512 ImproDements in the Kitchen-Garden 



walks finished; and every thing else connected with the kit- 

 chen-garden rendered as fit for the inspection and enjoyment 

 of the family as if nothing had happened. 



This magnificent range of forcing-houses may now, we 

 think, be referred to as an additional evidence that metallic 

 hot-houses are fit for every purpose of forcing; and we must 

 take the liberty of saying what we have hinted at (p. 186.), that 

 the pubhc are greatly indebted to the Duke of Northumber- 

 land for having made this experiment, and that His Grace 

 also has evinced a very superior degree of tact and cHscrimin- 

 ation, in adopting a description of structure, the superiority 

 of which, though supported by the evidence of science and the 

 opinion of some enlightened men, was yet opposed by a host 

 of prejudices on the part of men both practical and scientific. 



Though we inspected the different operations at Syon from 

 time to time as they were going forward, yet we are, of 

 course, indebted to Mr. Forrest for the dates and other facts 

 which we have detailed. We should have a good deal to say 

 of the merits of Mr. Forrest as the designer and successful 

 and rapid executer of these works, were he not already suffi- 

 ciently well known to the horticultural world. He has 

 been engaged in works of this kind from his earliest years ; 

 and, from having received a better school-education than falls 

 to the share of many gardeners, even those of Scotland, and 

 been long accustomed to the management of numerous work- 

 men, he has acquired those habits of arrangement and the 

 division of labour, which are the only means of carrying on 

 extensive and complicated works with that rapidity and suc- 

 cessful result which have attended those at Syon. The great 

 experience which Mr. Forrest has had in works of a similar 

 kind under Mr. Macdonald, one of the very first gardeners in 

 Scotland, at the Duke of Buccleugh's, at Dalkeith Park, and 

 on his own account at the Hon. R. B. Stopford's, Barton 

 Seagrove, Northamptonshire, and at the Earl of Grosvenor's, 

 Eaton Hall, Cheshire, not to mention his botanical acquire- 

 ments and his knowledge of the gardening of the metropolis 

 while at work for several years in Kew Gardens, has not only 

 given him habits of management, but cultivated his taste both 

 in the art of designing kitchen-gardens and garden structures, 

 and in laying out grounds ; and the character of his mind has 

 this particular excellence, that he embraces in his plans and 

 arrangements every tlepartment of his art, and is not prejudiced 

 in favour either of botanical culture, kitchen-gardening, forcing, 

 or landscape-gardening. The Duke of Northumberland may 

 certainly be considered fortunate in having employed such 

 a gardener. 



