258 Notes on Gardens and Country Seats. 



may be compared with Highclere ; but these are only portions, 

 not in all exceeding a few acres : while here we have a park three 

 or four miles in length, and averaging a mile in breadth. Let 

 the reader who has an opportunity compare the planting which 

 has been done in the park at White Knights, both that done by 

 the original planter about the same time as that at Highclere, 

 and that done under the direction of the Duke of Marlborough, 

 and say in which is the superiority of taste and judgment. 

 There are few, however, who can profit from the study of such 

 places as Highclere and Pain's Hill; and this is the reason 

 why we have always heard the former place mentioned for its 

 hybrid rhododendrons and azaleas, and the latter for having 

 been the first where rhododendrons were raised from American 

 seeds ; and never, either of them, for the disposition of the trees. 

 There is, however, one point, in respect to Highclere, which, 

 we have no doubt, will come home to the bosoms both of gar- 

 deners and their employers ; and an important point it is : that 

 is, that all the American trees and shrubs, which now make such a 

 conspicuous figure there, were raised on the spot, either from seeds 

 procured from America, or from plants which had ripened them 

 in this country. We are assured that not more than 20/. have 

 been paid at Highclere for nursery plants during the last 

 twenty years. Perhaps we shall be blamed by nurserymen for 

 mentioning such a thing. We should deserve blame, however, 

 much more, if we were to preserve silence. The reason why 

 gentlemen have had recourse to raising American plants from 

 seed, is because more has been charged for the plants by the 

 nurserymen, than many gentlemen could afford to give. So far 

 from blaming gentlemen for raising trees from American seeds, 

 we commend them for it; and we are persuaded that nursery- 

 men would do so likewise, if they saw the result in its true 

 light; viz. the spreading of a taste for foreign trees and shrubs. 

 Persons in business may rely upon this, that there is not one 

 gentleman in a hundred, who can afford to purchase plants from 

 a nurseryman, who will take the trouble of rearing them from 

 seed for himself. Gentlemen who are not rich, or those whose 

 expenditure in matters of improvement or taste treads closely 

 on the heels of their incomes, may become their own nursery- 

 men ; but the effect of wealth is, in almost all cases, to induce a 

 desire for ease, and to purchase the results of labour, rather than 

 to labour to produce results. Besides, were the practice alluded 

 to to become general, the seed business would be greatly in- 

 creased; and, in this case, what difference could it make to 

 a nursei'yman whether he derives a profit from importing and 

 selling seeds, or raising plants from these seeds? The truth 

 is, all businesses and all pursuits are continually changing 

 with the progress of society. This complaint, of gentlemen 



