September 28, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



289 



was covered with Heath and Furze. The Heath, it is true, 

 might be the well-known common Ling (Calluna vnlgarie) ; but 

 as the E. tetralix has been in recent years obtained from such 

 open places in Middlesex as Hounslow and Hampstead Heaths, 

 the soil and circumstances of whioh place them in near relation- 

 ship to Chelsea Common as it was in Stuart times, the con- 

 jecture that some species of Erica may have grown there freely 

 cannot be deemed a very wild one. 



Concerning this Blacklands estate, on a part of which, as 

 already stated, the Sloane Street Nursery was formed.it should 

 be said farther that when, in the early part of this century, 

 houses began to spring up on the " eligible sites " it offered, a 

 large portion of it to the west of Sloane Street still retained a 

 Bemi-rnral aspect. A road, now lined with houses and called 

 the Marlborough Road, seemingly formed its boundary to the 

 west, and it is singular that this road, now of minor importance, 

 is of much older date than the far more frequented Sloane 

 Street, which leads direotly from Hyde Park to the Thames. 

 In this road and on the Blacklands property was an old house 

 and grounds once belonging to Lady Matthews, then afterwards 

 nsed as a tavern and the ground cleared for a cricket field. 

 Whether the next stage in its history was its being built upon 

 is not ascertainable ; if intermediately it was occupied by one 

 of the market gardeners who had land, some seventy or eighty 

 years ago, on the southern Bide of this estate, it would be 

 curious, since we have" a modern instance in this same neigh- 

 bourhood of a nursery ground becoming a cricket field. At 

 the period to which I am referring the situation of the private 

 residence called tne " Pavilion " must have been an agreeable 

 one, for it had a considerable extent of park-like land belong- 

 ing to it, and on three of the sides there must have been 

 situate nurseries or market gardens. This " Pavilion " is now 

 being demolished to make way for a new line of road, and he 

 who wills may wander over what yet remains unbuilt upon 

 of the grounds, which are memorable because they once bore 

 touohes of the handiwork of the celebrated " Capability Brown," 

 landscape gardener, and, on his own testimony, almost divine 

 in the skill he had in making art equal or even surpass nature. 

 The unkind -critics, however, made much fun over his land- 

 Boape scenery, with its central pond or winding stream, its 

 formal tree clumps and background of shrubs. Did he invent 

 or only re-introduce here the "ha-ha fence," once so admired? 

 The ohronicles of horticulture are not clear on the point. 



Of the market gardens once in the angle between Marlborough 

 Road and Cadogan Terrace the history is also a blank, unless 

 it is to be supposed the KiDg'8 Road Gardens extended as 

 far northward, which is very unlikely. And I would here take 

 the opportunity to say, that towards ascertaining the history 

 of nurseries whioh have long disappeared and left no trace 

 the exertions of one individual cannot effect much. There are 

 doubtless yet living, and resident in London, persons who 

 have recollections of their own of extinct market gardens of 

 half a century since, or family traditions going back further 

 still. Any duly authenticated facts, if communicated to the 

 office of this Journal, will be gladly received and acknowledged 

 by the author of this series of articles. 



Nearer Knightsbridge, and on rather higher ground, but 

 belonging to the Blacklands estate, and north of the " Pa- 

 vilion," was Catleugh's nursery and market gardens, well 

 known in the Georgian era, and not yet out of existence, 

 though the land has grown " small by degrees and unbeauti- 

 fully less." Evergreens and a choice variety of exotics were 

 reared here successfully and profitably before the torrent of 

 suburban life set westward. Pines also were cultivated largely, 

 to find a ready sale when the importation was but email. 

