of Kensington Gardens. 149 



water entrance, amounting to some thousands of loads, would, 

 when dry, have formed the best of all soil for mixing with 

 that taken out of the pits; and there would, it is believed, 

 have been a sufficient quantity for all the pits required in Ken- 

 sington Gardens, which we do not think would be more than from 

 600 to 800. Such an immense mass of soil, so valuable, that it 

 could not be procured for money, instead of being buried in a 

 pit, where, as soil, it can be of no use whatever, ought rather to 

 have been used as a top dressing over the whole of the gardens. 



7. If the mode of planting suggested should be adopted, it 

 would be worth while to take all the rich soil just mentioned 

 out of the old gravel pit, and plant the pit with hollies, or with 

 Quercus /''lex, either of which evergreens would soon turn 

 it into a thicket, and render it impossible for any one to know 

 that a pit was there ; but, if it is absolutely determined that this 

 pit shall be filled up with earth, then let the bad earth taken out 

 of the pits be substituted for the good soil, no more good soil 

 being taken out of the pit than what there was bad soil to replace 

 it with. This would leave the pit as full as it is at present, and, 

 at the same time, save some thousand loads of rich compost. 

 For our own part, we should never think of filling up a chalk 

 or gravel pit, or stone quarry, even in Kensington Gardens, 

 though there were a dozen there, considering such accidental 

 inequalities of surface as the best of all situations for display- 

 ing gardening to advantage. We may refer to what Addison 

 said in the Spectator on the gravel pits in these grounds, which 

 were turned into parterres by London and Wise ; and to the 

 chalk pit turned into a garden by the celebrated Whately, the 

 author of Observations on Modern Gardening. 



8. Among the kinds of trees planted, there ought to be a 

 number of American oaks, cedars, pines, and firs ; and, as of 

 some of the species of these trees only small plants can be pro- 

 cured in the nurseries, they should, as soon as planted, be fenced 

 round with wicker hurdles; not only to protect them from ex- 

 ternal injury, but to shelter and shade them. Instead of a triangle 

 formed by three square wicker hurdles, cylindrical, or tube-like, 

 hurdles may be woven by the hurdle-maker, and placed over 

 each plant; which will have a very neat appearance, and will 

 not only effectually screen the plants from danger, but promote 

 their growth. Larger plants may either have a handful of thorns 

 tied round them, as in the Regent's Park ; a few laths applied 

 close to their stems, and made fast there by wire, to be annually 

 examined, and an additional lath put in where requisite ; or, 

 where cattle, horses, or deer are to be admitted, as in Hyde 

 Park, the admirable method of Mr. Lawrence, described in a 

 future page, may be resorted to, as the cheapest and very best 

 tree guard hitherto discovered. 



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