238 Notices of some Gardens and Country Seats 



mixture of earth and clung once lying outside a farmer's field, 

 full of beautiful mushroom spawn, and I resolved to try it mixed 

 together, thinking it would be the means of keeping the bed 

 cold, that it might be very soon spawned to be in readiness for 

 market at the time wanted ; and I was truly astonished, and so 

 Avas my master, to see such an abundance of mushrooms of a 

 superior quality, and lasting so long ; the quality beyond any 

 that we had ever seen before. It did not strike me till some 

 years afterwards about its preserving the quality of the dung, 

 although I never left off practising it, and with the same good 

 effect. I have told many gardeners of it since, and I know they 

 have put it into practice for some years past. 



My next letter shall be on potato-growing in all its stages; 

 the cause of curl, dry rot, and my opinion on the great abuse 

 that most useful of all vegetables is subject to in this country 

 generally, as far as I have observed. 



Bicton Gardens. Nov. 4. 1842. 



Art. VI. Notices of some Gardens and Country Seats in Somerset- 

 shire, Devonshire, and Part of Cormvall. By the Conductor. 



{Continued from Vol. for 1842, p. 555., and concluded.} 



Sept. 20. 1842.' — Sidmouth. Peake House ; E. B. Lousada, 

 Esq. This is the largest place in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Sidmouth. The house is in a commanding situation at the 

 top of an extensive slope which terminates near the sea shore. 

 No expense has been spared to render this declivity uniform, 

 but, as there were a number of trees to be left, they stand on 

 elevated portions of the original surface, which either have not 

 been sloped down at the edges at all, or sloped down so very 

 imperfectly as to constitute glaring deformities. " The ugliest 

 ground," Sir Uvedale Price observes, " is that which has neither 

 the beauty of smoothness and gentle undulation, nor the pic- 

 turesqueness of varied tints of soil : of such kind is ground that 

 has been disturbed, and left with risings upon it, which appear 

 like knobs or bumps, or gashes into it, such as old gravel jDits or 

 quarries." {^Essays on the Picturesque, vol. i. chap, ix.) It is 

 surprising to see, at a place which bears evidence of a large sum 

 having been laid out on it, the finishing operation of uniting 

 the bumps with the surface on which they stand so much 

 neglected. The cause is evident : the proprietor has entered 

 fully into the subject of improvement, as far as ambition and 

 wealth are concerned, but has not imbued his mind with it in 

 regard to taste. If country gentlemen and ladies would give 



