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JOUENAL OF HOETICULTURE A2SX) COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ Mar 9. 1*65. 



The poles of whicli the trellis is made are about 2 inclie s 

 in diameter, G feet high, and that distance apart. The side 



laths t-o -which the trees are tied are, of course, smaller. A 

 rider tree is grown between each pair of dwarfs. Mr. Van 

 Geert has the wood of which these trellises are constructed 

 imjireguated with creosote. This is done by pressui-e by 

 the process employed to impregnate the railway sleepers. 

 Trellises made of wood thus impregnated, and erected in 

 1858, are now quite sound, whilst others constructed of un- 

 impregnated wood hare had to be renewed twice, and in 

 some instances thrice. The oreosoting only doubles the 

 cost of the wood, but it more than quadruples the dura- 

 bility. Instead of laths at the sides Mr. A' an Geert has 

 recently substituted wide-meshed galvanised wire net, which 

 much facilitates the training. Between the trellises Mr. 

 Van Geert grows a row of Strawben-y plants. 



On the ijanels of the entrance hall of his residence are 

 painted large maps, detailing the raikoads of Europe. 

 Similar maps are also depicted upon the jjanels of the rooms 

 at the railroad station, being much more useful and much 

 more W'namental than the usual occujjants of these spaces. 

 Antwerp in this as well as in more pretentious works of ai-t 

 is indeed a city of pictures. No one knows what Kubens 

 could do until he has seen the " Descent from the Cross " in 

 this city's cathedral. It is most justly considered the second 

 of the three great pictures of the world. Even his " Eleva- 

 tion of the Cross," which is its near neighbour-, looks, when 

 compared with it, coarse, vulgar, and exaggerated. 



We may be excused for referring to those pictures, be- 

 cause we have to notice that we have been shown thi-ee 

 fragments of the real cross discovered by the Empress 

 Helena. AVe marvelled that they were each of a different 

 species of wood, and we expected to be told that they only 

 seemed so to our heretical eyes, but the reply was, " the 

 cross of Calvary was formed of thi'ee kinds of wood." VCe 

 certainly were heretical then, but we find tradition bears 

 out the assertion, and alleges that the upright shaft was of 

 Cedar, the cross beam of Cypress, and the inscription was 

 written on a plate of Olive wood. Whether there be any 

 truth in the tradition we knov/ net, but we do know that 

 Eubcns's chair, preserved in the Antwerp Museum, is of 

 stnrdy Oak, and quaintly fashioned. There wei-e half a dozen 

 chairs closely similar- to be sold by auction in the market- 

 place, and we wished that that market-place was Covont 

 Garden, for tlien pui-chase would not have been forbidden 

 by difficulty of transport. 



Ah ! that market-place and many othei-s are thus resum- 

 moned to "our mind's eye." Whence came all the eggs 

 -we saw in those places of merchandise puzzles us — long 

 rows of women in black cloaks and white caps, each two 

 baskets flrong, and each basket with at least a hundi-ed 

 eggs in it, l.-iytred alternately with straw, were ever present. 

 We did not see many louls spread over the face of the 

 countrj-, nnd those we did see did not look as if they would 

 help lapidly to fill such baskets — mcngrels all. 



Then the multitude of potH of Mignonette in those mar- 

 kets ! Easter was approaching, and not only citizens' wives, 

 but wives from the country, were intent on taking pots of 

 the "Littio Darling" to perfume their homes on the great 

 festival. We have a gr«at mind (therefore we shall not, 



for when one has a great mind to do a thing one never does 

 it), to relate the legend why the Count of Saxony had a 

 spray of Mignonette in his coat-armour with the motto, 

 " Your qualities surpass your charms ;" but we will make 

 the more prosaic observation that the Mignonette of the 

 Belgian markets is a more robust vai-iety than that usual 

 in England. Its leaves are more ovate, thicker, and bullate. 

