386 Recollections of a Gardening Tour. 



be greatly aided by the establishment of Parochial Horticultural 

 Societies. 



The Village of Allanton contains some cottages of an orna- 

 mental character, for which the public are indebted to the late 

 Sir Henry Steuart. They are all characterised by a peculiar 

 kind of broad label over the windows and doors, resembling the 

 boards which are used as labels over the openings of the mud- 

 wall cottages of Huntingdonshire. Doubtless, much of the 

 stonework of architecture, and particularly that of Grecian 

 origin, has woodwork for its type ; but we cannot quite re- 

 concile ourselves to the fac-simile imitation of a plain deal board 

 in a building the walls of which are built of squared stone. 

 On the same principle, we should object to flag-stones cut to 

 the width of deals, and laid down in imitation of a boarded 

 floor ; or to a stone barge-board, put up to protect the ends of 

 wooden purlins. In other respects, these cottages are orna- 

 mental externally, and commodious within ; and they have all 

 sleeping-rooms up stairs, which is by no means common in this 

 part of Scotland. Some of them were built by Sir Henry 

 Steuart, but the greater number by feuars ; Sir Henry having 

 feued the land on terms favourable to the builder, and made an 

 allowance in money for the ornamental parts of the cottage, as 

 well as supplied designs and working- plans, and shrubs and 

 flowers for the front gardens. So good an example, we trust, 

 will be followed by other proprietors. Much of the beauty of 

 every cultivated country depends on the beauty of its cottages 

 and their gardens; because, in every civilised country, these 

 must necessarily constitute the great majority of human dwell- 

 ings. What can have a more miserable appearance than a 

 wretched cottage out of repair, and without a garden ? No one 

 blames the cottager for this state of things ; but the idea of 

 a thoughtless or inhuman landlord, or of an unfeeling mer- 

 cenary agent, immediately occurs. What, on the contrary, 

 gives a greater idea of comfort, and of an enlightened bene- 

 volent landlord, than to see every cottage on his estate rearing 

 its high steep roof and bold architectural chimney tops, in- 

 dicating ample room and warmth within; the whole in good 

 repair, and surrounded by fruit trees, in a well-stocked and 

 neatly kept garden ? Every one, in travelling through a country, 

 must have observed how much of its beauty depends on the 

 state of its cottages and their gardens. We would, therefore, 

 entreat the possessors of landed property to consider how much 

 of the beauty of the country depends upon them ; and we would 

 farther beg of them to ask themselves, whether it is not one of 

 the duties entailed on them by the possession of landed pro- 

 perty, to render it not only beneficial to their families and to all 

 who live on it, but ornamental to the country. 



