THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



SEPTEMBER, 1835. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Notes on Gardens and Country Seats, visited, from July 27. 

 to September 16. 1833, during a Tour through Part of Middlesex, 

 Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, 

 Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent. By the Conductor. 



(^Continued from p. 338.} 



AuG.2S. — Hindon. — The occasional glimpses caught of Fonthill 

 from the high parts of the open downs, surrounded by woods, and 

 without a single human habitation, a fence, or a made road appear- 

 ing in the landscape, convey to a stranger a correct impression 

 of the character of the place ; viz., that of a monastic building 

 in a wild, hilly, and thinly inhabited country, such as we may 

 imagine to have existed three or four centuries ago. On arriving 

 at the miserable little town of Hindon, its appearance serves 

 rather to heighten than to lessen this impression ; without trade 

 or manufacture, and with no main road passing through it, it 

 contains only a few houses, the largest of which assume the cha- 

 racter of inns ; but of these inns the best does not even take in a 

 newspaper. Till the passing of the Reform Bill, Hindon derived 

 its support chiefly from the return of members to parliament; 

 but this resource being gone, the inhabitants are now in the 

 greatest misery^ Before Mr. Beckford sold Fonthill, he gene- 

 rously gave 20 acres to the poorest inhabitants for ever as garden 

 ground ; observing, as it is said, that they had need of a friend. 



Fonthill Abbey ; H. Bennett^ Esq. — This place, independently 

 of the historical associations connected with the name of Beckford, 

 well deserves to be visited by every person who takes an interest 

 respecting, or is desirous of improving himself in, landscape- 

 gardening ; because it is the only one in England, in which he 

 will find the most perfect unity of character preserved throughout 

 the grounds, and that character one belonging to an age long 

 since past in this country, and only now to be found in certain 



Vol. XI. — No. 66. k k 



