160 Domestic Notices : — 



Art. II. Domestic Notices. 

 ENGLAND. 



A SCHEME for a Metropolitan Garden Society and Benevolent Fund was pro- 

 posed to us, two years ago (VII. 689.), by Mr. Ramsay the nurseryman, and has 

 lately been laid before us more in detail by a most enthusiastic and intelligent 

 gardening amateur. We do not publish this scheme, because, on due con- 

 sideration of the rapid changes which are taking place in society (we allude par- 

 ticularly to the projected municipal system), we think several parts of the plan 

 are objectionable. For instance, we decidedly disapprove of charitable pro- 

 visions of any kind being made for healthy able-bodied men or their children. 

 One part of the scheme submitted to us was to educate the children of 

 gardeners ; but we see no good that could result from educating the children 

 of this class at the expense of a society, since it would in the end be merely 

 saving the pockets of those who employ gardeners. A national system of 

 education will, we trust, soon set all questions on this head at rest. We 

 dislike, also, the idea of looking to the patronage of persons of title, merely as 

 such, for the main support of any institution whatever. The time is gone by 

 for any other patronage than that of the public generally. When the metro- 

 polis is once governed as a whole, it will soon have a metropolitan garden, 

 supported, like other metropolitan institutions, at the general expense. In 

 the mean time, rather than see any new garden establishment of the kind 

 proposed, we would wish that of the Horticultural Society to be better sup- 

 ported, and even assistance advanced to it by government, as in the case of the 

 Edinburgh gardens, (p. 62.) — Cond. 



A General Cemetery, of 52 acres, is projected at Notting Hill, near Bays- 

 water, by J. F. Carden, Esq., who was the first to bring forward, in an effective 

 manner, the idea of public cemeteries in England, in 1824. Since that time 

 nine general cemeteries have been established in different country towns. 

 We dislike the idea of cemeteries and botanic gardens being made private 

 speculations, and would have them formed and maintained at the expense of 

 the municipal societies under whose government they were situated ; but we 

 suppose the time is not yet arrived for this state of things. 



A Bazaar for the Sale of Plants in Pots, and cut Flowers, is about to be 

 opened in the Pantheon, Oxford Street, London. The Pantheon is an im- 

 mense building, which, for nearly 30 years, owing to some peculiar circum- 

 stances in the tenure by which it was held, has been unoccupied. It has 

 now, however, become the property of some persons of capital, and of great 

 spirit and taste, who are remodelling the entire premises, so as to render it 

 one of the most splendid bazaars in London. Among other departments, 

 there is a saloon, exclusively devoted to the exhibition of pictures and statuary, 

 which will be open to the public gratuitously; a new and most valuable fea- 

 ture. There will also be a conservatory for the reception of plants for sale. 

 This building, which forms an entrance to the bazaar from Marlborough Street, 

 will be 85 ft. long, 25 ft. wide, and about the same height. The roof is cur- 

 vilinear, of iron, and glazed on all sides. It will be heated by hot water, and 

 the side sashes will open for ventilation. It is proposed to range along the 

 two sides of this conservatory a series of small stages, and to let out the 

 ranges at so much per foot frontage. The price mentioned to us by Mr. 

 Walker, one of the proprietors, is so remarkably low, and the chances of sale, 

 in a place which from 10,000 to 15,000 persons will probably pass through 

 daily, so great, that we should think nurserymen and other growers of plants 

 would find it well worth their while to send here some of their handsomest 

 specimens. The architecture of the. conservatory, which is by Sydney Smirke, 

 Esq., is in the Indian Gothic style, and very handsome and appropriate. 

 Mr. Smirke has favoured us with some sketches, which we shall probably 

 engrave at an early period. A plan, and farther particulars of the other parts 

 of the building, will be found in our Architectural Magazine. 



The Stamford Hill Horticultural Reading Society, established Nov. 6. 1833. 



