516 Notes on Gardejis and Country Scats: — ■ 



Hungerford, General Popliam, is as highly kept as a place 

 can be; and the house is faultless as a piece of beautiful 

 antiquity in the highest preservation : but the pleasure-ground 

 wants replanting with finer shrubs, of less coarse growth than 

 those by which it is at present occupied. Dropmore, as far 

 as it is completed, ranks among the very first places in point 

 of order and keeping ; but there is a great deal to do there, 

 and, besides, there is no kitchen-garden connected with the 

 other scenery of the place. In point of skill displayed in 

 landscape-gardening, decidedly the most interesting places we 

 saw were Highclere (Earl of Caernarvon's), and Bearwood, 

 near Reading, the seat of J. Walters, Esq.* Nothing could 

 exceed the order and high keeping of both the pleasure- 

 ground and kitchen-garden at Norman Court ; and the house 

 there is also good : but the Dleasure-o-round is too confined ; 

 and, altogether, the scenery about the house wants rearranging 

 to make it constitute a good whole. Among the larger places 

 of the greatest natural beauty, and judicious general arrange- 

 ment, were Highclere, the Grange, and Broadlands. We 

 never were more struck with any thing than with Highclere, 

 particularly with the variation of the grounds and views, and 

 with the disposition of the trees. The first sight of the por- 

 tico at the Grange, looking down upon it embosomed in wood, 

 from the grove on the opposite bank, came upon us like 

 enchantment. It reminded us of Martin's Paphian Bower ; 



* We may observe here, that in not more than one or two of the numer- 

 ous places at which we called, where alterations had been made, or were 

 going on, was a landscape-gardener regularly employed. An architect is 

 called in because he cannot be done without ; but the alterations in the 

 grounds are generally concocted by the master or mistress and the gar- 

 dener, and carried into execution by the latter. Sometimes a nurseryman 

 is called in ; but, with one or two exceptions, among which we have great 

 pleasure in including Mr. Page of Southampton, these gentlemen are very 

 deficient in taste. 



From this wish of masters and mistresses to lay out their own grounds, 

 arises, on their part, a good deal of reading about landscape-gardening, and 

 the desire of studying it by visiting gentlemen's seats in different parts of 

 the country. The result of this will be a great and permanent improve- 

 ment in this department of our ai't. We say great and permanent, because 

 experience has shown that there is no way of securing and rendering per- 

 manent improvements either in taste or science, but by their general dif- 

 fusion. This affords a noble prospect to all who take an interest in these 

 matters, or in the progress of society and their country; and it ought to 

 show gardeners the absolute necessity of their paying ever}' possible 

 attention in their power to landscape-gardening and garden architecture. 

 Let all who are under thirty begin sketching trees from nature; and all 

 who are above that age set about a course of reading and reflection on the 

 subject : and, further, let all who read this Magazine pay particular atten- 

 tion to the notes which we make during our tours ; for the main object of 

 these notes is to improve the taste of gardeners. 



