History and proposed Management. 533 



The instructions given to me by Mr. Strutt respecting laying out this piece 

 of ground were, that the garden was intended to be one of recreation for the 

 inhabitants of Derby and the neighbom'hood, and for all other persons who 

 chose to come and see it ; that it should be open two days in the week, and 

 that one of these days should be Sunday, during proper hours ; and that on 

 other days a small sum should be required from persons entering the garden ; 

 or yeai-ly admissions should be granted for certain moderate sums. That the 

 gardens should be so laid out and arranged as not to be expensive to keep 

 up ; that a flower-garden and cottage, with the plantations already existing, 

 should, if possible, be preserved ; that a tool-house covered with ivy should 

 also be preserved ; that two lodges with gates, at the two extremities, should 

 be built ; and that each lodge should have a room, to be considered as a 

 public room, into which strangers might go and sit down, taking their own 

 refreshments with them, without any charge being made by the occupant of 

 the lodge, unless some assistance, such as hot water, plates, knives and forks, 

 &c., were required, in which case a small voluntary gratuity might be given. 

 That there should be proper yards and conveniences at each lodge for the use 

 of the public, apart from those to be exclusively used by the occupant of the 

 lodge. That there should be open spaces in two or more parts of the garden, 

 in which large tents might be pitched, a band of music placed, dancing carried 

 on, &c. That certain vases and pedestals now in the flower-garden, and also 

 certain others in Mr. Strutt's garden in Derby, should be retained or in- 

 troduced ; and, finally, that some directions should be left for the management 

 of the garden. 



REASONS FOR THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE PLAN. 



In endeavouring to accommodate the design submitted to Mr. Strutt to his 

 instructions and to the situation, the first point determined on was, that the 

 whole interest of the garden should be contained within itself. The mode of 

 doing this was next to be considered ; when it appeared' that a general 

 botanic garden would be too expensive, both to create and to keep up ; that a 

 mere composition of trees and shrubs with turf, in the manner of a common 

 pleasure-ground, would become insipid after being seen two or three times ; 

 and, in short, that the most suitable kind of public garden, for all the circum- 

 stances included in the above data, was an arboretum, or collection of trees 

 and shrubs, foreign and indigenous, which would endure the open air in th& 

 climate of Derby, with the names placed to each. Such a collection will 

 have all the ordinary beauties of a pleasure-ground viewed as a whole ; and 

 yet, from no tree or shrub occurring twice in the whole collection, and from 

 the name of every tree and shrub being placed against it, an inducement is 

 held out for those who walk in the garden to take an interest in the name 

 and history of each species, its uses in this country or in other countries, its 

 appearance at different seasons of the year, and the various associations 

 connected with it. 



A similar interest might, no doubt, have been created by a collection of 

 herbaceous plants ; but this collection, to be effective in such a space of 

 ground, must have amounted to at least 5000 species ; and to form such a 

 collection, and keep it up, would have been much more expensive than forming 

 the most complete collection of trees and shrubs that can at present be made 

 in Britain. It is further to be observed respecting a collection of herbaceous 

 plants, that it would have jiresented no beauty or interest whatever during the 

 winter season ; whereas, among trees and shrubs, there are all the evergreen 

 kinds, which are more beautiful in winter than in summer ; while the deciduous 

 kinds, at that season, show an endless variety in the ramification of their 

 branches and spray, the colour of their bark, and the colour and form of their 

 buds. Add also, that trees and shrubs, and especially evergreens, give shelter 

 and encouragement to singing birds, to which herbaceous plants offer little or 

 no shelter or food. 



There are yet other arguments in favour of trees and shrubs for a garden of 

 recreation, which are worth notice. Herbaceous plants are low, small, and 



