426 Notes made during a Professional Tour 



and is, I believe, in most parts extremely scarce; on which 

 account the garden walks in this country are generally very 

 unsightly. I returned from Liege to Brussels, and thence to 

 Tournay, through Enghein and Ath. The last is a small but 

 strongly fortified place, the entrance to which is over five or six 

 drawbridges. I was informed that it was fortified by Napoleon, 

 and that he deemed it the key to Belgium on that side. All 

 along this line of road, you pass through a beautiful cultivated 

 country, well wooded and watered in every direction. Tournay 

 is a small, but rather a well-built town, and is strongly fortified, 

 owing, no doubt, to its being near the frontiers of France. The 

 river Scheldt runs through the town, nearly in the middle of it, 

 which facilitates the communication with other places. There are 

 few nursery gardens here. An extensive grower of tulips, who 

 resides within the ramparts, has raised, I was informed, a great 

 many splendid varieties from seed. There is here a sort of 

 botanic garden, but the most miserable one I have ever seen ; 

 the management being entirely left to common labourers. The 

 next garden which I visited was that of Sir Henry Oaks, Bart*, 

 who has a very neat range of small houses, containing a select 

 collection of well-cultivated plants. Sir Henry cultivates those 

 species and varieties only which recommend themselves by the 

 beauty of their flowers. I observed a fine plant of Chorozema 

 Henchmannz, nearly 5 ft. high, covered with its beautiful blos- 

 soms from the pot to the very top. Sir Henry showed me a 

 number of gold and silver medals, awarded to him by different 

 societies, both in Belgium and France. I found Sir Henry one 

 of the most affable and obliging gentlemen that I met with on 

 the Continent : he not only personally showed me his garden, 

 but introduced me to those of his acquaintances that had any 

 thing worth seeing. I did not find any to surpass his own, 

 although several were tolerable ; but the proprietors of them all 

 declared that Sir Henry was the first to instigate them to do 

 what they had done, as there did not exist a green-house of any 

 consequence in Tournay before his was built. 



I proceeded from Tournay direct to Paris, without stopping, 

 except for changing horses and getting refreshment. We had 

 not gone far, before it was visible that we were in another 

 country. Any person, who has not seen it, would scarcely be- 

 lieve that such a difference could exist in so short a distance : 

 the houses began to be more and more dirty as we advanced into 

 the French territory; and, instead of the neat Flemish brick 

 houses, nothing was to be seen but miserable clay huts, which 

 often presented a very filthy appearance: the disparity in the 

 state of the inhabitants was about as great. The roads also be- 

 came worse, and the diligences much more clumsy and awkward, 

 than those in Belgium. The distance between Tournay and 



