506 Notes of a Gardeni?ig Tour ifi 183S. 



walks, as gravel is scarce and dear. The approaches to this 

 place, both from the London and Bath road, and the road from 

 Hindon, are remarkably good, and their commencement is indi- 

 cated by very picturesque and substantial Gothic cottages, said 

 to be built from designs by the present lord, vi^ho, with his lady, are 

 much attached to gardening improvements. The family being 

 at present in Rome, the place is not kept up as it is when they 

 are at home. 



On our way to Salisbury we were repeatedly reminded not only 

 of the necessity of guide posts, but that they should be formed of 

 solid letters, with open intervals. So violent was the storm, and so 

 dark the night, that we could hardly see the road ; and, taking the 

 wrong turn at Wilton, we went round by Old Sarum ; thus ta- 

 king a very dangerous road, and one which was more than five 

 miles round. The tree at Old Sarum, under which the elections 

 used to be made, was blown down the same night. 



Aug. 31, and SepL \. — T/ie Mount, near Wilton; J. H. 

 Flooks, Esq. — This is a pretty little villa, recently built, and 

 laid out by the proprietor, a gentleman who is very ex- 

 tensively employed as a land agent, surveyor, architect^ 

 landscape gardener, builder, and, in short, as an adviser iri' 

 most descriptions of rural business. He has also extensive 

 brick fields, and, till lately, farmed on a large scale; one 

 of his concerns being a renter of the grounds on which sheep 

 fairs are held. Mr. Flooks holds two fairs, one at Wilton, 

 and the other at Britford. The former is one of the largest in 

 England, and is held in a field of thirteen acres, near Mr. 

 Flooks's house. This field is laid out into ninety-six compart- 

 ments, parallelograms, like the beds of a garden, separated by 

 main and subordinate grass walks. In the centre of the field, 

 where the two main walks cross each other, is a small portable 

 wooden house, in which Mr. Flooks sits three or four days, 

 both before and while the market is being held, with a plan of it 

 before him, in order to let out, either entire compartments, or 

 any part of them, to farmers or dealers who have sheep to ex- 

 pose for sale. For this purpose he has a number of clerks and 

 assistants), who, like aid-de-camps on a field of battle, are con- 

 tinually running to and fro. The compartments are either let to 

 farmers for their lives, or singly at so much per day, per market, 

 or per year. This mode of letting has brought Mr. Flooks into 

 personal contact with all the principal sheep dealers in the West 

 of England, and with almost every farmer within a circuit of 

 nearly fifty miles in diameter. We have seen the list of bad 

 debts made amongst these men, in sums from one shilling to two 

 or three pounds, the names arranged alphabetically; and it is 

 really frightful from its magnitude. There is a sufficiency of 

 wicker hurdles (from 800 to 1000 dozen, and four times that 



