Garden Memorandums. 



673 



well known by its sign, indicative of the liability of this part of the country 

 to be flooded after great rains. One of the greatest comforts of England 

 is, that if a man travels with an agreeable companion, he may, at almost 

 every inn, find the same comforts which he enjoys at his own house. On 

 the Continent this can only be said of the inns of the larger towns. A soli- 

 tary traveller, however, never feels himself so much alone at these inns in 

 the evenings as he does in England. Commendable attention of the inn- 

 keepers on this road to their gardens ; some of the flower-gardens in front 

 very well laid out, and neatly kept. 



Burleigh House, October 2. — The entrance lodge here, unlike that at 

 Hatfield, is suitable to the mansion, and both are truly noble. The parapet 

 and other finishing ornaments of Hatfield, Holland House, Burleigh, Wol- 

 laton, and other houses in the same style, have for the most part reference 

 to masonic symbols. The chimney tops at Burleigh are in the form of Gre- 

 cian columns, single, coupled, or quadrupled, and in a line, square, or circu- 

 lar, in their plan. These columns have the efi^ect of removing the vulgar 

 air of stacks of chimneys in brick ; but whether they will raise emotions of a 

 grand or elevating character, instead of the other feeling, will depend on 

 the degree of refinement which the spectator has attained in architectural 

 knowledge and taste. A painter will certainly enjoy them much more than 

 a scientific practical architect. The true way to judge of them, that is to 

 determine the merit of the artist, is to consider them relatively to the age 

 in which they were produced. In the time of Elizabeth this house must 

 have struck with astonishment and delight ; but such a building erected in 

 modern times would be considered deficient in unity of style, and in many 

 respects a senseless deviation from simplicity. The gardens here are not 

 shown to strangers; but, if the gardener had not been from home, we have 

 no doubt that, as one of the craft, we would have been favoured with a view. 

 We saw the pictures which are admired by that superior-minded man, 

 Mr, Hazlitt, and several of them described by him in the New Monthly 

 Magazine. We hoped to have heard some of Mr. Hazlitt's remarks on 

 particular pictures from the housekeeper, but she did not recollect the 

 name. A mass of plantation near the lo'dge, and some clumps in that part 

 of the park, are so crowded with trees as to have in a great measure defeated 

 the object in planting them. Light is seen through their haggard stems in 

 every direction. They ought to be immediately thinned. The true way to 

 produce a thick and dark wood is to plant thin, or to keep thinning after 

 having planted thick. 



At Stamford we took a sketch of a " rolling barley-chopper." {Jig. 143.) 

 This being a barley-growing district, such implements are 

 a good deal used for chopping oiF the awns from barley. 

 The one figured is rolled backwards and forwards over 

 the barley, when separated from the straw and spread 

 out on the barn floor about 6 in. thick. At Grantham we 

 took a sketch of one on a different construction. (_/?g. 144.) 

 This implement is applied in the 

 manner of a turf-beater. 



Extort Hall, having been burnt 

 down some years ago, is in a di- 

 lapidated state, unoccupied, sur- 

 rounded by untenanted out-build- 

 ings, including extensive stables, dog-kennels,hutches 

 for hawks and ferrets, and all the other appendages 

 of an ancient English residence of rank. It is ap- 

 proached by a road which can scarcely be called 

 public; thus the house and the naked park form a complete picture of 

 desolation, and one cannot help wondering that such a scene should exist 

 within a few miles of the most frequented road in England. The more 

 Vol. V. — No. 23. x x 



