584 Notes on Coiinhy Scats and Gardens. 



Harrmgay House, near Hornsey, {June 17.) is one of the finest villas in that 

 part of the suburbs, in point of situation. The house occupies the sumHiit of 

 a knoll, and, half-way down, the New River winds round it on three sides. 

 Agreeably to the old style of laying out places of this kind, the entrance 

 front is on that side of the mansion which contains the finest views, so that 

 a stranger visiter sees every thing worth seeing in point of scenery before he 

 alights from his carriage. Something has been done to counteract this, by 

 a fringed line of trees in the fore-ground, close to the gravelled area for turn- 

 ing carriages on, or what may be called the arena of honour, so that the 

 full enjoyment of the fine views is reserved for the walks in the pleasure- 

 ground. This arrangement constitutes the merits of the place as a study for 

 the young landscape-gardener. To those like us, who have known Harrin- 

 gay for the last twenty years, it is interesting on account of the numerous 

 specimens of rare American trees and shrubs which it once contained, and of 

 which there are still some interesting remains. Magn61i« macrophylla, which 

 had attained the height of 20 ft., and flowered frequently, still exists, but was 

 much injured by the winter of 1837-8. M. conspicua and M. c. Soulange«?za 

 are 20 ft. high, and flower freely every year. There are various other fine 

 specimens, and the place is kept in good order. 



Arnd's Grove, Southgate, the residence of Mrs. Walker, is a place which 

 we should wish to visit several times every year, not only on its own account, 

 but because of the beautiful road to it, bordered, as it is, great part of the 

 way, by an undulating country and noble trees in |)ark-like scenery. The col- 

 lection of trees and shrubs here, at the time the place was planted, has un- 

 doubtedly consisted of every thing that could be procured in the London 

 nurseries, for the proprietor, like the late Mr. Gray of Harringay, was the 

 friend of CoUinson, Ellis, Dr. Fothergill, and their contemporaries. The 

 specimens of Quercus palustris here, which we have before mentioned, are 

 alone worth an annual visit ; not to speak of the purple-branched oak, the Ori- 

 ental plane, the magnolias, the cedars, the immense berberry, the lagerstrcemia 

 against the conservative wall, which has resisted the winter of 1837-8 with- 

 out the slightest protection, and many other hardy and house plants. By the 

 side of the walk which leads from this place to Minchenden, we observed Col- 

 Xm&ia grandiflora, and a number of other foreign plants, apparently naturalised. 



At Woodlands, the residence of Taylor, Esq., the fine old conser- 

 vatory built !by Mr. Nash has been pulled down, and the lawn and pleasure- 

 grounds, so highly kept in former times, are now in a state of comparative 

 neglect. 



■ Park, near Enfield, the seat of , is a romantic solitary 



place, formed amid forest scenery of apparently unlimited extent, and having 

 altogether the character of a grand place in a distant part of the country. The 

 approach to the house is first through a long straight avenue, and afterwards 

 through forest scenery untouched by art. The water and woods beyond, as 

 seen from the lawn front of the house, are perfect of their kind, but the walks 

 in the pleasure-ground are on too contracted a scale for so large a place. 

 They ought to stretch away right and left to an apparently interminable dis- 

 tance. An attempt has been made to earth up and plant out the stable 

 offices or farm buildings, which, according to our notions of a fine old English 

 place, is not in good taste. We would avow them, but blend them with the 

 general scenerj' by means of a few scattered trees. Of all the different modes 

 of concealing buildings, that of raising mounds of earth close before them 

 appears to us the worst, because it takes away from the dignity of the build- 

 ing ; and every building, even a cowshed, has a character more or less digni- 

 fied. A great place is rendered little by any direct attempt at concealment. 



Seech Hill Park, near Potter^ s Bar, now (July, 1840) on sale, is a large 

 open place occupying two immense bat^rks, and the hollow between them. It 

 is capabb of vast improvement, but not without great changes both in the 

 house and the approach. 



Leamington, Warwickshire, (Sept. 19. to 21.) has increased one half since 



