October 19, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB, 



299 



He originated the system ior St. Thomas by which the sewage 

 o£ the district is deodorised and converted into a profitable 

 manure, thus avoiding the cost of a law-suit threatened by the 

 Eailway Company, and the constraetion of a sewer to Ssarcrosa. 

 His plan of deodorisation by means of carbolic acid, adopted 

 at St. Thomas, was also adopted by his advice at Bombay, and 

 from the authorities there he received a cordial vote of thanks 

 •for his council and guidance. It is principally due to his 

 exertions that St. Thomas now enjoys the advantage of an in- 

 dependent and continuous water supply. When he retired 

 from the St. Thomas Local Board, a year or two ago, he retired 

 with the regret of all the members, and of the parish generally, 

 but also with their hearty thanks for his valuable services. 

 Hundreds can bear testimony to his generosity of disposition, 

 and his numerous acts of kindness. It will be long indeed 

 before his name is forgotten in St. Thomas, and it will never 

 be mentioned without the respect due to a man who did his 

 ■duty in his day and generation. The deceased gentleman's 

 wife died about ten years ago, and he never fairly recovered 

 ■from the shock and sorrow occasioned by her death. Daring 

 his long illness his nephew and heir, Dr. William Eobert 

 "Woodman, has been in constant attendance upon him, and 

 has endeavoured to relieve him as much as possible from the 

 ^iares necessarily incidental to the management of such a large 

 business as that of the Exeter Nurseries. — {Exeter and PUj- 

 ■niouth Gazette.) 



POTATOES. 



We have but very few really good Potatoes from forty varie- 

 ties grown here on a good Potato soil. 



I purpose to plant nest season about 23 acres of Dalmahoys 

 and Paterson's Yictoria, two of the best round sorts for market 

 on any soil. 



In the forty varieties I had three American sorts, great 

 <;roppers, but worthless except for pigs, and Bovinia is the 

 same. 



Of kidneys, all the Ashleafs are fine in flavour, including the 

 2Japstone and Webb's SsedUng ; but they do not crop like the 

 two round Potatoes above named. 



Of earfching-up Potatoes, if all your gardener readers had time 

 and inclination to give their experience, ninety out of every 

 hundred would say, " By all means earth-up your Potatoes, 

 ioth for produce and for earliness." 



The Potato disease here is about equal in all the varieties, 

 ■except the Dalmahoys. They are the most free from the plague. 

 All others are about one-third diseased. The crop is large. 

 Discard all recommendations of a large number of sorts for 

 cultivation. Let those who really wish to benefit their neigh- 

 bours name a few of their best; only a few sorts are wanted — 

 not a host. — F. L., Bailiff, Knowsley Cottage Farm, Frescot. 



HATFIELD HOUSE, 

 The Seat of the Maequis oe Saliseuky. 



li it be a rule of nomenclature, " Once a palace always a 

 palace," then this mansion should retain that title. From being 

 desmesne of the Saxon Kings, Heathfield, for that is the true 

 name of the place, passed by grant to the Abbey of Ely, and 

 then to the bishopric of that name. Some bishop, now un- 

 known, built there his palace, which was rebuilt on a larger 

 and better style by Bishop Morton, in 1478. When it reverted 

 to the crown we know not, but it was the residence of Prince 

 Edward in the lifetime of his father, Henry VIII., and when 

 he succeeded to the throne he conveyed it to his sister, Princess, 

 eventually Queen, Elizabeth. During her sister Mary's reign 

 she was resident here, under the kindly custodianship of Sir 

 'Thomas Pope. In 1607 James I. exchanged it for Theobalds 

 with Sir Eobert Cecil, created Earl of Salisbury, who laid the 

 -foundation in 1608, and in 1611 completed Hatfield House as 

 it now remains. 



James I. coveted Theobalds because it was more convenient 

 for indulgence in "kingly sports," but Sir Eobert Cecil evi- 

 dently parted with it reluctantly, and writing in 1607 to Sir 

 Thomas Lake, he teUs that he had been to take a last look 

 at Theobalds before it passed into the King's possession. He 

 also tells that he purposed to enlarge Hatfield Park, and several 

 noblemen had been there with him to decide where the future 

 mansion should be placed. A silver thread of ability and apt- 

 ness for business has ever characterised the Cecils, and in Sir 

 Bobert that thread was a stout one. It is very apparent in 

 the details he required to be furnished from time to time of 



expenses to be incurred and of the progress of the work done. 

