Guildford Castle. 573 



whether in or out of place, to call and see other gardens as frequently and 

 extensively as they possibly can. We can assure them from the experience 

 of others as well as our own, that they will, if they are men of any observ- 

 ation, learn more in a week spent in this way, than in a year of close 

 attention, and even reading at home. We would lend our head gar- 

 dener a horse, perhaps a velocipede might do, and allow him so much 

 a day, say 20s., for a certain number of days in every year, and oblige 

 him to make tours, and write in a journal, to be kept in the garden 

 library, where he had been, and what he had seen. It would be a good 

 thing, also, for every gardener to keep a list of the places he has seen from 

 his earliest years upwards, and show it, when necessary, as a presumptive 

 proof of his qualifications. No master ought to hire a gardener without 

 being informed where he has served his apprenticeship, and what he has 

 been doing since. The German gardeners have all this written in a little 

 book, in which also are short characters from their different masters; and 

 an English gardener might do worse than adopt the practice. We know 

 some masters that are alive to the importance of what their gardeners 

 may acquire by looking about them ; and both the late Duchess of Dorset 

 and the present Countess of Radnor, ladies fond of gardening, sent their 

 gardeners, for some weeks, the former, we think in 1820, and the latter in 

 1829, to see the gardens of Paris, and its environs. 



Mr. Parks informed us that he had found the Medlar an excellent stock 

 for forcing the pear into early bearing : that Kalmi« latifolia was not poi- 

 sonous to deer, but so much so to dogs, that the entrails of some deer 

 containing Kalmm leaves, having been eaten by dogs, killed them. 



Guildford Castle ; — Elkins, Esq. August 7. — The grounds round the 

 ancient keep, to the extent of an acre or two, have lately been enclosed 

 and laid out as a garden, in a mixed style, combining culinary crops, fruits, 

 flowers, and picturesque scenery. The prevailing produce is fruit, and the 

 whole is very neatly kept. A good many filberts have been planted and 

 trained to single stems, about 5 ft. in length j the true method of bringing 

 them to, and keeping them in, a bearing state. The bad effect of raising 

 the earth about the roots of fruit trees is here strikingly exemplified in 

 two large apricot trees trained against a wall, both of which a few years 

 ago were excellent bearers; but the border in which one of the trees stood 

 requiring to be raised about a foot, the tree has since ceased to bear. It 

 might be easily raised and restored to a state of frnitfulness. We observed 

 the carnations, pinks, and sweetwilliams, in the borders, to be of an extra- 

 ordinary degree of luxuriance, such as we seldom recollect to have seen 

 any where : on examination of the soil, we found it to be deep, loose, dry, 

 and principally composed of chalk and black earth ; and recollecting that 

 all the Dianthus family grow naturally on clalky soils, on the debris of 

 limestone, and that such soils are invariably dry, the fact of the strength 

 of these species in this dry chalky garden, seemed to point out the great 

 importance, in preparing an artificial soil for any plant, of keeping in view 

 its natural soil, and the condition in which such soil is likely to be with 

 respect to water. From a seat near the keep some of the public buildings 

 of Guildford, and, among others, the treadmill, come into view. It appears, 

 from what Mr. Elkins stated to us, that this machine has no effect whatever 

 in reforming the character of those who are punished by it ; the utmost 

 that it is calculated to do is, to prevent future offences, from the fear of 

 a repetition of the punishment ; but this it does not do to a great extent 

 even on young offenders, several of whom, who have quitted the Guildford 

 treadmill in the morning, having been lodged in Brixton jail in the even- 

 ing. Even the society for reclaiming young offenders is not often suc- 

 cessful in its operations, and especially, as we were informed, with the 

 female sex. We are not surprised at these things, believing that they 

 will take, place in some degree, even in the most improved state of society; 



