106 Notice of a Visit to Wortley Hall. 



common in plant structures ; and which, whatever may be its 

 advantages in other respects, has certainly no great architectural 

 beauty to recommend it. It is long and narrow, with a span 

 roof, some ten or twelve feet high at the crown ; and, as much 

 space is lost in the interior by the fantastical form of the stage, 

 it perhaps contains the fewest plants, in proportion to the sur- 

 face of glass, of any plans that have yet been contrived. In front 

 of this green-house there is a small flower-garden, in which 

 handsome half-hardy plants, such as verbenas, petunias, lobe- 

 lias, &c., together with the most showy annuals, are grown ; 

 and the whole plot is bounded by a semicircular line of dahlias. 

 The effect of this garden must be very pleasing when in the 

 height of its beauty; and the plan is worthy of imitation in similar 

 situations. Behind the green-house, in an enclosed space, a 

 botanic stove has lately been built on the same plan as the green- 

 house, except the interior arrangement, which, in this house, is 

 well contrived ; the larger plants being placed on a raised bed 

 along the middle of the house, and the less vigorous species 

 ranged on wide shelves fixed along the sides. It is intended to 

 train climbers upon the rafters, to make a partial shade for the 

 Orchidacese and ferns, of which a collection is begun. An 

 insignificant plant-house stands in a nook of the shrubbery, 

 at some distance from those above mentioned : this, if removed 

 to a more appropriate situation, might be of some use ; but in 

 its present place it is merely an eyesore. Another reprehen- 

 sible structure is a kind of framework for clirnbing roses, having 

 in the centre, and being also surrounded by, raised beds of 

 earth, supported by stakes driven into the ground, in the true 

 cockney style. On each side of the principal walk leading to 

 the kitchen-garden, there is a wide flower-border, in which 

 dahlias, backed by a row of hollyhocks and fronted by showy 

 annuals, are grown in summer : this, likewise, is a feature worthy 

 of adoption in places where such a vista would not be at variance 

 with the general arrangement of the grounds ; for a walk along an 

 avenue of beautiful plants must be productive of a high degree of 

 pleasure, even to those who do not admire flowers individuall}'. 



The only water I observed near the mansion is a sort of basin 

 in the pleasure-ground, from which the house and offices are 

 supplied. This basin might have been made ornamental, had 

 its margin been varied so as to resemble a natural pond, instead 

 of which, it is quite as artificial in character as the reservoir in 

 the Green Park, being similar in shape, and moreover edged 

 with dressed stones, which rise eight or nine inches above the 

 level of the ground: the edging is intended to prevent reptiles 

 from getting into the water. 



There are but few fine trees in these grounds ; I observed, 

 however, a very large oak at one end of the basin, and in an- 



