Remarks on Steuart's Planter* 's Guide. 413 



extend it where it has as yet made little way, as in Italy ; 

 where, for one Jar din Anglais that is met with, or even one 

 genuine specimen of the old style, such as the fine Boboli 

 gardens at Florence, attached to the Grand Duke's palace, 

 which one would by no means wish destroyed, twenty villas 

 are seen with gardens " built rather than planted," having 

 little of vegetation in them but clipped hedges and rows of 

 orange trees in pots, and, in a country where the summer heat 

 is so great, increasing it by the glare of gravel and stone walls, 

 instead of obviating its inconvenience by profusion of trees 

 and luxuriance of shade. 



I am, Sir, &c. 

 Florence. December 22. 1829. W. Spence. 



Art. VIII. Remarks on Sir Henry Steuart's Planters Guide, 

 By n H. 



Sir, 

 The main topics of conversation at this time are Sir Henry 

 Steuart's Planter's Guide, the ignorant state in which he found 

 gardeners, and the enlightened state in which he has left 

 them. Not that I have any objection to Sir Henry getting 

 his full share of praise, but at the same time I don't see why 

 gardeners should sit quietly down after a hard day's planting, 

 and allow this great meteor of the north to blaze out with 

 such impunity as to sweep it all up, particularly as I was bred 

 up in the north myself, and have seen feats of the very 

 same description performed at sundry places every planting 

 season for the last fifteen years, the results of which were gene- 

 rally satisfactory to both proprietors and gardeners, and solely 

 conducted by the skill and industry of the latter, who, I have 

 every reason to believe, scarce ever heard of Sir Henry 

 Steuart, whatever they might have done of Lord Fitz- Hard- 

 ing. For my part, I have conducted such operations every 

 season, more or less, within the last seven years, without ever 

 thinking there was any conjuring in it. In one of those years 

 I changed a piece of bare ground, nearly two acres, into a 

 plantation consisting of oak, ash, elm, beech, birch, lime, firs, 

 &c, the average height of which was from 5 ft. to 20 ft. and 

 upwards ; they were transported about a mile, nor was there 

 a single death amongst them that I remember. They are 

 now looking equally well, nor can I see any difference in their 

 size from those that were left in the plantations from which 

 they were taken. As to my methods of taking up and plant- 



