THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



JUNE, 1843. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Hints for the Improvement of Kensington Gardens and Hyde 

 Park. By the Conductor. 



The improvement of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park has 

 been the subject of a variety of articles in this Magazine, from 

 its commencement in 1826 to the present time, and we have at 

 length been amply rewarded by seeing many of our suggestions 

 carried into execution. The removal of the line of dead wall 

 reaching from Cumberland Gate to the Gravel Pits, and the 

 substitution of an improved line and of open railing, widening 

 the public road in some jjlaces and enclosing a part of the 

 waste in others, are what we have been trying for since 1816; 

 and, though the ground formerly occupied as a kitchen-garden 

 has not yet been added to the pleasure-ground, we are happy to 

 find that the high dead wall, which has so long been an eyesore 

 and an injury, will be removed, and set farther back from the 

 public road, and that, instead of brickwork 18 ft. high, there 

 Avill be a low parapet, crowned with an iron railing. 



Our attention has been called to the subject of Kensington 

 Gardens at the present time, by observing that a very complete 

 collection of low shrubs, and especially of jE'ricaceaj, has been 

 planted in two masses near the piece of Avater called the Ser- 

 pentine Kiver ; and that a new line of boundary wall has been 

 formed at the upper pai't of this piece of water, which, by adding 

 a portion of ground to the gardens in that quarter, will render 

 it practicable to give the water a better termination. 



Fig. 68. shows a plan of that part of the Serpentine River 

 which is in Kensington Gardens ; the bridge a separating it 

 from the part which is in Hyde Park, and which may be called 

 the Lower Serpentine ; and, at the opposite end of the figure, c 

 representing the Uxbridge Koad. The newly made plantations 

 of shrubs are indicated at <? e ; not hy the dotted lines h h, which 

 show proposed alterations on the boundary of the water, but by 

 the black lines, as explained in the references in the margin of 

 the engraving. The widest part of these plantations is nearly 



3d Sei-.— 1843. VI. u 



