November S, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



343 









WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 



01 



Month 



Day 



of 



Week. 



NOVEMBER 3-9, 187J. 





Average Tempera- j K ?'° f in 

 ture near London. ,„ 8 



43 yearB. 



Sun 



Sun 



Moon 



Moon 



Moon's 



Clock 1 Day 

 after of 

 Sun. Year. 







Rises. 



Sets. 



Rises. 



sets. 



Age. 











Day. 



Night. 



Mean. 



Dave. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



Days. 



hi. s. 



8 



Th 



Meeting of Linnean Society, 8 P.M. 





53.5 



85.9 



44.7 



19 



69af6 



29 af 4 



24 af 8 



14 af 1 



10 



l6 18 8"7 



4 



P 







52.1 



86 6 



448 



22 



7 



27 4 



41 8 



23 2 



11 



16 18 308 



5 



S 







52.9 



87.2 



45 



20 



2 7 



25 4 



59 3 



80 3 



12 



16 16 



809 



6 



Sun 



21 Sunday after Trinity. 





52.4 



869 



447 



19 



4 7 



24 4 



17 4 



87 4 



13 



16 14 



310 



7 



M 



Twilight ends, 6.11 p.m 





52.1 



867 



44.4 



20 



5 7 



28 4 



84 4 



43 5 



14 



16 11 



811 



8 



Tu 



Length of Day, 9h. 15m. 





52.0 



34.3 



43.1 



19 



7 7 



22 4 



54 4 



49 6 



O 



16 7 



812 



9 



W 



Meet, of Royal Microscopical Society 



8 p.m. 



50.5 



83.8 



<U2 



16 



9 7 



20 4 



18 5 



55 7 



16 



16 2 



3l8 



From observations taken near London during 



the last fortv-three years, the average day temperature of the week 



LS 52.2°, 



md its nighl 



temperature 85.9°. The greatest heat was 68°, on the 5th and 6th, 1834; and the lowest cold 17°, on the 9th, 1864. 



The greatest fall of 



rain was 1.02 inch. 









NOTES MADE DURING A TOUR IN IRELAND. 

 No. 1. 



; RELAND, our fair sister — the green, the 

 Emerald Isle ! — we gardeners of England 

 know little of your land, and yet Ireland is 

 very near to us, and very dear to us. Dublin 

 is but eleven hours from London, and yet 

 Ireland is too little known to us, and less 

 understood. Why is this? It would indeed 

 be difficult to tell. There is but a narrow 

 strip of water that divides us, and yet we 

 hesitate to pass across. Many of us, although 

 we boast of our supremacy of the seas, have still a secret 

 dread of seasickness — of the horrors of crossing the pro- 

 verbially shaky Irish Channel, and so many of us remain 

 at home, and remain ignorant of the beauties of lovely Ire- 

 land, and of the warmhearted natures of the Irish people. 

 We are all pretty well informed that Dame Nature has 

 been wondrously bountiful to the Irish Isle, endowing her 

 with a genial climate and with rich and fertile soils. We 

 have, however, but a poor knowledge of what that really 

 means, or of the vast magnitude of the capabilities of the 

 country. It requires seeing her to understand. 



We, in England, have strange and crude notions that 

 Ireland is a land half desolate and neglected — centuries 

 behind our own — with a people poor, oppressed, and dis- 

 contented — with landlords harsh and tyrannical, screwing 

 the life-blood out of the land ! Can there be greater de- 

 lusions ? We read at times, it is true, some sad accounts 

 of the bad feelings existing between landlord and tenant, 

 but these are very exceptional, and in no way compromise 

 the great body of the people, landlords or tenants. As 

 for the Irish landlords, take them as a class, I believe them 

 to be extremely indulgent. It having been my fortune 

 lately to visit many of their establishments I say this 

 much candidly, that they contrast very favourably with 

 our own in many ways. There are numerous exceptions, 

 of course, and the worst of all are the absentees, a class 

 which are far too common. 



