Nurseries at Oxford. 107 



charged, it was wheeled over the fire, and afterwards wheeled off 

 and on as it became requisite. The larders, and all the other 

 subordinate arrangements of this kitchen, are of a very clumsy 

 and imperfect description, badly lighted and ventilated, and 

 altogether unfavourable to cleanliness. Properly ventilated 

 roasting-ovens would not only roast every kind of meat with its 

 proper flavour, as well as it is done before an open fire in a 

 private gentleman's house, but they would save a great deal of 

 fuel and labour. Let Mr. Sylvester, or some such engineer, be 

 consulted, and we will venture to say that modern innovations 

 on long- established forms will be adopted in the utensils and 

 the arrangements of college cookery, whatever others suggested 

 for the gardens and grounds may be rejected. 



August 14. We this day looked at the different Oxford 

 nurseries. In 1804, there were only two gardens of this de- 

 scription ; that of Mr. Tegg, and that of Mr. Penson. There 

 are now four others. Still the taste at Oxford is more for 

 the sensual, than for the intellectual part of gardening. The 

 principal products of all these nurseries are culinary vegetables 

 and fruits ; and the next, showy and fragrant flowers. What 

 the gentlemen of the colleges desire most, is what the preacher 

 Huntington says was preferred by the cookmaid at the place 

 where he was gardener, viz. "a flower in a pot, and one that 

 would stand." A geranium, a rose, a night-smelling stock, and 

 mignonette, we were informed, would sell, but not any of the 

 new calceolarias or fuchsias, because in the rooms of the col- 

 leges they would not " stand." Forced fruits, such as straw- 

 berries and cucumbers, pay remarkably well. 



Tegg's Paradise Nursery has been in his family upwards of a 

 century. When we first saw it, in 1804, it contained scarcely 

 any thing more than a common market-garden, but it possesses 

 now many of the rarer and more expensive plants ; decidedly 

 the most valuable nursery collection at Oxford. Among the 

 camellias are C. reticulata, C. japonica fimbriata, and all the best 

 varieties of Mr. Press. Almost all the new shrubs which have 

 been recommended in this Magazine are to be found here; 

 a number of them we certainly did not expect to see. We 

 cannot say much for the manner in which they are propagated 

 or cultivated, speaking comparatively with the London nur- 

 series ; and, as to order and neatness, Mr. Tegg sets them at 

 defiance. The truth is, the ground is his own, and he is too 

 independent to care about making the most of it. In one re- 

 spect, it put us in mind of the Monkwood Nursery, where, as 

 its owner, Mr. Smith, informed us (VIII. 1 13.), he allowed 

 the rarest plants and commonest weeds to grow up together 

 " in a friendly manner." Mr. Tegg has been very successful in 

 propagating a number of hardy things; among other shrubs, 



