76 Examining and giving Characters to 



garden of Gironella is still more famous than the last- men- 

 tioned; and many eyewitnesses have assured me, it is 

 laid out with great taste. It has a labyrinth formed by 

 streams of water, the waterworks are in greater variety, and 

 any person is allowed to visit them. The garden of the 

 Capuchins of Sarria forms a complete landscape of the most 

 sombre character, being chiefly composed of cypress and 

 other dark-foliaged trees : it contains many waterworks, and 

 some clay figures executed by the monks themselves. The 

 whole forms a retreat well calculated to awaken religious feel- 

 ings, and has convenient walks for the fathers during the 

 sultry heat of midsummer, impervious to the rays of the sun. 

 Within the city of Barcelona there are many pleasure-gar- 

 dens ; the best belongs to the captain-general ; it is situated 

 on the walk of the Esplanade, and always open to the public. 

 I have now enumerated all the gardens of Spain which 

 I have either visited, or had described to me by persons 

 worthy of credit. They are not, however, the only ones ; as, 

 besides those mentioned at the beginning as belonging to the 

 bishops, &c., there are many very celebrated ones in Castile ; in 

 Valladolid, that of the Marquis of Revilla ; and of the Duchess 

 and Countess of Benaventa, in the town of the same name, 

 from which she takes her title ; also that of the Duchess of 

 Alba, in Predrahita, already mentioned. There are also 

 several others well worthy of notice in Navarre, Galicia, and 

 the Biscayan provinces. 



Mariano La Gasca. 

 Camden Town^ February, 1827. 



Art. 11. Ow the System of examining and giving Characters 

 to young Gardeners in Denmarlc. By Peter Lindegaard, 

 Esq. F.H.S., Gardener to the King of Denmark, at Rosen- 

 berg. Translated by M. Jens Peter Petersen, for- 

 merly of Lee's Nursery, and the Chiswick Garden, and now 

 of Copenhagen. 



It is probably more than a century since the custom was 

 first introduced in Germany, and other Northern States, that 

 those who devoted themselves to gardening should serve an 

 apprenticeship of three years in a royal garden. After that 

 period was completed, they received an indenture, elegantly 

 written on parchment, with the head-gardener's name, or sign 

 and seal attached. This is still customary all over Germany 



