THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



APRIL, 1836. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Some Account of the Gardens, and State of Gardening, in the 

 North Riding of Yorkshire. By J. B. W. 



I ENTIRELY agree with your highly intelligent correspondent, 

 Scientiae et Justitiae Amator (Vol. X. p. 365.), that much valuable 

 information might be acquired by gardeners, if they were occa- 

 sionally to inspect the gentlemen's gardens in their neighbour- 

 hood. Few gardens are so poor that they will not repay the 

 trouble of a visit, by supplying some useful hint, or improved 

 practice, to an acute observer ; or making him acquainted with a 

 new or superior variety of fruit, flower, or vegetable ; or bringing 

 under his notice one or other of the remarkable variations so 

 often produced on plants by the difference of soil and situation ; 

 or, what is, perhaps, of equal importance to a gardener of the 

 present day, by exhibiting something either advisable to follow, 

 or necessary to avoid, in the higher department of his art, land- 

 scape-gardening. 



The gardener who is confined within his own walls, whether 

 by the illiberality of his employer or his own apathy, generally 

 overrates his own horticultural skill ; and, instead of " growing 

 wiser as he grows older," becomes bigoted in his erroneous no- 

 tions, and prejudiced against any deviation from the beaten track 

 which he has so long followed. It is to freedom of intercourse 

 that we are chiefly indebted for the vast extension of knowledge 

 in the last century ; compared with which, its most rapid pro- 

 gress in former ages appears only a snail's pace. In gardening, 

 especially, the modern improvements must, in a great measure, 

 be attributed to this cause, acting through the media of horti- 

 cultural societies and books. But, in the practical part of the 

 art, seeing, and reflecting upon what we see, are better than read- 

 ing, and reflecting upon what we read ; therefore, so far as it can 

 be done without neglect of duty, a gardener ought to visit, with 

 a view of acquiring knowledge, all the gardens accessible to him. 



Vol. XII. — No. 73. o 



