510 Notes on some Suburban Villas 



the remains of an ancient oak forest. This is placed beyond all doubt, by 

 the oaks being chiefly of the sessile-fruited kind, as at Kenwood. 



Powis Park, or Broomfield House, as it is sometimes called, and Calland's 

 Grove, once the seat of Sir W. Curtis, are worth notice for their trees. The 

 house which stood in Culland's Grove has been lately taken down, but the 

 fine cedars of Lebanon, red cedars, pinasters, lofty silver firs, and large 

 deciduous cypresses and purple beeches, still remain ; a proof of what one 

 would not on first thoughts expect, that planting often affords a more durable 

 monument than building. 



Arno's Grove ; Mrs. Walker. — The house is a fine square brick building, with 

 stone facings, in a commanding situation, with a considerable breadth of lawn 

 in front, bordered by massive woods, over which, in the centre, is seen a varied 

 distance. Two rooms were added to the house by Sir Robert Taylor, which 

 are interesting, as showing the taste in interior architecture prevalent in 

 his day. The entrance hall is very large for the size of the house ; it con- 

 tains a fine oak staircase, and the walls and ceiling are covered with a painting 

 in excellent preservation, bearing the name and date of " Landscroon, 1723." 

 The walk through the grounds proceeds right and left from the front of the 

 house, and, in making a circuit of the park, borders, in the lower part of the 

 grounds, a considerable reach of the New River. The mode in which this 

 walk is conducted clearly shows that the place was laid out in the time of 

 Brown. We have first, near the house, the walk of a considerable breadth 

 proceeding through groups chiefly of foreign trees and shrubs, separated from 

 the park by a sunk fence ; next, the walk becoming narrower, enters into a thick 

 wood, where no fence is seen ; afterwards it emerges from this wood, about 

 a third of the breadth which it is at the house, and skirts the margin of a bound- 

 ary plantation, separated from the park only by a low hedge ; then it touches 

 on the canal or river ; and, half the circuit being now gone through, the walk 

 passes through the other half much in the same manner, gradually widening as 

 it approaches the house. As episodes, or by-scenes, to this last half of 

 the walk, there are the kitchen-garden, conservatories, a walled flower-garden, 

 and various scenes connected with them ; and to the other half there is a 

 large flower-garden enclosed by a shrubbery, with a rockwork, basin, foun- 

 tain, &c. In the artificial plantations near the house, there are many old 

 finely grown exotic trees ; and among these a greater number of Quercus palus- 

 tris than we have seen anywhere else. A number of these trees are from 

 60 ft. to 80 ft. in height, with trunks from 18 in. to 3 ft. in diameter. We have 

 noticed in the Arboretum Bntannicum, and it cannot, we think, be too often re- 

 peated,that this is by far the hardiest and the handsomest of the American oaks, 

 and that it also grows far faster than any other species or variety. There are 

 three fine specimens of it in the Hackney Arboretum, under the names of Q. pa- 

 lustris, Q. montana, and Q. Banisteri, much higher than all the other American 

 oaks there. Had there been only one specimen of this tree, our character of 

 it might have been doubted ; but there being three standing among the most 

 complete collection of American oaks in England, what we state cannot be 

 controverted. Before these trees were denuded of their side branches, they 

 were of surpassing gracefulness and beauty, notwithstanding the smoky atmo- 

 sphere in which they grow. There are fine trees of Q. palustris at Syon, 

 one of which is figured in our Arboretum, and also at Strathfieldsaye ; and 

 there is a most beautiful young one in the arboretum at Woking. So little 

 is the tree known, that two years ago Messrs. Loddiges threw away nearly a 

 cart-load of them ; and, some years before that, some waggon-loads were taken 

 up and burned in the Leyton Nursery. (See Arb. Brit., vol. iii. p. 1888.) Is 

 it to be wondered at that nurserymen should cease to propagate many kinds 

 of foreign trees and shrubs, when they meet with no better encouragement 

 than this ? 



There are a number of fine cedars of Lebanon in Arno's Grove, immense 

 Weymouth pines, with spreading branches, and 80 ft. high ; one of these has 

 a young oak springing up through its root, the stem of which is so completely 



