chiefly between London and Sheffield. 451 



central aile and side ailes. The entrances will be at the ends, through 

 porches, which will be treated as green-houses ; and, when the whole is com- 

 pleted, it will cover above an acre and a quarter of ground. There will be 

 a carriage drive through it ; which will form part of a general drive through 

 the pleasure-grounds. The conservatory is situated in an open part of a lofty 

 wood, in nearly the centre of the pleasure-grounds, and it is unquestionably 

 the largest structure of the kind in existence or on record. The framework 

 of the main building, which is of wood, is all put up, and is just beginning to 

 be glazed. It will be heated by six fires, all of which, and the means of access 

 to them, the places for fuel, &c, will be under ground, and the chimneys 

 carried in a tunnel up the side of a hill to the distance of nearly a furlong, 

 so that not the slightest appearance of artificial heating, or smoke, or sheds, 

 &c, will appear, either within the house or exterior to it. We shall not 

 enter into details, because, when the building is finished, these will doubtless 

 be made public by Mr. Paxton ; by whom the whole has been designed, and 

 under whose direction it has been executed. We cannot avoid noticing the 

 very judicious manner in which Mr. Paxton has proceeded with this building, 

 which will be completed in the most scientific, elegant, and substantial manner ; 

 and with a degree of economy, considering the immense magnitude of the 

 structure, that will in the end surprise every one and redound greatly to his 

 credit, and to the honour of the noble duke, his benevolent and enlightened 

 employer. 



The arboretum at Chatsworth, which is the only one that we have seen 

 or heard of where sufficient room is given to every species to attain its usual 

 size, we have given a plan and description of in a former volume. (XI. p. 485.) 

 The trees and shrubs have now been planted four years, and they may be 

 considered as firmly established, and doing well. Each tree and larger- 

 growing shrub is planted on a little hill, the surface of which is kept dug, or 

 at all events free from weeds, which is perhaps better; and the smaller-grow- 

 ing shrubs, such as heaths, azaleas, vacciniums, &c, are planted in masses in 

 prepared soil kept free from weeds. An ample space is allowed to each 

 plant ; the effect of which, now that they are fairly beginning to grow, is 

 already conspicuous, and will be strikingly so in five or six years. The names 

 are in white letters on a dark ground painted on heart of oak, as described by 

 Mr. Nesfield, Vol. XIII. p. 58. ; but the letters are beginning to fade, and will 

 be replaced by others of a different kind, and more in the manner of our brick 

 tally, fig. 12. p. 33. in Vol. VIII. Near the palace, as it may very properly be 

 termed, many araucarias and deodar cedars are planted, alternating with Por- 

 tugal laurels trained on stems 6 ft. high, with heads cut into round balls, so as 

 to resemble orange trees under the kind of treatment which they receive in the 

 gardens of the Tuileries and at Versailles. A new line of separation has been 

 formed between the pleasure-ground and the park, on the east side, which is a 

 very great improvement. It is a high wall rising in steps as it ascends the hill, 

 and the space between each step is thrown into a compartment by piers. 

 Each compartment is planted with tender climbers, or other ornamental 

 shrubs, which are trained to a trellis, and covered with a blue striped canvass 

 curtain during nights throughout the winter and spring. During the three 

 or four summer months, the curtain is entirely removed. This conservative 

 wall, as it may be called, commences at the orangery, which forms part of the 

 palace, and terminates in a stove at some distance. In this stove we found 

 many well grown plants ; and, in particular, groups of ferns on masses of rock- 

 work, each mass being placed behind the stone piers between the windows of 

 the front elevation. The grand cascade has been altered, but something 

 further is wanting ; the fall of the water from the aqueduct not harmonising 

 in breadth either with the falls above or those below it. The termination 

 of the sloping line of cascade has, like that at Caserta near Naples, always 

 appeared to us unsatisfactory ; though it would be difficult to say, both in the 

 case of Caserta and Chatsworth, what would be the best mode of improving 

 it. Mr. Paxton, however, having recently had the advantage, during an eight 



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