Retrospective Criticism. 



351 



has taken place in that time, tt is capable of proof that more than 1000 

 acres of nursery land have been cleared in the time alluded to, from several 

 of the proprietors being in insolvent circumstances ; and certainly, in all the 

 country, not 500 acres have been taken into cultivation as nursery ground 

 instead. — William Malcolm. Kensington, June 6. 1834. 



The circumstance of not more than 20/. having been paid at Highclere for 

 nursery plants during the last twenty years, we stated on authority which 

 we have not the slightest reason to doubt. It is evident from the context that 

 American nursery plants are meant, and not nursery plants generally, which 

 may have been bought to the extent mentioned by Mr. Malcolm, without 

 including any American plants among them. We are quite aware that Ame- 

 rican plants may be raised much cheaper in England than they can be in 

 America, and also that they are now, and have been for some years past, 

 selling at such a low price by British nurserymen, as hardly to remunerate 

 them. But, low as this price is, it may still be too high for many gentlemen, 

 who are just as poor in their way as the nurserymen. We admit, and, indeed, 

 we have stated above a year ago (VIII. 129.), that the nursery business is 

 at a very low ebb. We regret exceedingly that any thing should have escaped 

 from our pen to induce so highly valued a friend as Mr. Malcolm to think that 

 we had any other than the very best feelings towards nurserymen, and, in- 

 deed, towards every description of gardeners, either generally or particularly. 

 — Cond. 



St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall. — The sketch given, with a brief description 

 of St. Michael's Mount, attached to my article upon the evergreen oak 

 [IX. 543.], was only meant to give an idea of the situation of the gardens ; 

 whereas, placed as it there is, in connection with the reading, it appears as if 

 it were designed to give a general view of the Mount. This was not my 

 intention, there being only a part of it represented. The accompanying 

 sketch (j%. 69.) will better answer this purpose. It is a north view, as seen 



from the land when the tide is receding, and thereby discovering the line of 

 the causeway, or approach to the Mount, when the tide is out. The mass of 

 rock in the foreground is called " the Chapel Rock," on which tradition 

 reports a chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to have once stood ; close to 

 which, but leaving it on the left, the causeway "is continued until it reaches the 



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