CHAPTER VI 



THE WISLEY GARDEN 



THE story of a remarkable modern garden, now 

 closely bound up with the advance of English horti- 

 culture, present and future, should find its niche 

 in any record of the evolution of gardening in Great 

 Britain. 



Gardening is in itself a strenuous business ; yet 

 how many men of affairs of most diverse character 

 have found in it a happy relaxation and rest from 

 the wear and tear of occupations of greater strain 

 and stress. It was for this reason that some fifty 

 years ago one such business man, a managing 

 director of a great manufacturing firm, and much 

 engaged in scientific research and experiment in 

 connection with its operations, was inspired to take 

 up fruit-growing under glass. It was then the 

 early days of orchard houses, when the virtues of 

 the mere shelter of glass for the forwarding and 

 perfecting of hardy fruit was for the first time 

 being fully explained by precept and example by 

 Thomas Rivers of Sawbridgeworth a phase of 

 gardening, this, which was caught up with eager 

 enthusiasm by amateur gardeners of every calibre, 

 and which has never since lost ground ; for the 

 unheated orchard house is now an indispensable 



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