 The erection of the church and schools of St. Saviour's, Upper 

 Chelsea, absorbed a part of the land used as a market garden, 

 and about six or seven years ago another part was cleared to 

 form the Prince's Cricket Ground , much honoured by fashion- 

 able folks of this day. Mrs. Catleugh died five years since, 

 and the present owner anticipates that he will have very 

 speedily to relinquish, for local improvements demand even 

 the small space now cultivated behind Hans Place. Perhaps, 

 under ciroumstances, the disappearance of the nursery is not 

 to be regretted, since only one greenhouse survives, and the 

 open ground is found chiefly available for the cultivation of — 

 Rhnbatb. Enightsbridge, let it be observed, must have been 

 a capital screen to the old Chelsea market gardens at the 

 period when it had only a house or two upon its edge, and 

 thick shrubberies which, rising toward the north and east, 

 would shut off the keen winds ; for it is quite evident that 

 Enightsbridge, which took its name from the king's or knight's 



I bridge over a little brook, was originally a portion of the same 

 large forest which stretched northward from Hyde Park towards 

 the hills of Highgate and Hampstead. Many of the trees in 

 Enightsbridge were felled during the seventeenth century, and 

 an antique plan of this locality, attributed to the end of that 

 century, shows two or three plots of land laid out in market 

 gardens, one of these belonging to a Mr. Calloway, and bearing 

 the name of Quail Close, suggesting that partridges used to bo 

 seen or hunted for there. Mr. Wiltshire also was a holder of 

 land, and an entry in the Chelsea records informs us that this 

 same Jeremiah Wiltshire (I presume) was fined in 1705, with 

 Thomas Robinson, for "having made a pond or water-place 

 for the rotting of dung, and for having deposited a heap of 

 mould on the Common." Most probably wanting space in 

 their ground for the preparation of the manure they employed, 

 these gardeners made free with the Common, not meaning any 

 harm, and no doubt they paid the fine honourably. But the 

 trivial incident illustrates that an era of improvement in plant- 

 culture was coming on, due to intercourse with the Continent. 

 The inhabitants of Chelsea seem at times to have been very 

 particular about their Common, and at other times lax, for 

 when the above occurred a lease had not long expired by which 

 they had let a part of the Common for twenty-one years to 

 Abraham Stony, a market gardener and farmer ; and from a 

 condition that he was to put upon the land a specified quantity 

 of manure during the last three years of hie occupancy, it may 

 be supposed that he cultivated the land and did not merely 

 turn it into a pasture, for Chelsea was famous for its cows all 

 through the Stuart times, and its repute for custards lasted 

 till the reign of George I. 



Changes great and small, as I have hinted, were to be 

 ascribed to the revolution of 1688 and the influx of Dutch 

 gardeners, and one of the effects was a stimulus given to the 

 culture of Asparagus, for it was a much-admired esculent in 

 courtly circles. From the mention of it by some writers one 

 would almost be inclined to think its season lasted longer then 

 than now, when public taste demands a succession of vegetables. 

 It is true King William's mode of eating Asparagus was pecu- 

 liar, for he devoured the stalks, and hence guests at the royal 

 table felt themselves embarrassed, for to leave one's stalks 

 upon the plate was as good as implying that His Majesty was 

 guilty of an act of indelicacy. And here and there on the 

 " Five Fields," now covered by the mansions of Belgravia, 

 Asparagus was grown in the reigns of William and Anne, per- 

 haps later, though the ground was not generally cultivated, 

 and much of it continued to be waste or common land until 

 the present century had long ceased to be new ; but the earlier 

 market gardeners of Chelsea had most of their ground farther 

 up the King's Road, and only cultivated a few patches of 

 ground in the " Five Fields." There were some in the reign 

 of Charles II., and several of these were living in the time of 

 George I., and able to testify from their knowledge and per- 

 sonal experience that there was a right of way across the 

 " Five Fields," for a succession of attempts was made by 

 court officials to exclude gardeners and other persons from 

 what was called the " King's Private Road," and the names o£ 

 the following gardeners can be quoted as uniting with the 

 lord of the manor and other Chelsea residents to secure an 

 unquestionable right. These names are J. Franklin, E. 

 Anderson, J. Lindford, M. Hutchins, and N. Perritt, all of 

 whom either owned land abutting on the " Five Fields," or 

 had for various purposes travelled with their carts or without 

 them along a road from which the King wanted to shut out 

 the public. And it is a curious bit of history that comes out 

 in one of the documents connected with this affair, that a 

 great deal of the produce sent to the markets was carried on 

 the shoulders of men and women ; no doubt the reason was 

 that vehicles could not pass through the park, and the roads 

 through Westminster were but so-so. The Hutchins family, 

 it may be remarked, has had a long connection with Chelsea 

 as farmers and market gardeners, and at Chelsea Farm, once 

 situate near the Vestry Hall on the opposite side of the King's 

 Road, a notable murder was perpetrated by some Jews. Lind- 

 ford the gardener showed some spirit, for it is stated that 

 when he met the King's surveyor he was asked where he was 

 going, and he answered he was going to his own land, and the 

 surveyor could not stop him nor anyone else ; " whereupon 

 the surveyor said no more." The gardeners not only won the 

 day, but also gained a strip of land which had been taken from 

 them, and the King's surveyor had orders to re-open some 

 ditches he had filled up. Vegetables, it would seem, were 

 principally cultivated by these gardeners. Some fruit was 



