2 Select Suburban Residences. 



of late years, have attracted much less attention than they 

 deserve, chiefly from the circumstance of the trees and shrubs 

 in them being almost all fully grown ; and, consequently, not 

 admitting of the introduction of novelties in the shape of foreign 

 shrubs and flowers, which form the grand attraction in the 

 gardens of modern villas. It is well known to gardeners, that, 

 in all small places abounding with full-grown trees, it is impos- 

 sible to cultivate shrubs or herbaceous flowers among them with 

 success. The only means of doing so is by having an open 

 airy space, so large as neither to be darkened, nor too much 

 sheltered, by the trunks and branches of the surrounding trees, 

 nor exhausted by their roots. Many of the Hampstead villas 

 hardly admit of having a space of this kind ; and, therefore, few 

 of them are very remarkable for their roses or herbaceous flowers. 



It must be evident, that the grounds of what may be called 

 full-grown villas, of this kind, require to be managed in a dif- 

 ferent manner, either from large villas where there is abundance 

 of room, or from small villas which have been comparatively 

 recently planted. In the recent villa, and in the villa with 

 abundance of room, the smallest flowering shrubs, such as roses, 

 spiraeas, honeysuckles, azaleas, &c, may be cultivated in the 

 shrubberies ; but, in the full-grown villa, it is in vain to attempt 

 anything of this kind, except, as we have just remarked, in open 

 airy parts of them. In the progressive culture and management 

 of such villas, therefore, all shrubs and trees, as they become 

 naked below, overshadowed by others, or unsightly in form from 

 any cause whatever, ought to be removed ; and the whole atten- 

 tion, as far as respects the old plants of the place, directed to 

 the production and preservation of fine specimens ; and these 

 should stand at such a distance, as to admit, beneath them, either 

 of the keeping up of a smooth green turf, or of an undergrowth 

 of evergreens, such as the holly, box, laurel, rhododendron, &c. 



We have introduced these remarks, because we have observed 

 in some of the villas about Hampstead, and more especially, 

 some years ago, in that of the Earl of Mansfield at Kenwood, 

 attempts to grow roses, hydrangeas, and other half-hardy shrubs 

 and herbaceous flowers, in patches along the walks, under the 

 shade of high trees or of full-grown shrubs. Even if the 

 success of this mode of culture were complete, it would, in our 

 opinion, be in bad taste; because full-grown trees verging on 

 decay, and masses of flowers, can never be made to harmonise 

 in the same foreground : but, when we consider that flowers 

 introduced in such situations never thrive, and have always a 

 sickly tawdry appearance, it is not too much to say that the 

 effect is disgusting. In the villa which we are now about to 

 notice, all errors of this kind have been carefully avoided, by 

 introducing flowers and flowering shrubs only in open airy 



