344 Notes on Gardens at Brighton, 



by a single plane or level surface. The greater part of the 

 country is occupied by wood or pasture, and there are scarcely 

 any gentlemen's seats seen from the road, with the exception of 

 Gatton, and portions of the grounds of villas between London 

 and Croydon. There are many deep cuttings; and these being 

 mostly through hard chalk, admit of the sides being very steep, 

 in some places so much so as to approach the perpendicular. 

 These deep cuttings, in our opinion, are the most disagreeable, 

 or, rather, perhaps, insipid, parts of railroads, excluding all distant 

 view, and presenting in every part of the country the same mo- 

 notonous foreground of a steep tame bank. We would there- 

 fore plant the whole or the greater part of them with trees and 

 shrubs, so that in future these parts of the railroads would be 

 woods or groves, in time overarching the road, and giving it the 

 appearance of passing through a ravine in a mountain forest, or 

 through a dark avenue. The kind of trees and shrubs we 

 would vary according to the soil, the exposure, direction of the 

 road, and other circumstances, so as never to interfere with 

 utility. In a road running east and west, we would intermix a 

 good many low growths on the south side, so as to admit the sun 

 here and there to the road ; but where the direction was south 

 and north, as in the Brighton road, attention to this point would 

 be unnecessary, as the sun would shine on every part of the road 

 that was not overshadowed by trees, at mid-day on every day in 

 which he appeared. On the naked banks of chalk we would 

 sow the seeds of the pine and fir tribe, previously forming a 

 little pit of good soil for every patch of seeds ; or, in order that 

 the roots might spread along the surface, we would form inter- 

 secting gutters of only a few inches in width and depth, and fill 

 them with good soil, in which the roots might extend them- 

 selves, till the foliage that would drop annually had formed 

 a vegetable soil over the whole surface of the chalk. We are 

 not aware of any harm that would result to the railroads from 

 all the banks of the steep cuttings being planted, while in time 

 there might be thinnings or timber trees to cut down, which 

 would more than pay all the expense incurred. We question, 

 indeed, whether there would not be a present gain in planting 

 these banks, because, when once planted, they would no longer 

 require to be mown two or three times a year as at present. 

 The plantation would require very little attention, besides a 

 slight annual pruning on Cree's principle, for the trees, leaving 

 the shrubs untouched for a number of years till pruning became 

 requisite; and the thinnings, even the first time the operation 

 required to be performed, would at least pay the expense of the 

 operation. The sides of the embankments which are not seen 

 from the road, but over which the eyes of the passengers look 

 to the distant country, ought not to be planted with trees, be- 



