THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



AUGUST, 1839. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Recollections of a Tour chiefly between London and Shef- 

 fleld, made during the last three Weelcs of May, 1839. By the 

 Conductor. 



JL hough notices of more than one of our tours have been left unfinished, 

 yet, before we resume them, we shall devote a few pages to some recollec- 

 tions of what we saw during a late excursion. Having been called profes- 

 sionally into Derbyshire, we went to Birmingham by the railway, and thence 

 to Derby and Sheffield. At the latter town we saw the botanic garden and 

 the general cemetery, and in its neighbourhood Chatsworth ; and near Derby 

 we saw the different residences of the Messrs. Strutt, and also Bretby Hall, 

 Keddlestone Hall, Elvaston Castle, &c. Near Lichfield, on our return, we 

 saw Manly Hall, Aldershaw, and several other places ; and at Birmingham the 

 botanic garden, Handsworth nursery, cemetery, town hall, new school, new 

 market, &c. Having passed through the same tract of country, and seen 

 nearly all the same places in 1806, and more than once between that period 

 and our northern tour of 1831 (see our Vol. VII. p. 385. 513. 644.), it may be 

 useful to give a slight general glance at the comparative differences which we 

 observed in the general face of the country, and in the appearance of the towns. 



Trees are the objects which have most effect in improving the natural features 

 of a country, and therefore we begin with them. Many belts of plantation, 

 particularly in Derbyshire, which were newly planted, or made but very little 

 appearance, in 1806, are now from 50 ft. to 70 ft, in height, and have com- 

 pletely changed the face of the country. The black Italian poplar (Populus 

 monilifera) in 1806 was little known, but was strongly recommended by the 

 Messrs. Pontey of Huddersfield, and planted very generally throughout the 

 north of England. In 1826, these poplars began to take the lead of all the 

 other trees in plantations made during the first ten years of the present 

 century (see our Tour made in October, 1826, given in Vol. V. p. 671.); 

 while at present (1839) they are conspicuous in every part of the country, 

 and have completely overtopped the old oaks, and in many cases even the 

 elms. In a picturesque point of view, these poplars, as they appear at pre- 

 sent, are injurious, because they have changed the customary scale by which 

 the eye estimates the magnitude of objects in scenery ; and they have also 

 given a general sameness of appearance to immense tracts of country, which 

 were formerly more or less distinguished by their terrestrial features, in con- 

 junction with the slower-growing hedgerow trees. In 1806, the only poplars 

 that were to be seen of any size were, the white poplar, and the common 

 black poplar, with occasionally a Lombardy poplar, rearing its cypress-like 

 head in some gentlemen's pleasure-grounds ; but now these and all other 

 poplars are lost amid the multiplicity of the trees of the black Italian kind. 

 In many places these trees are from 80 ft. to 100 ft. in height, with trunks 

 18 in. in diameter. Between Chesterfield and Sheffield there are many 

 along the roadside of all sizes ; and near Shenstone, in the vicinity of Lich- 

 field, some Lombardy poplars have been planted apparently accidentally, 

 along with the black Italian poplar, in a hedgerow, which thus afford a 



Vol. XV. — No. 113. gg 



