282 



Notes of a Tour in Oct. 1825. 



basket-work, otiiers trail over rocks and fantastic stones ; some 

 of the rockeries have a margin of curious Derbyshire spar, and 

 others are entirely of plum-pudding stone. There are groups 

 of large shells (Chama gigas), corals, corallines, madrepores, 

 tufFa, lava, petrifactions, ammonites, and different sorts of scoria, 

 all curiously intermixed with flowers and plants. There is a 

 picturesque aquarium, the sides of which are finely ornamented 

 with rockwork and American evergreens. There is a conserva- 

 tory with an opaque roof in the ancient style, with the piers be- 

 tween the windows externally clothed with rare exotic creepers, 

 and the interior of the house decorated with rustic props, and 

 green trellis-work. At one end is a sort of banqueting- room, 

 carpeted and furnished with couches, sofas, tables, musical instru- 

 ments, books (especially on botany and landscape), mirrors, and 

 a variety of other things. 



The plants in the conservatory are chiefly orange trees, which 

 are particularly appropriate to this kind of building : they are 

 not, generally, in tubs, but planted in the free soil ; and they 

 looked far better than could have been expected from plants 

 kept perpetually under an opaque roof. In common with the 

 holly, the box, and the common laurel, when grown under the 

 shade of trees, their leaves, though flaccid, were of a dark shining 

 green. There are two other conservatoires, of a modern cha- 

 i-acter, with glass roofs : the plants they contain have for many 

 years been too large for them, so that they are annually obliged 

 to be cut down. When these conservatories were built, the idea 

 of such immense glazed structures as are now erected had not 

 entered into the minds of either gardeners or architects. There 

 is a wall on which various half-hardy plants are trained, and, 

 among others, that singular New Zealand tree, Edwards/a gran- 

 difl5ra. {fig. 33.) The Chinese garden here is unique of its kind. 

 It is not large, but contains a 

 conservatory, a sort of low 

 ))agoda, and other ornamental 

 buildings, and a great quan- 

 tity of valuable Chinese por- 

 celain, of Chinese figures, 

 monsters, mandarins, the god 

 Joss, di'agons, &c., and paint- 

 ings, fountains, gold fish, jets, 

 &c. In the conservatoi-y are 

 all the sorts of camellias that 

 could be procured when it 

 was planted; very large plants 

 of green and black tea, be- 

 cause at that time it was 

 not known that the green 



