114 Notes on Gardens and Country Seats : — 



mately, a public ornamental garden surrounding the whole city, 

 as a breathing zone. (See V. 686.) 



The two principal ironmongers in Oxford are Ploughman 

 and Edwards; the former has an economical modification of Meth- 

 ley's fireplace (V. 238., and Encyclopaedia of Cottage Architec- 

 ture, § 2061. fig. 1843.), which deserves general adoption. The 

 fuel chamber is narrowed at the bottom, by the back and sides 

 being beveled inwards ; and the price is greatly reduced, by 

 the front bars and the grate being of cast iron unpolished, and 

 plain beads being substituted for enriched mouldings. This fire- 

 place may be seen in some of the parlours of the Golden Cross 

 Commercial Inn, Oxford. Mr. Edwards manufactures, besides 

 the improved form of Witty's furnace mentioned in p. 108., an 

 excellent light and strong hand-glass of tinned iron ; a barrow 

 engine, the frame of which is wholly of iron ; an excellent tin 

 roaster ; and an oval tin hip-bath, which may also be used as a 

 child's bath, foot-bath, sponging-pan, or washing-tub. We have 

 sketches of these articles, which we may probably give in our 

 Architectural Magazine. Mr. Edwards has applied one of his 

 improved Witty's furnaces to a baker's oven in Oxford, which 

 we examined, and to some bakers' ovens on a large scale in 

 London, which we intend to see. The advantage is, a great 

 saving of fuel, by the consumption of the smoke ; and of labour, 

 by avoiding the trouble of cleaning out the soot every time the 

 oven is used. He has also applied these furnaces to the boilers 

 of breweries and of wash-houses. 



The road to Wantage is through a hilly country, badly culti- 

 vated ; and it is everywhere in want of having the surface soil 

 deepened by such an instrument as Finlayson's harrow or as 

 Wilkie's grubber ; but it will require another and a reading 

 generation of farmers to introduce these implements. We passed 

 only one or two gentlemen's seats, but we observed a number of 

 well-kept cottage gardens, richly ornamented with China roses, 

 hollyhocks, and many of them with georginas. The splendour of 

 the roses on one cottage, in a remote situation, exceeded any- 

 thing of the kind between it and London : the trees were at least 

 20 ft. high, and were covered with a mass of bloom. We lately 

 saw a lady to whom the present Mr. Lee's grandfather, about 

 forty years ago, showed the first China rose which he had to 

 propagate from, as a great curiosity. In some of these gardens 

 were Kerna japonica and Aucuba japonica, both green-house 

 plants thirty years ago. 



Wantage is a small dull town, but still there are some neat 

 little gardens about it. The country continues hilly, and badly 

 cultivated, till within a few miles of Newbury. 



Benham House, Keppel Craven, Esq. — August 1 4. The grounds 

 are limited ; but, from the proximity of the woody scenery of 