 One plant is grown in a pot, and its branches, mostly four 

 in number, grow quite upright and as sturdy as minute 

 Mullein plants. We find that we were not singular in this 

 observation ; for Mr. Eeeves, nurseryman, Bayswater, noticed 

 these peculiarities, obtained some of the seed, and finds the 

 seedlings retain the characteristic diilerences. 



And now let us away to Brussels, not, however, to be 

 tempted by the lace at 200 francs per yard. Yet we will 

 pause to observe that there is something suggestive even to 

 the gardener in that lace. It can only be made from Flax 

 grown in one locality — Hal. In no other place has Flax 

 been produced having so delicate a fibre. Various trials 

 have been made to produce it elsewhere, but they failed. 

 Now, this may teach the owners of mansions not to be rash 

 in concluding that their gardeners are incompetent, beca-use 

 they do not raise certain garden products so excellent as 

 they are raised in some other parts of ovu- islands. We 

 knew a garden that would not yield a crop of Kaspberries ; 

 ■we know another in which the Can-ot has no tap root ; and 

 many of our readers must be acquainted with other illus- 

 trations of the lesson taught by the Flax of Hal. 



We will at once pass on to the new drive, of two hours' 

 duration, now completing in the forest adjoining Brussels. 

 It is very gracefully planned, and -will be a most grateful 

 resort in summer. 



AVith that forest is associated one of Britain's most 

 glorious days. Through this sixty square miles of almost 

 exclusive Hornbeam marched a chief portion of our army to 

 the field to Waterloo. 



*' Soignies waves above them her green leaves. 

 Dewy with nuture'8 tear-diops as they pass. 

 Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, 

 Over the unreturn'uig brave." 



When our readers are perusing this, since that morning 

 within a month of half a centui-y wOl have passed. We 

 stood upon the bright green turf that envu-ons the farm ot 

 Mont St. Jean, and all was so undisturbed, and the sun 

 shone so bright, and the afr was so balmy and so stOl, that 

 we scarce could realise the fact that even fifty years ago 

 that farm-house was crowded with the lacerated and the 

 dying, and that beneath oiu- feet, wherever we trod, were 

 the bones of the dead of that day. 



On wo went, and on a grassy bank we picked from a mul- 

 titude a few Daisies " for remembrance ;" and on that bank 

 stands the trunk of a Whit-e Thorn, gnarled and scathed by 

 the -vicissitudes of many years. By that White Thorn fell 

 the brave old Welshman Su- Thomas Picton, who, with a 

 foreshadowing of -\vhat was at hand, wi-ote home " When 

 you hear of my fall you wiU hear- of a bloody day." The 

 traveller in passing that bank has by his other hand the 

 monument i-aised by a sister and five brothers to record the 

 high and loveable characteristics of Colonel Gordon. 



Near that gi-ew what was called " The Wellington Tree," 

 but it was removed when the soil had to be upheaved to 

 form the lion-surmounted mound raised by the Belgians 

 commemorative of the -victory. Nor does the tree deserve 

 regret, for its notoriety was founded on falsehood. Our great 

 commander took a position far away to the right of that tree 

 nearer to Hougoumont, being too old a campaigner to place 

 himself needlessly near the most prominent object on the 

 field, and which would not fail to attract the notice of the 

 French artillerists. 



Here, too, stands the monument recording how bravely 

 fought, and how many were slaughtered of the gallant Ger- 

 man Legion — slaughtvrud comparatively unresistingly from 

 an oversight, for theii- commander had not secured a suffi- 

 cient supply of ammunition ; and here, with its now trimly 

 enclosed garden, is the little farm homestead. La Haye Sainte, 

 where they fought and fell. The loop-holes in its walls 

 through which they fired, and the perforations made by the 

 bullets of their assailants are still visible. By that garden 

 side, too, died, and was buried where he died, that hero 

 of our cavalry— Shaw, the Life-Guardsman, he, who single- 



