36(5 Importance of visiting Gardens. 



depicted upon the countenance of your guide, lest you should 

 be seen by any of the family, the skulking-holes in which, at 

 times, you must conceal yourself, to avoid observation, and the 

 anxious manner in which you are hurried along, render it im- 

 possible to enjoy that satisfaction which a calm survey might 

 have afforded. If such things are the effect of strict orders, the 

 resident gardener, however painful it may be to his feelings, 

 ought to comply with them, and admit no visiters at all; and, 

 this being made known, other gardeners would not be disap- 

 pointed. If not the effect of strict orders, the gardener, or the 

 person who conducts you, acts in a manner calculated to render 

 himself suspected of some nefarious design; for, although no 

 one, in such cases, would desire to obtrude on any of the family, 

 the resorting to unmanly methods of avoiding them is enough 

 to raise suspicions in their minds, fear and alarm being con- 

 comitants of guilt. It would be pleasant to observe that none 

 of these obstacles could be traced to the mere capricious humour 

 of gardeners ; but, from what has fallen under my observation, 

 I cannot exonerate them of such a charge. As a proof of this, 

 I may mention, that, on taking a tour along the coast of Fife, 

 with a valued correspondent of this Magazine, we came to 



D ; and, after calling upon the head-gardener, who lives at 



a considerable distance from the principal garden, and obtaining 

 his permission to look over the grounds, we proceeded to 

 them. On our arrival, after being shown through the kitchen- 

 garden (the greater part of which was sown with grass), the 

 young man who conducted us declared that he could show us 



no more without permission of Mr. , the under-gardener. 



This Mr. being from home, we waited a long time for his 



return ; when, on our stating where we came from, he ordered 

 the same young man to show us every thing. Now, the least 

 reflection will show the absurdity of such a practice ; for, how- 

 ever far a person might travel to see these gardens, his journey 



would be labour in vain if this Mr. were from home when 



he arrived. It was in 1830 that I visited this place; and I know 

 not whether the practice be still persevered in. 



As another drawback to the young gardener, it is now becom- 

 ing fashionable, when new places of any celebrity are forming, 

 to admit no visiters until all is finished. When I read an account 

 of a celebrated establishment near London, I never imagined 

 that I should frequently pass one of the boundary walls of the 

 garden, and yet know less of what was doing within than when 

 I was several hundred miles distant. Although I have not had 

 the best opportunities for judging, I have long felt convinced 

 that much is to be gained from visiting a new place while the 

 operations are proceeding; and, accordingly, being in the 

 neighbourhood of Derby in the month of August, I called at an 



