Domestic Notices ; — England. 395 



£>*■ 



Her Ladyship has engaged, as head master of the establishment, Mr. Craig, 

 who had formerly the care of the agricultural school established by the late 

 Mr, Vandeleur in the south of Ireland, and who is now on his way to Switzer- 

 land, to inspect the establishment of M. Fellenberg at Hofwyl. 



A Design for the Sheffield Botanic Garden, by Wm. Billinton, Esq., architect 

 and civil engineer, has been sent us by that gentleman, with a request that we 

 should give our opinion of it in this Magazine. — It is neatly drawn, and the 

 ground plan of the building is very architectural. There is also a terrace 

 walk, which would have a very good effect : but when we have said this, we 

 have included nearly all that we can commend. The roads and walks are 

 curvilineal, without, in many cases, a sufficiently obvious reason ; the arbo- 

 retum is confined to two compact clumps, not more than large enough for 

 two or three orders j there is a small space for the natural system of herba- 

 ceous plants, equally disproportionate j a large space for the Linnaean arrange- 

 ment, and a plot of beds radiating from the centre like the spokes of a wheel. 

 The latter may please some eyes on paper, but in execution it would be into- 

 lerable, both in point of beauty and use. To render such a mode of radiating 

 beds at all tolerable, the general figure ought to be circular. Here it is a 

 parallelogram, with a triangle added to each end. If any one will try to 

 radiate beds from the centre of such a figure, he will find what a very awkward 

 impracticable result he will produce. We shall not say more ; indeed, we are 

 sorry to have been obliged to say so much, considering the very candid and 

 liberal manner in which Mr. Billinton requests us to give our opinion on his 

 plan publicly. It is, however, as we have before observed, p. 276., no dis- 

 paragement to an architect not to be also a gardener. Mr. Billinton, we 

 have no doubt, could do honour to our Architectural Magazine, and we invite 

 him to become a contributor to that work. — Cond. 



By the Use of hot Water at Wallington, the seat of Sir John Trevelyan, in 

 Northumberland, 90 loads of coals, out of 220, were saved the first year. The 

 value of these coals, including carriage, is about 6.?. a ton. Instead of nine 

 fires to four houses, there are now only two fires. The level system of circu- 

 lating the water is adopted, and the work was executed by Mr. Cookson, iron- 

 founder, of Newcastle. — T. July 8. 1834. 



An Elevation and Section of a Peach-House, erected in 1830 for Lord Yar- 

 borough, at Brocklesby in Lincolnshire, have been sent us by the builder, Mr. 

 Crosskill of Beverley, mentioned p. 277., accompanied with a description by 

 the gardener at Brocklesby, Mr. Hedges. The house is 106 ft. long, and 11 ft. 

 wide, in three equal divisions. The rafters are cast iron, and the sashes are 

 of wood. In the front wall, and in the upper part of the back wall, there 

 are cast-iron ventilators fixed in the manner of the shutters described and 

 figured in II. 201. These ventilators are moved sympathetically by iron rods 

 and pinions, and they have been in use three years without having gone out 

 of order. The three divisions are heated by hot water from one fire, the 

 upper pipe is flat, 18 in. broad, and 3 in. deep; and the returning pipe is circu- 

 lar, and about 4 in. in diameter. The whole is very satisfactory to Mr. 

 Hedges, who, in his letter, bestows great praise on Mr. Crosskill, for the 

 superior manner in which the work is executed. The cost, exclusive of the 

 bricks, lime, and sand, was 1006/. — Cond. 



The Irish Furze (IPfer europcc~a var. stricta), as a Forage Plant. — It has 

 recently been found in Caernarvonshire, and other parts of North Wales, that this 

 variety of the common furze may be more profitably cultivated in the field than 

 the species. The reason is, the branches, when cut for use, do not require 

 bruising before being given to horses or cattle. As this variety very rarely 

 produces flowers or seeds, it is propagated by cuttings, which, however, strike 

 in a bed of sandy soil as readily as willows. The cuttings should be taken off 

 in the autumn, of the present year's wood, and they need not be above Sin. long. 

 They will be fit to transplant in the March or April following, and in the 

 succeeding autumn they may be cut over with the scythe for the first time. 

 We consider this a very interesting fact, and one which shows that it is from 



e E 4 