Are the people oppressed? No, decidedly not. Arethey 

 poor? No. Although they seem so in their miserable 

 hovels of dwellings, and their dirty tattered garments, yet 

 they are by no means poor. Speak of poverty in Ireland 

 and yon give deep offence ; besides, it is not true. Work 

 is plentiful in Ireland, and workmen scarce. Wages are 

 generally as high as in this country — from 2s. to 3*'. per 

 day. and during harvest far higher, with many accom- 

 paniments which the labouring class of this country do 

 nut have. 



Is Ireland poor? This cannot be when the farmers of 

 Irelund have been able to lay by within the last few years, 

 as stated from official returns, several millions of monej'. 

 Are the people discontented ? This cannot be denied, yet 

 I hope the causes are fast being removed, for a more joyous, 

 hearty, kind-hearted people does not exist ; but into this 

 it is not ray business to inquire— my object in visiting 

 Ireland was to observe its gardens and gardening. 



In passing through the country I could not help noting 

 No. 50'..— Vol. XIX., New Semes. 



everywhere the extremely well-made and well-kept roads, 

 under the care of Government, I believe, and how ex- 

 tremely appropriate is the title of the green and Emerald 

 Isle ! for green it is in truth. Such depth of verdure, 

 such extent of landscape, all of the most lovely green, 

 nowhere have I seen except in Ireland. How vivid, how 

 marked was the contrast of the beautiful green and rich 

 grassy meadows, and the lovely gr.een trees, to those of our 

 own country this season ! Whilst we in England have been 

 parched up — almost without a blade of green— in Ireland 

 vegetation was triumphant — grass abundant, root crops. 

 Turnips, Potatoes, chief of Ireland's food, everywhere most 

 excellent. The great extent of rich pasture land in some 

 of the counties, as in Meath and Kildare, is something 

 marvellous, entire and immense tracts of land being like 

 one vast grazing field, broken only by the hedgerow trees. 

 We envy Ireland also her charming lakes and their rich 

 and lovely scenery, the magnificence of her trees and 

 tree landscape, and the grand and extensive parks which 

 surround the seats of her landed nobility. Widely apart 

 as these seats may be the one from the other, they never- 

 less present considerable uniformity of character. The 

 various sites are remarkably well chosen, giving most 

 extensive views of the surrounding district. 



The style of the mansions is in general plain Elizabethan 

 and baronial, with most extensive and well-designed parks 

 and gardens. The parks and the trees around the Irish 

 nobleman's abode are quite features of the country. The 

 gardens, too, seem to have been laid out originally with 

 considerable skill and taste, and generally on an exten- 

 sive scale. I do not speak here of hothouses, which 

 belong more to the present age, but of the art of land- 

 scape gardening and designing, and I feel bound to ob- 

 serve that there are evidences in these old places of a 

 fully higher calibre of gardening than is common at the 

 present day. I met with many exceptions, of course, which. 

 I shall duly notice, yet I could by no means blink the fact 

 that gardening in Ireland, as in our own country, is run- 

 ning too much in one groove, and, to my mind, that groove 

 is a very narrow one. There is a growing tendency for 

 having all things under glass, for expensive stove and hot- 

 house plants, for staring ribbon borders, and great blazes 

 of gaudy colour, instead of quiet beauty of form and simple 

 elegance. In our rage after all this we are forgetting 

 much that is pleasing and lasting in the beauty of our 

 hardy plants and trees, which give such universal and 

 continuous pleasure. 



Of the principal features of Irish gardening I would just 

 notice the unusually fine collections of stove and fine- 

 foliaged plants, and the general excellence of the speci- 

 mens, with the apparent great interest taken in their 

 cultivation. I met with these in very unexpected places. 

 In many establishments I fancied the same means would 

 have been far better expended elsewhere — whether these 

 were pet subjects of the employers or of the gardeners I 

 cannot say. It struck me, however, as ill-regulated ia 

 several instances where the employers reside but little, 

 and where labour seemed to be sadly scant — with fruits 

 and other more permanent subjects greatly neglected — to 

 No. His — vol. XIiIV., Oeb SEiiiE&. 



