4 'Notes on Gardens and Country Seats : — 



present nearly a fac-simile of each other ; forming fine round 

 heads, with handsome boles, and most of them being loaded with 

 fruit. Mr. Oldacre does not permit the branches of the trees to 

 touch the ground, but, by pruning, keeps them about 3 ft. or 

 4 ft. from the surface. The family being at Stoke Farm, it was 

 not convenient for me to have a view of the flower-gardens and 

 grounds, which I could not help regretting; but, nevertheless, felt 

 myself amply repaid by a sight of the kitchen-garden, and by 

 the kind attention of Mr. Oldacre, who, as a kitchen-gardener, 

 has for so many years preserved a high reputation. 



Dropmore. — On approaching Dropmore from the Burnham 

 side, my anticipations, as far as it regards the approach to a 

 place of such celebrity, were not realised ; the soil, apparently, 

 not beinsf cono-enial to the o-rowth of fine English timber trees ; 

 and too few of them are to be seen to give that character to the 

 place which is to be found in some others of less magnitude. 

 To landscape-gardeners in general, I conceive that Dropmore, 

 with regard to the scenery of its interior, does not yield that 

 satisfaction which they may be led to expect from mere report; 

 but to the admirers of Flora, in all her richest varieties of beauty 

 and splendour, when heightened by the free introduction of ar- 

 chitectural ornaments, such as vases, pedestals, statues, &c., it 

 cannot fail to afford a rich repast. In short, there seems to be 

 almost a redundancy of beauty and variety here, a description of 

 which a transient visitor can scarcely attempt to give. Mr. 

 Frost, with a limited number of hands, when compared with 

 former years, perseveres with the utmost ardour in improve- 

 ments, and in keeping up a perpetual succession of all that is 

 most select, rare, and beautiful in the flower-garden and its 

 appendages ; to accomplish which thousands of pots must be 

 necessary, in the course of the season, for a constant reserve, to 

 replace such of the flowers as are dying off in the numerous 

 clumps and borders which he has to supply. The pinetum is 

 still progressing, and many specimens are to be seen thriving 

 admirably, in a soil which seems better adapted for pines than 

 for most of the indigenous and deciduous trees of Britain. Im- 

 provements in enlarging the water, and making rough banks 

 with the excavated soil alluded to in Vol. III. p. 263., are still 

 carrying on, at a great outlay of labour and expense ; and, for 

 convenience as well as for ornament, a bridge is to be constructed 

 over a part of the water. Upon these rough banks the pinetum 

 is extending, and eventually must give a character of no ordinary 

 kind to that portion of the grounds. The cedar drive, as it is 

 called, consisting of a winding avenue of the cedar of Lebanon 

 of about one third of a mile in length, begins to assume a strik- 



• rT^l* O ^ O 



ing appearance. The trees are of about 25 years' growth, and 

 are planted at a distance from each other sufficient to show their 