 With judicious forecast he began early to arrange and plant 

 the gardens, and we will just touch upon a few relative letters 

 yet preserved. In October, 1609, Lady Tresham wrote to Sir 

 Eobert, then Earl of Salisbury, thanking him for his aid against 

 her " vehement adversary John Lambe," and begging him to 

 accept " half a hundred of fruit trees to plant at Hatfield." 



Another letter in 1610 asks for instructions relative to the 

 gardener's work to be done there. A third letter in 16H 

 contains estimates for bringing water in earthen pipes "from the 

 springs to the dell ;" and in November of that year fruit trees 

 were sent to the Earl by the French Queen, but he observes 

 " the Apples and Pears are inferior to the English, the Poir8 

 Chretienne excepted." 



Hatfield House is at an easy distance from London — easy 

 even in the old coaching times, and still more so now when one 

 of the principal railways of the kingdom passes close to it, and 

 has its first important station at the neighbouring picturesque 

 vUlage of Hatfield, nestling as it were in a valley under the 

 shadow of the noble residence of the Cecils. 



As we pass through this village we cannot but compare it 

 with the more recent viUas and other dwellings which we have 

 passed on our journey from the great metropolis, for while in 

 these red bricks and blue slates are the prominent features, 

 both these have been held in supreme contempt by the archi- 

 tects of such villages as Hatfield — there most, if not all, of the 

 buildings are square or oblong, and their relation one to another 

 is totally disregarded. The lath and plaster gable end of one 

 dwelling advances soma distance more to the front than the 

 broad side of another, which is, perhaps, weatherboarded, while 

 another is a mixture of brickwork and flints, the latter con- 

 cealed in some cases behind a thick coating of colouring matter. 

 Plain flat tiles form the principal roofing of the whole. But 

 what constitute the principal distinction between old country 

 villages like Hatfield and the modern suburbs of a large city 

 like London are the shade-giving trees, which in so many eases 

 throw a shield over the whole, as well as adorn by their 

 verdure. 



Another feature usually met with in such villages is the 

 venerable church and its surroundings. Some of these are 

 worshipped by antiquarians, while over others they lament the 

 changes undergone. In the church important alterations and 

 restorations are being made through the liberality of the noble 

 owner of Hatfield House, whose taste and judgment are both too 

 good to leave any doubt of the issue — namely, that it will be 

 embellished in a way becoming the parish church of a rural 

 district ; for though but some sixteen or seventeen miles from 

 London, it is only by the occasional sound of passing trains 

 (for they are but little seen from the mansion and grounds) that 

 we are reminded we are near a busy thoroughfare. 



The village occupies a valley, through which the Great North 

 road used to run, and its hostelries, once so much needed, are 

 now reduced in number, and the village has settled into one of 

 those quiet country house-clusters which form so pleasing a 

 feature in our land ; but there is'one connection which it has 

 kept up, and that is its relationship to the great house on the 

 hiU — Hatfield House and Hatfield village still occupy the same 

 relative position they did two hundred years ago, when royalty 

 was no unusual visitor ; and not many years ago Her Majesty 

 was entertained here with becoming magniflcence by the father 

 of its present noble proprietor. 



On leaving the railway station, which is close to the village, 

 we descend a little into it, and then commence to rise, passing 

 on our right the church, which forms a sort of connecting link 

 between the village and the mansion, and our first entrance 

 within the precincts of the latter is through a doorway adjoining 

 to, and, we believe, also forming a part of, a mansion that stood 

 here before the present noble structure was erected. A large por- 

 tion of this building is still standing, and appropriated to some 

 other purpose, but its peculiar features are retained as far as 

 possible. How far back its history dates we are unable to say, 

 but most likely it extends to the period of the wars of the Eoses 

 or even further back, as part of the modern building dates from 

 the time of Henry VIII. This memento of a past age is but 

 a short distance from the north front of the present structure, 

 and has been recently carefully and judiciously restored. 



The mansion of Hatfield occupies the northern end of a 

 ridge of slight yet sufiieient elevation, the ground falling gently 

 away from it on all sides, excepting to the south. The build- 

 ing is regarded as one of the best examples of the Tudor style 

 of architecture, of which Cobham Hall, in Kent, and Ingestrie 

 Hall, in^jStaffordehire, are also examples. A portion of he 



