512 Notes on some Suburban Villas 



in this neighbourhood, is, as we have already observed, of the species Q. 

 sessiliflora. Near it there arc some other fine large trees of the same kind. 

 The shrubbery here has evidently been planted with all the kinds of foreign 

 trees and shrubs that could be procured in the best London nurseries in the 

 latter end of the last century ; but they have been so choked with common 

 kinds that many of them are killed, and others are so much injured as scarcely 

 to be recognised in the thickets of common bushes. We noticed some fine 

 trees of American ash, several species of yf cer, Quercus, Crataegus, and Pyrus ; 

 an /i'rbutus /lndrachne 15 ft. high, greatly injured by the late severe winter, 

 but not killed ; a number of common arbutuses of large size, not injured in the 

 least; one of them is 30 ft. high, with the trunk, at the surface of the ground, 

 upwards of 2 ft. in diameter. There are, a Populus monilifera upwards of 100 ft. 

 high ; a great number of very large Portugal laurels (one 40 ft. high) and lau- 

 rustinuses ; a silver cedar 75 ft. high, with a head 72 ft. in diameter; a salis- 

 buria 35 ft. high ; a spruce fir 80 ft. high, with its lower branches reclining on 

 the ground, forming a splendid cone of verdure ; some large and picturesque 

 Scotch firs from 70 ft. to 80 ft. in height ; and many large rhododendrons and 

 azaleas. Some taste, and a very moderate expense, would render this a most 

 delightful residence. 



Southgate Lodge. — The house at this beautiful place was built by Nash, and 

 the grounds laid out by Repton, for Walker Gray, Esq., about the beginning 



of the present century ; but the place is now the property of Taylor, Esq. 



In 1819, when we last saw it, the grounds were in beautiful order, but they 

 are now in a state of comparative neglect and ruin. They consist of a 

 gently sloping bank, on which the house is placed ; and opposite to this is 

 an amphitheatre of wood in the manner of Kenwood, but more open and 

 extensive. The lawn or park reaches from the house to the bottom, which 

 lies between it and the opposite bank covered with wood, the bottom being 

 formed into a beautiful lake. The wood reaches down to the water in some 

 places, and in others is deeply penetrated by glades of turf, finely broken by 

 scattered groups of oaks. With the exception of the tower of a church which 

 has been lately built, and the smoke rising from a cottage in the wood, there is 

 not the slightest indication of houses or buildings. The place, in this respect, 

 resembles Kenwood, with the advantage of being of greater extent and having a 

 fine piece of water, but with the disadvantage of much less inequality in the 

 ground, and consequently not exhibiting scenery of so strongly marked a cha- 

 racter. We have seldom seen a place more in want of a terrace in the two 

 garden or lawn fronts of the house, in order by its horizontal lines to contrast 

 with the sloping lines of the lawn, and form an effective foreground to it and 

 to the wooded bank beyond. Attached to the house is a conservatory forming 

 the segment of a circle, and of the same width as the library, the entire end of 

 which, consisting of two bookcases, opens and folds back in such a manner as 

 to carry in the sides of the room to the branches of the plants. On our 

 former visit we were in the library, and saw this bookcase opened : the effect 

 was very striking, and it would have been more so if the walk in the con- 

 servatory had been along the centre instead of along one side. The roof and 

 front of the conservatory is now falling in pieces, which affords an opportunity 

 of renewing it on a better plan. Beyond the conservatory its back wall is 

 continued as a separation from the kitchen-garden, and the dead wall, though 

 covered with creepers, being thought rather heavy, was pierced with openings 

 in the manner of windows. In coming along the approach road, we pass a 

 number of scattered oak trees, almost all of the species Q. sessiliflora, and 

 exemplifying in a very decided manner the inferiority of this species to the 

 Q. pedunculata, as a painter's tree ; a fact first pointed out by the Rev. W. T. 

 Bree, in Vol. XII. p. 534. ; and in Arb. Brit., vol. iii. p. 1797. Among minor 

 remarks we may notice the circumstance of the grass of the lawn being mixed 

 with wild thyme, which, when it is cut by the scythe, or bruised by rolling or 

 walking over it, fills the air with fragrance. The common garden thyme, and 

 various other fragrant species, are sown on terrace walks in Italy and Portugal, 



