392 Horticultural Tour in the Netherlands. 



Art. II. Extracts from Notes made during a Horticultural Tour 

 in the Netherlands, and Part of France, in June and July, 1830. 

 By Mr. T. Rivers, Jun. 



{Continued from Vol. VII. p. 279.) 



Mr. Chantrell, the English gentleman whom I men- 

 tioned, in my last, as being married to a Flemish lady, and 

 having a country seat at St. Croix, near Bruges, I found a 

 most agreeable companion, and an enthusiastic horticulturist. 

 He is indefatigable in the culture of the species of .Erica, and, 

 having to contend with a soil rather inimical to that interest- 

 ing family, deserves great credit for his pretty collection, 

 selected from the nurseries round London, to which place he 

 makes annually a horticultural visit. His mansion, he in- 

 formed me, was formerly the residence of a bishop, and with 

 the grounds, it forms a perfect specimen of a Flemish country 

 residence, surrounded by a moat of clear, dark, stagnant 

 water, with long straight avenues diverging from the house, 



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like the rays of a circle. The grounds are quite flat, and the 

 paths a soft black sand ; but these soft paths and shady ave- 

 nues, though so completely at variance with my English 

 would-be-picturesque ideas, felt most exceedingly agreeable 

 in a sultry July day ; and as the Flemings, from the nature of 

 a great part of their country, must have tame gardens, I ad- 

 mire their solid taste in consulting their comfort more than 

 their eyes. A Flemish country house is also, it must be ob- 

 served, merely a summer residence, as the inhabitants lock 

 up the doors at the end of September, and, leaving their fur- 

 niture, &c, to its fate, without the protection of even a single 

 servant (a fact which certainly gives a very favourable idea 

 of the honesty of the Belgians), resort to the town till the 

 heat in spring reminds them of their cool avenues. Mr. 

 Chantrell is generally fortunate in gaining prizes from the 

 Horticultural Society of Bruges. In June, 1830, the prin* 

 cipal prize was awarded to him for jErica reflexa alba, a fine 

 specimen, and honourable mention was made of Dryandra ner- 

 vosa, Alstrcemerm pulchella, Jatropha panduraefolia, Ery- 

 thrina Zaurifdlia. These specimens I saw, and admired their 

 superior growth. In the grounds was a pole, perhaps 25 ft. 

 high, closely covered with the twining stems of the ^ristolochia 

 sipho, which formed the most beautiful verdant Column I ever 

 beheld. In the kitchen-gardens, the pear trees Were, as 

 usual here, flourishing; but the apples were sadly cankered 

 and unhealthy ; lettuces, in successive crops, were the prin- 

 cipal vegetables ; the cabbage tribe did not flourish, especially 

 the cauliflower, which will not head in this neighbourhood. 



