452 General Notices. 



ments more pure and suitable for combustion than an equal volume of at- 

 mospheric air. — E. A. illaj/ 29. 1843." — Cond. 



Asphalte Walks, for the entrance walks to small suburban villas and street 

 houses having front gardens, may be strongly recommended, from their always 

 being in order, never yielding to the feet in the wettest weather, lodging no 

 water, and requiring no weeding or cleaning, farther than sweeping off any 

 leaves or other matters that may fall on them. — Co7id. 



Rochvorh in the Walton Nursery, Liverpool, — A friend having described 

 this rockwork as the most remarkable he had ever seen, and recommended us 

 to get a description of it, we wrote to Mr. Skirving, and the following is an 

 extract from the answer of his foreman of the landscape-gardening depart- 

 ment, Mr. Henderson : — 



*' With respect to the rockwork in this nursery, I regret to inform you that 

 the person (William Newman), a natural genius, who has done himself so 

 much credit in erecting rock grottoes, &c., in this neighbourhood, died sud- 

 denly a week or two previously to your note reaching us. Having sent for him 

 for the purpose of forming a rock, &c., for a gentleman near Liverpool, on his 

 way from London per railway he got wet and caught cold, which (in a frame 

 predisposed) brought on fever, and carried him off in a few days ; leaving a 

 wife and seven children wholly unprovided to deplore an irreparable loss. 



" His eldest son (only twenty years of age) having been for some years the 

 constant companion and assistant of his father, we are now anxious to esta- 

 blish in his place, he being the only support and dependence of his mother 

 and her family ; and we think he will in a short time be quite equal to his 

 father in taste and execution. I enclose two of his pencil sketches, which 

 may convey to you some idea of the progress he has already made, and enable 

 you to form an opinion of his work. For an individual who has been denied 

 the advantages of education, or any opportunity for mental improvement, or 

 time for study, except that connected with unremitting labour, I think he 

 evinces something of latent talent. 



" In two instances where he has finished work, I could see little to find fault 

 with, except that of not having his blocks or masses large enough, rather 

 frittering them into pieces too small, or divisions rather insignificant ; the 

 hint was sufficient. I find he has already corrected himself in this particular. 

 " He is at present employed for Thomas Sands, Esq., Aighurth, near this 

 town. His mother lives (and of course it is his home) at No. 2. Hamilton 

 Street, Wandsworth Road, London. 



" Should you feel satisfied that he is worthy your support and interest as an 

 artist, it will, 1 assure you, be an act of charity towards the widow and the 

 orphan to lend him a helping hand. I know that he is now remitting to his 

 mother regularly the larger portion of his weekly earnings. 



" The following is, I fear, a very imperfect description of the rock here. 

 " The rockwork in the Walton Nursery is placed at the boundary of the 

 small lawn and pleasure-ground attached to the dwelling-house, and divides 

 the former from the nursery grounds. It is, properly speaking, an arch thrown 

 across one of the main walks, but has wings, or rugged masses, extending into 

 and losing their terminations among dense evergreen shrubberies. 



" The skeleton, or shell, of rockwork, being hollow and filled with soil, is 

 formed of common walling stone, and the fused or vitrified masses from brick- 

 kilns ; these masses are afterwards covered with Roman cement, and formed 

 into blocks, recesses, and projections, or overhanging crags, just as may suit 

 the taste or fancy of the artist. Apertures and interstices are left for receiv- 

 ing alpine shrubs and rock plants. The whole is left to dry properly ; then 

 it is painted with oil paint, so as to have all the appearance of veined or stra- 

 tified granite ; of course the sky outline is broken and pointed generally. All 

 shell, coral, or vitrified materials are rejected, except where the proprietor of 

 the grounds insists on their introduction. I now allude to rockwork ; grot- 

 toes are another matter. — William Henderson. Walton Nursery, July 8. 1843." 



