London Nurseries. 381 



Northumbrian intendant, Mr. Hill, whose example of the convertible hus- 

 bandry, turnips on raised drills, &c, is, among the wretched farming which 

 surrounds him, like an oasis in a desert. We saw here a field of winter 

 beans, sown in October last, and now in full bloom ; their having stood unin* 

 jured through so severe a winter is a proof that this is a distinct and very 

 hardy variety. Mr. Hill says they will be fit to reap in the last week of 

 July, or at least one week before the earliest wheat, barley, or oats. The 

 value of the variety, therefore, is unquestionable. 



Horsefield and Woking Subscription Lancasterian School, May 11. — There 

 are two hundred scholars, who pay nothing; and the girls, besides the ordi- 

 nary branches, are taught needlework. We heard them read, and repeat 

 a catechism, with numerous texts of Scripture cited, in the manner of a 

 catechism called in Scotland the Proofs, and the getting of which by heart 

 formed the horror of our earliest years. The accuracy with which the 

 questions were answered and the numerous citations adduced was to us 

 perfectly astonishing, considering their number and the infancy of the 

 children. As an exercise of the memory, this may do the children good ; 

 but as to then* acquiring any useful knowledge, either moral or religious, 

 from such a catechism, the thing is next to impossible. It is lamentable to 

 see the infant mind burthened with mysteries, not one of which it can 

 possibly understand. How much better to teach them natural history, 

 every fact of which would give them a new interest in the objects with 

 which they are surrounded, which they could turn to real account in every 

 department of country life, and which would amuse them beyond measure 

 even in going to and returning from school ! Morality and humanity, in 

 the most extensive sense, ought on no account to be omitted in what is 

 taught to infants, but surely religion ought to be left till the reason is 

 matured. When we talked to Mr. Clark, the master, about chemistry, 

 botany, geography, &c, he said, " What ! make doctors and parsons of 

 them?" He had seen too many boys turn men to be able to alter his 

 opinion, but the time must come when all useful science will be taught to 

 all ; and it rejoiced us not a little to perceive, in the astonishing memories 

 of these little children, with what wonderful rapidity they will drink it in 

 when it shall once be offered to them, and thus to foresee the millennium of 

 happiness which awaits the human kind, and of which even the brutes 

 around man will necessarily partake. 



Addlestone Nursery, May 12. — We were much gratified in looking 

 over this nursery,^which contains more rare herbaceous plants than any of 

 the country nurseries, with the exception of that of Messrs. Young at 

 Epsom, and is inferior to none in general arrangement. Mr. Cree, his seed- 

 shop, his hot-houses, his dwelling-house, and all that is about him, are just 

 what we should expect or wish to surround the author of such an excel- 

 lent catalogue as the Hortus Addlestonensis. We regret that want of time 

 and room prevents us from going into details. The nursery was formerly 

 celebrated for variegated plants, of which there are still a number not to be 

 found any where else ; for instance, Pinus Pinaster. We saw ieucdjum 

 vernum, which had flowered in February, very strong, and producing seed, 

 a plant now rare in the nurseries ; Cactus Opuntia, which has lived in the 

 open ah* under a wall without any protection for thirty years, and ripened 

 fruit every year ; a Lombardy grape, which covers the end of a house, and 

 bears abundantly every year, and which Mrs. Cree finds a most valuable 

 grape for making wine ; and an excellent collection of azaleas, which are 

 numbered in the Seton manner, that every one may not be able to know 

 the best sorts, and probably steal them. We regret to learn that stealing, 

 hitherto little known in the nurseries in this part of Surrey, is beginning to 

 take place ; Mr. Donald, Mr. Waterer, and Mr. Cree having lost several 

 things during the past winter. This ought to make all who purchase trees 



