regia ; 

 and that Mr. Paxton, his able chef, would never forgive a neglect of so 

 important a feature in a place. As the gardens where all these new 

 wonders lay, were quite on the opposite side of the park, we gladly 

 took to the carriage after our industrious morning's ramble. 



T shall not attempt to describe these large and complete fruit and 

 forcing gardens. But the peach-tree of Chatsworth has not, to my 

 recollection, been described, though it deserves to be as famous as 

 the grape-vine of Hampton Court. It is the more wonderful, be- 

 cause, as you know, peach-trees do not grow in England in orchards 

 of five hundred acres, like those of the Reybolds, in Delaware ; but 

 are only seen upon walls, or under glass. Yet I assure you, our 

 friend R.'s eyes, accustomed as they are to peach blossoms by tho 

 mile, would have dilated at the sight of this monster tree, occupy 

 ing a glass house by itself, and extending over a trellis I should 

 say a hundred feet long. I inquired about the product of this tree, 



