672 Garden Memorandums. 



the alms-houses which bear his name. Had Whittington lived in the pre- 

 sent day, instead of these alms-houses we should have had a parochial 

 institution, or a university, or some other medium for the diffusion of know- 

 ledge, instead of the production of comfort. [Had the late Mr. Furquhar 

 lived in Whittington's time, he would have acted like Whittington ; for no 

 man can steal a march upon his age. All improvement is more the result 

 of the general mind of society, than of the mind of the individual who 

 is the immediate instrument.] Awkward approach now forming to a 

 new villa on the left of the road near Barnet ; affected as well as awkward, 

 because the trees are not placed so as to account for the bends in the 

 line of road. Mr. Cattley of Barnet at church, and therefore declined 

 calling to see his fine specimen of Psidium Cattleya?zz(m or Guava, which 

 has attained a large size in his stove, and bears two crops a year of fruit, 

 equal to the plum in the dessert, and, preserved in jam, not inferior to the 

 Guavas of the West Indies. 



Between Stanhorough and Lemsford Mills, about twenty-one miles and a 

 half from town, in the front garden of a cottage on the left side of the 

 road, is a mountain ash with proliferous drooping shoots; which shoots, if 

 grafted on a common mountain ash, or on a thorn, standard high, would 

 probably produce a weeping tree like the weeping cherry, which was so 

 originated. A weeping birch, from grafts of the proliferous shoots of the 

 monstrosities called birds' nests produced on that tree, might be worth a 

 nurseryman's attention, and also a weeping elm, of the narrow-leaved kind, . 

 from the monstrosities of the elm. A weeping birch, so originated, would 

 be quite different in form and stature from the natural weeping birch, and, 

 besides being an object of curiosity, would be odoriferous. — Magnificent 

 park, and ivied, buttressed, and picturesque park wall, of Viscount Mel- 

 bourne. Meagre entrance lodge, and common-looking avenue road to 

 Hatfield House, a magnificent Elizabethian palace. We viewed these gar- 

 dens in detail about this time last year (1825), and then, as now, found 

 them in good order, and well stocked with common showy flowers. Around 

 the garden front of the building the green-house plants are tastefully 

 grouped, and the pots as completely covered with green moss as if the 

 plants were growing in that material ; the effect exceedingly good. We 

 dislike as much to see plants in pots about a country house, as we desire to 

 see pots of plants in the balconies, porches, and on the stair-cases of a town- 

 house. In the country pots should never appear; even large boxes with 

 orange trees we would sink in pits, so as to give the trees the appearance of 

 growing in the free soil. It must be in bad taste to raise attributes about a 

 country-house that belong to a town-house, and to give the air of a nur- 

 sery garden to a place of retirement and repose. The operation of this 

 feeling on the sensitive minds of the female part of the occupants of Hat- 

 field House,in all probability led to covering these pots with moss. Some fine 

 magnolias, myrtles, arbutuses, and laurustinuses are trained on, or fringing 

 the basement of, the three garden fronts; but an attempt to grow CoYxE^a 

 scandens and pelargoniums on the back wall and ceiling of a dark arcade is 

 in bad taste, because in such a situation they can never be grown well. If a 

 naked back wall, under a dark projection like this, is to be decorated, basso- 

 relievos, or fresco paintings would be more appropriate. To render Hat- 

 field what it ought to be, a little more enrichment and finish are wanting 

 immediately round the house ; and the briar hedge, boarded hut, and some 

 other petty objects on the left, should be removed; and a good deal should 

 bedone between the entrance front and the fine old Gothic building on the 

 right. A noble conservatory and some fine architectural terraces might be 

 added in that direction. 



Near Biggleswade there are fields of cucumbers on both sides of the road 

 grown for pickling and salting, and sold in the surrounding market towns, 

 and in Covent Garden, by the bushel. The inn at Wandsford is good, and 



