-Visits to Suburban Gardens. 425 



so as now to indicate some beautiful inequalities, greatly heightened by the 

 manner in which the trees and shrubs are disposed on them. 



The lesson to be learned from Teddington Grove is, how to unite the beau- 

 ties of a young place with those of an old one ; that is, how to produce thriving 

 roses, dwarf American shrubs, select kinds of young trees, and beds of green- 

 house or hardy flowers, among fine specimens of old trees and shrubs, and 

 without destroying deep shady groves. This has been done by opening glades in 

 some parts, and in others by taking advantage of glades already existing ; and 

 the great merit of the whole is, that, wherever these flowering shrubs or flowers 

 have been introduced, the ground has been so thoroughly prepared, and the posi- 

 tion so judiciously chosen with respect to light and air, that all the plants grow 

 with the greatest vigour. In consequence of this union of youth and maturity, of 

 the endless variety in the disposition of the groups and masses of trees, and of 

 their numerous kinds and sizes, we do not know any other place of the same 

 extent which contains so much beauty within itself, independently of the 

 delightful views of the Thames, Richmond Hill, and the varied line of hilly 

 and wooded country on the opposite side of the river. Among the remark- 

 able single trees and shrubs are, a verydarge variegated common oak ; a very 

 handsome Magnolia tripetala, upwards of 20 ft. high, and now covered with 

 flowers ; a M. acuminata, a handsome pyramidal tree 50 ft. high, also covered 

 with flowers ; some immense Portugal laurels ; and a box tree forming a mass 36 

 paces in circumference and 20 ft. high. There are large Judas trees now beau- 

 tifully in flower, snowdrop trees, catalpas, scarlet and double blossomed thorns, 

 a large red cedar, a large cedar of Lebanon, a very fine evergreen cypress, and 

 a great many other fine specimens, besides immense masses of rhododendron 

 now covered with bloom, azaleas, China roses, &c. The style in which the 

 walks, flower-beds, and edgings are kept is entirely to our taste; and, indeed, 

 the order and high keeping of every thing else appeared to us so exquisite, 

 that we could not find a fault. In short, Teddington Grove is, in our opinion, 

 a model for a small place, not only in laying out and planting, but in progres- 

 sive improvement and keeping. We say progressive improvement, because no 

 person can have the full enjoyment of a villa that is not continually doing 

 something to it, or looking forward to something that is to be done. In this, 

 as in almost every thing else, to cease to labour, is to cease to enjoy. But, as 

 we mtend, on some future occasion, to give a ground plan and some views of 

 this place (having for this purpose received the kind permission of the pos- 

 sessor), our further remarks on the present occasion shall be brief. 



The roses and other ornamental plants in the flower-beds are beautifully 

 healthy and vigorous. The front of the green-house, which is an ancient 

 architectural one, but still with a glass roof, is shaded by letting down an 

 awning in front, like that used for shading shop fronts ; and under the glass 

 roof an awning is suspended over the flowers, in the same manner as it is done 

 over the company in Italy when they are assembled in very lofty rooms in the 

 winter season. These awnings at Teddington Grove are used, not to shade 

 ordinary green-house plants, but fine speciments in flower brought from the 

 reserve green-houses or pits in the kitchen-garden. In short, they are used for 

 the same purpose as the rustic orangery in the Dutch garden at Redleaf. 

 (See p. 366. and 367.) The principal specimens in the house at this time 

 are, a fine collection of calceolarias, another of pelargoniums, some splendid 

 schizanthuses, of which some new varieties and hybrids have been raised from 

 seed, which will be noticed in Mrs. Loudon's Ladies' Flower-Garden of Orna- 

 mental Annuals, and various other plants of the season, all cultivated to a very 

 high degree of perfection by the gardener, Mr. Bare, to whose skill and care, 

 superintended by the exquisite taste of his employer, Teddington Grove owes 

 all its floral beauties. 



In the flower-garden in front of the green-house, we observed a practice 

 which we think well deserving of imitation, viz. that of setting down pots of 

 fine single specimens of green-house plants on the lawn, and then surrounding 

 and covering the pots with stone-work, vitrified bricks, flints, or even grotesque 

 roots. The contrast between these little rocky masses or groups, and the 



