Calls at Suburban Gardens. 371 



2«. 6d. each ; Glycine sinensis, in pots, 21s. ; Lonicerajapon'ica, flexuosa, pu- 

 bescens, and flava, 2s. each ; Chimonanthus fragrans, 5s. ; Cydonia japon'ica, 

 2s. ; Peeonia moutan, 5s., all hardy, and plants well worth purchasing. For a 

 south wall, any front of a house but the N. E., or a sheltered situation in a 

 shrubbery, Magnolia grandiflora, Eriobotrya japon'ica, Viburnum rugdsum, 

 and odoratissimum, 3s. each, and the Camellia, 5s. each, are noble ever- 

 green and free-flowering plants. Glycine, 21,?., will be seen in magnificent 

 style in the H. S.'s garden about the 7th of May. These plants may be had 

 from, or through, any nurseryman. 



Palace and Gardens of Buckingham House, April 9th. — Having read in 

 the newspapers of mountains and lakes said to be forming in the grounds 

 attached to Buckingham-house, we embraced an opportunity which of- 

 fered of viewing the alterations and erections now going forward there. 

 The garden-front of the palace is, to our taste, an unexceptionable piece of 

 architecture ; it is grand, and yet elegant ; simple and easy to be compre- 

 hended in the general masses, and yet sufficiently enriched in detail to mark 

 it as an abode destined for splendid enjoyment. We did not observe any 

 columns or other architectural forms, which should always be, or seem to be, 

 essential parts of a building, placed against walls merely for effect, and to 

 make up a certain show of ornament ; as, for instance, in the new buildings 

 at the Treasury, and before the arches of the new entrance to Hyde Park, 

 at the end of Piccadilly, in both which cases the columns have not the 

 slightest pretensions to utility ; they are introduced entirely for their effect, 

 and, from being component and co-operating parts essential to high charac- 

 ter, are degraded to the rank of ornamental appendages to cover poverty 

 of design. The entrance-front of the palace is not yet in a state fit to be 

 spoken of, but the other, we repeat, is entirely to our taste. The shortest 

 way to give our readers a correct idea of it, will be by an engraving which 

 will be found in a future number. 



We wish we could bestow equal approbation on this palace in point of 

 salubrity of situation ; but in that respect, we consider it one of the most 

 unfortunate buildings in or about London. Had the problem been pro- 

 posed to alter Buckingham-house and gardens so as to render the former 

 as unhealthy a dwelling as possible, it could not have been better solved 

 than by the works executed. The belt of trees which forms the margin of 

 these grounds, has long acted as the sides of a basin or small valley, to re- 

 tain, the vapours which were collected within, and which, when the basin 

 was full, could only flow out by the lower extremity over the roofs of the 

 stables and other buildings at the palace. What vapour did not escape in 

 this manner, found its way through between the stems of the trees which 

 adjoin these buildings, and through the palace windows. Now, all the 

 leading improvements on the grounds have a direct tendency to increase 

 this evil. They consist in thickening the marginal belts on both sides of 

 the hollow with evergreens to shut out London ; in one place substituting 

 for the belt, an immense bank of earth to shut out the stables, and in the 

 area of the grounds forming numerous flower-gardens, and other scenes 

 with dug surfaces, a basin, fountains, and a lake of several acres. The 

 effect of all this will be a more copious and rapid exhalation of moisture 

 from the water, dug earth, and increased surface of foliage, and a more 

 complete dam to prevent the escape of this moist atmosphere, otherwise 

 than through the windows, or over the top of the palace. The garden may 

 be considered as a pond brimful of fog, the ornamental water as the perpe- 

 tual supply of this fog, the palace as a cascade which it flows over, and the 

 windows as the sluices which it passes through. We defy any medical man, 

 or meteorologist to prove the contrary of what we assert, viz., that Buck- 

 ingham Palace is a dam to a pond of watery vapour, and that the pond 

 will always be filled with vapour to the level of the top of the clam. The 



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