Mingwoody Hounslo'w's Nursejy, Somerlei/ House. 331 



Battersea, or East Ham, cabbage, which, on an average, comes 

 in three weeks sooner than the ordinary variety. It has been 

 exhibited at the Sahsbury shows, and highly approved of, and 

 may be asked for of the seedsmen under the name of Hounslow's 

 early cabbage. It was most gratifying to us to see so industrious 

 a man in this comparatively remote situation, creating a nur- 

 sery which will soon become a great ornament to the town, 

 as well as, we trust, a substantial benefit to himself. He has a 

 good stock of that best of all gooseberries, the Ironmonger. 



Somerley House, Lord Normanton. — The house stands on a 

 prominent brow of high banks, 60 ft. below which are the exten- 

 sive water meadows of the Avon. The grounds about the house 

 are admirably adapted for an extensive level terrace walk ; but 

 this idea has been only slightly carried into execution by an 

 uneven narrow walk, which is, however, two miles in length. On 

 the platform behind the house is some pleasure-ground scenery, 

 with aviaries, and other ornamental buildings, very neatly kept ; 

 but the buildings are in bad taste, being finished with half 

 columns, and having, in the intercolumniations, doors and 

 windows with circular heads, and of different heights, even under 

 the same pediments ; than which nothing can be more contrary 

 to unity of system and effect. We had not a near view of either 

 front of the house, the family disliking the appearance of 

 strangers. The place, as far as we saw it, was in very good 

 order. The kitchen-garden is on the level grounds, on the 

 bank of the Avon, about a mile from the house. Some of the 

 water meadows are divided by wire fences, which may well be 

 called invisible. They are composed of wires, about the eighth 

 of an inch in diameter, each about 300 ft. long, and screwed 

 tight into an oak post, concealed in a group of thorns. 



On the road from Ringwood to Wimborne Minster are 

 some extensive plantations of pinasters, which, on the poorest 

 soils, Mr. Hounslow informs us, grow faster than either the 

 Scotch pine or the larch : the timber, however, especially when 

 young, is light and porous, and is less durable than that of either 

 of those trees; the trunks are also less straight. On approach- 

 ing Wimborne there are extensive fir plantations to the left, 

 which caught fire accidently upwards of a year ago ; and the 

 fire scathed them for some miles in extent, burning their branches 

 and blackening their trunks so as to produce a very dreary and 

 singular effect. Had there been deciduous trees among these 

 plantations, they would have recovered on being cut over by the 

 surface, as furze copses which have been burned down are 

 found invariably to do ; but resinous trees, every one knows, do 

 not stole. To the right of the public road is Canford House, on the 

 banks of the Avon, a monastic Gothic building, among fine old 

 trees. It has a charming effect from the road. The minster 



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