1 06 Notes on Gardens and Country Seats : — 



and bound and tied together by iron hoops and rods. The heart 

 wood is entirely rotted out, and the circumferential wood is sepa- 

 rated into parts, round each of which the bark is advancing in a 

 manner which promises ultimately to give them the appearance 

 of so many separate natural stems, as we frequently find to be 

 the case in the very old olive plantations in Italy; for example, at 

 Terni. In the upper part of the tree is a thriving plant of the 

 common elder, which has this year made a shoot 5 ft. long. 



The kitchen of Christ Church College is 40 ft. square and 

 40 ft. high, lighted from a lantern in the centre of the roof. 

 There are three fireplaces, each 20 ft. wide; one of which, for 

 roasting, has a grate formed of upright iron bars 4| ft. high, 

 forming a grating about 9 in. distant from the brickwork which 

 forms the back of the fireplace. When roasting is to be per- 

 formed, a vertical stratum of coals is filled in between the grating 

 and the brickwork, and six tiers of spits, each between 1 3 ft. and 

 14 ft. long, and each having on it six or eight joints, or twelve 

 or thirteen fowls, are placed on the racks, and set in motion by 

 the smoke-jack. The dripping from the whole drops into the 

 same dripping-pan, and every separate article is basted with the 

 combined dripping so produced. Thus, if ducks, geese, turkeys, 

 fowls, pork, beef, mutton, venison, veal, and lamb, were all 

 roasting at the same time, each of these articles would be basted 

 with the combined fat of ducks, geese, turkeys, fowls, pork, beef, 

 mutton, venison, veal, and lamb. On expressing our surprise 

 at this to one of the under-cooks who attended us, she informed 

 us that she believed none of the gentlemen knew of the practice ; 

 but that the two or three tutors or poorer students who remained 

 during vacations, and who dined sometimes on one joint roasted 

 by itself, expressed their satisfaction at its goodness. It is not 

 a little instructive to reflect on this fact. Here are a number of 

 young men of the first rank and wealth in the kingdom, who 

 affect, and indeed have a right from their station in society, to be 

 epicures, eating what would disgust the humblest mechanic or 

 poorest tradesman. If these frequently dine on meat roasted 

 along with other sorts in a close oven, they are still aware of the 

 difference in flavour between such meat and that roasted by 

 itself in a free current of air ; but these noble epicures, who 

 would, no doubt, be shocked beyond measure at the idea of 

 eating meat which had been roasted or baked in a baker's oven, 

 on account of its having been exposed to the exhalations of 

 other kinds of meat supposed to be roasting in it at the same 

 time, are yet faring every day on what is a great deal worse both 

 in reality and idea. There is a curious old gridiron in the 

 kitchen at Christ Church, 5 ft. square, with iron wheels. It is 

 said that formerly, when meat was dressed on it, a hole in the 

 floor was filled with lighted charcoal, and, the gridiron being 



