562 Garden Calls: — 



The defects ofWoburn Abbey are, the site; the entrance to the house, which 

 is not dignified; and the disposition of the pleasure-ground, which, for the 

 greater part, is on a dull flat surface, without distant views. The pleasure- 

 ground is also very deficient in exotic trees and shrubs, though this defect 

 the present duke is rapidly removing; and when he has completed the kit- 

 chen-garden, he will most likely plant a complete arboretum, and a garden 

 of herbaceous plants, arranged according to the natural system. The col- 

 lection of heaths, hardy and exotic, is the most complete in the world, and 

 not less so the collection of willows. The present duke is a scientific bota- 

 nist, and- a great lover of gardening and the fine arts, as his predecessor was 

 of agriculture. He, with the assistance of Mr. Sinclair, has printed, for 

 distribution among his friends, a descriptive catalogue of the heaths at Wo- 

 burn Abbey ; and is now, with the assistance of Mr. Forbes, and Mr. Strat- 

 fold of Woburn, preparing a work with coloured engravings and descriptions 

 of above 150 different species of willows, all of which are in the salicetura., 

 The kitchen-garden, since our visit in February (p. 213.), is rapidly ad- 

 vancing towards completion, and will be one of the first in England. The 

 two misplaced pine-stoves, which we objected to in 1828 (Vol. IV. p. 504.), 

 have been removed, and the effect even surpasses expectation ; the head- 

 gardener or his wife, sitting in the parlour by the fire, can now, without any 

 change of position, see through one window over the whole of the garden, 

 in front of the hot-houses; and, through the other window, over the whole 

 of the triple range of pine, melon, and forcing-pits behind the range. Ex- 

 perience proves that this power of inspection is something more than an 

 imaginary advantage. The gardener's house is altogether one of the best 

 we have seen ; it does honour to the feelings of the duke, who thus evinces 

 a wish to see his upper servants not only comfortable and healthy, but 

 living in a comparatively elegant and respectable style ; and to Mr. Atkin- 

 son, his architect, for so completely embodying the duke's wishes. We 

 could name a duke, the whole of whose head-gardener's shed, chimney-top 

 included, in which the gardener keeps a tall young wife, and one or two 

 children, might be erected in the parlour referred to. There is no class of 

 gentlemen's servants so badly lodged as gardeners generally are ; but, while 

 we state this, it is proper to mention, at the same time, that the fault is 

 very often owing to the gardener not making known his wants. This silence 

 on the part of the gardener proceeds, for the most part, from an idea that 

 his master already knows what sort of a house he has to live in, and that, if 

 he wished him to live in a better house, he would provide it ; but this is a 

 false mode of viewing the subject : the master is too far removed from the 

 servant to enter into all his feelings, however much the former may wish to 

 render the latter comfortable. It is, therefore, clearly the duty of a gar- 

 dener, a duty fully as much to his employer as to himself, to look about 

 and see what description of house is suitable for such a description of gar- 

 den as he has the charge of, and to represent the state of the case, in a re- 

 spectful manner, to his employer. We are sure that nine tenths of the 

 employers of gardeners would be better pleased with a servant who would 

 act in this candid open way, not only as to dwelling-houses, but as to wages, 

 additional hands, additional houses, or machinery, or, in fact, whatever he 

 considered wanting, than with another who would quietly submit to what- 

 ever he felt to be privations, look upon his master as his enemj', become 

 first careless, then indifferent, afterwards neglectful, and, finally, after having 

 injured various things under his care, either oblige his employer to discharge 

 him, or leave his situation of his own accord. It will not be our faultif 

 gardeners do not know what a good house is, for we shall supply them abun- 

 dantly with plans of every description of cottage, from that of the labourer 

 to that of the retiring tradesmen. Henceforth let every gardener speak out 

 candidly and respectfully to his employer, and thus avoid the temptation of 



