ife Calls at'Suhurhan Gardens. 



Art. VI. Calls at Suburban Gardens. 



White Knights, Jxdy 26. — The gardens here are shown to strangers at 

 the rate of a guinea for a party not exceeding five. To those who can 

 ^listingLiish what is rare from what is common in trees and shrubs, these 

 grounds are well worth seeing; but those who look for the beauties of 

 landscape-gardening, or the polished picturesque of English pleasure- 

 grounds, will be disappointed. In this point of view, indeed, nothing can 

 be duller and more stupid, than the walled parallelogram containing the 

 hot-houses and more rare plants, near the house at White Knights ; but in 

 the wood, in a distant part of the park, there are some very pleasing and 

 picturesque scenes, which, though so like nature, owe their beauty chiefly to 

 art : the best of these is a small piece of irregular water, in a glade, in an 

 old wood abounding with very fine oaks and beeches. 



In the enclosed gardens near the house are a number of very fine species 

 of American trees, and particularly a lofty wall covered with Magnoh'a 

 grandiflora, which keeps more or less in flower all the summer ; a standard 

 of M. macroph jlla, another of M. conspicua, and a number of M. acumi- 

 nata, glauca, and purpurea. Azaleas and rhododendrons are very nume- 

 rous ; and, indeed, there is hardly a plant which, ten years ago, could be 

 procured from Lee's nursery, which is not here in a thriving state, with the 

 exception of a few which the duke is said to have carried with him to 

 Blenheim. There is a Linnean arrangement of herbaceous plants, of a 

 limited extent, and a moderate collection of roses. 



The garden in the wood is formed of open glades, in which the principal 

 features are, the piece of water already mentioned, a small valley contain- 

 ing a grotto and fountain, a long straight walk, covered with trelliswork 

 and overgrown with ivy, a small vineyard suffering from the hares and 

 rabbits, and an extensive border of roses and American shrubs. 



We were surprised to find these gardens so neatly kept, considering the 

 wretched circumstances in which every thing connected with the Duke of 

 Marlborough's property is said to be entangled. 



Frogmore Gardens, near Windsor ; Her Royal Highness the Princess 

 Augusta. July 28. — About twenty-three years ago, the grounds here were 

 laying out under the direction, as we were informed at the time, of Major 

 Price, a near relative of the celebrated author of the Essays on the Pic- 

 turesque. The situation is low, and naturally moist ; it was rendered inte- 

 resting by a very long, winding piece of water, by some artificial inequalities 

 of surface formed of the excavated earth ; and by extensive planting. The 

 trees and shrubs seem now to occupy the greater part of the surface, and 

 the water being very extensive, stagnant, and not very free from aquatic 

 plants, the situation appears to us as unhealthy a one as could well be 

 chosen for a residence. 



There are a number of ornamental buildings of different kinds, which 

 occur in the extensive walks, but the great defect to a stranger is the want 

 of prospect. The shrubbery is too old to have the freshness of youth, the 

 shrubs in general of sorts too common to have the beauty of rarity, and 

 the effect of the whole spoiled by the prevalence of large elm trees. Per- 

 haps we may be writing under erroneous impressions, but, on the whole, we 

 cannot help considering Frogmore as a remarkably dull place. The gaiety 

 of a flower-garden on the lawn near the house, exotic timber trees, rare 

 shrubs, and curious buildings, is almost all that can be done for such a 

 situation. 



The time to see Frogmore to most advantage is about the end of May, 

 when the rhododendrons and other shrubs and trees are in delicate foliage, 

 and covered with flowers. 



