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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 26, 1872. 



home with her a bouquet of flowers. You will scarcely pass a 

 window at an inhabitable house where, from the basement to 

 the pens erected upon the roofs, six or seven storeys from the 

 ground, there is not a display of flower-pots. Having secured 

 quarters high up in the Louvre we can look down upon the 

 upper storeys of the neighbouring houses, in each room of 

 which there appears to be a separate family. They seem to be 

 tailors, and at daybreak in the morning the men are plying 

 their needles, and the women preparing for breakfast and 

 arranging their bouquets for the breakfast table. The cultiva- 

 tion of flowers in all the palace gardens and squares, and even 

 by the street sides in the Champs Elysees, is carried to perfec- 

 tion. The Luxembourg garden is the finest display of flowers 

 cultivated in the open air I have ever witnessed, and it is 

 thronged every evening with admiring visitors. So also at the 

 Jardin des Plantes, which we visited this afternoon. It was 

 crowded with visitors, and the flowers attractedmore attention 

 than the great exhibition of the cattle of the field, the bird of 

 the air, the beast of the jungle, and the fish of the sea, which 

 are here collected , and open free to the inspection of the public." 



ERIDGE CASTLE, 



The Seat of the Earl of Abergavenny. 

 Eeidge Castle is an elegant modern building with embattled 

 walls, and numerous towers and turrets. It is rich in elaborate 

 architectural embellishments, beautiful in its graceful outlines 

 and in the contrast of the deep green of the Ivy gradually 

 overspreading and concealing its white walls, and certainly 

 very striking in its pleasing freshness of aspect, so bright, so 

 entirely in harmony with the scenery around it, and so differ- 

 ent from the stern repellent state and grandeur of those old 

 feudal structures — 



" With toners vast, 

 Broad, massive, high, and stretching far, 

 And held impregnable in war." 

 Eridge Castle is finely situated upon a turfy knoll, having a 

 few fine trees and shrubs skilfuDy dispersed over its trim sur- 

 face, and the ground slopes gently downwards till it meets the 

 park. The view of the park from a terrace on the south front 

 is very fine. Immediately in front the turf dips downwards to 

 the winding shores of a lake of about twenty acres, and be- 

 yond it rises again in grand irregularity, now spreading out in 

 ample breadth, overshadowed at parts by noble old trees, and 

 then ascending till it is lost in the thickly-wooded slopes of 

 Saxonbury Hill, which, with a tower crowning its summit, 

 forms a majestic and fitting background to a scene of singular 

 and uncommon beauty, which has been described in a poem 

 not without enthusiasm, from which the following is an 

 extract : — 



" J Tis beautiful, this sylvan scene around ! 

 What sunny glades ! what dark'ning woods abound I 

 And sloping lawns, where brouse the sprightly deer; 

 And crystal lakes, where swans majestic steer. 

 On tow'ring heights the Birch waves in the gale, 

 And ancient Oaks befriend the sultry vale. 

 The Hawthorn bush upon the extended plain 

 Adds its wild glories to this proud domain, 

 Whilst Beech, and Larch, and Scotia's sombre Pine, 

 Form pleasing groups, or show in martial line. 

 Here, opening vistas glow with brightest green ; 

 There, Bonnie Heath on distant hill is seen — 

 Thewholehow grand, harmonious, and chaste!" 



This grand old park is supposed to be the oldest recorded 

 deer park in England ; that the adjoining woods are extensive 

 may be inferred from the fact that they are intersected by 

 seventy miles of grass drives. 



It is in the Sussex parish of Frant. In Anglo-Saxon times 

 the manor belonged to Godwin, Earl of Kent, but the Norman 

 Conqueror seized the estate and granted it to his follower, the 

 Earl of Mortaigne. There was a large mansion here from the 

 earliest times, and members of the Royal Family resided here 

 until the time of Charles I., but it had long before passed to 

 the family of the Nevills, Earls of Abergavenny. It belonged 

 to them when Queen Elizabeth was a guest here in 1573, and 

 "Henry Nevill, Lord Bergavenny, who died in 1586, was a 

 favourite of the Queen." It came to the Nevills by Sir 

 Edward Nevill marrying, about the year 1450, Lady Elizabeth 

 Beauchamp, heiress of Lord Bergavenny, created Earl of 

 Worcester by Henry V. Tunbridge Wells owes much to 

 Eridge Castle, if it be true that the efficacy of its mineral 

 waters was accidentally discovered by Dudley, Lord North, 

 who was staying at the Castle, suffering from a lingering com- 

 plaint. Tin's was in the reign of James I., and his lordship 

 effectually made known the sanitary powers of the waters. 



The lawn is extensive, and sweeps boldly around three 

 sides of the Castle. On the north side it has an abrupt descent, 

 with a large semicircular opening or chasm in one part of the 

 face of the bank, the steep irregular sides of which are 

 planted with Rhododendrons, and will eventually form a 

 picturesque and important feature, thus bringing into promi- 

 nence a portion of the dressed grounds which formerly could 

 hardly have been worthy of the name. This, I should observe,. 

 is one of many important improvements being graduaUy effected 

 under the able supervision of Mr. Rust. 



Numerous older groups of Rhododendrons dispersed among: 

 other shrubs were very luxuriant. The shrubs and trees 

 generally were very vigorous, notably a fine example of Weep- 

 ing Birch and some very large and symmetrical Portugal 

 Laurels, which present the appearance of a beautiful mound 

 of deep green glossy foliage. Of this Laurel it may very justly 

 be said, that when unhealthy nothing can be more unsightly; 

 but when thriving, as at Eridge, there are few shrubs that can 

 compare with it, either for beautiful foliage or symmetrical 

 growth. There were, besides, numerous flourishing examples 

 of Araucaria, a Picea grandis planted by Mr. Disraeli, some 

 black Italian Poplars curiously laden with immense clusters of 

 Mistletoe, and some very handsome Wellingtonias upwards off 

 30 feet high, raised from seed sown in 1851. 



The flower garden is enclosed on three sides by the Castle 

 and a conservatory. The flower-beds, of medium size and 

 simple form, were in full summer beauty. Very little sub- 

 division was observable, most of the beds containing a distinct 

 mass of one colour. Numerous vases, elevated on pedestals 

 and well filled with plants, contributed very materially to the 

 appearance of the garden. These vases form a charming 

 avenue, with a path paved with broad flagstones, and edged 

 with neat terra-cotta tiles, leading to the conservatory. By 

 the side of another similar path was a fine ribbon border,, 

 having a row of Echeveria secunda glauca next the terra-cotta 

 tiles, then a fine belt of Alternanthera maculata, with pretty 

 foliage of mingled crimson and orange, followed by a row of 

 Lobelia pumila grandiflora, each plant having the appearance' 

 of a pretty compact mound of blue enamel, for the plants were 

 arranged with excellent taste — just far enough apart to admit 

 of their touching each other when in flower, without the 

 growth becoming so blended as to affect their outline. With 

 Lobelia speciosa we are content to obtain a compact even line 

 of blue, but in the pumila section we have colour of an equal! 

 depth and richness, and a beauty of form that renders indivi- 

 duality very desirable. The fourth, or back row, was of Mrs. 

 Pollock Pelargonium. 



The conservatory, by Ormson, is of plain exterior, but an 

 excellent structure, well adapted to its purpose, as was clearly 

 shown by the excellent condition of its occupants, more espe- 

 cially the climbing plants, which were in great beauty. They 

 were trained beneath the roof on pendant chains in the form 

 of festoons, from which trailed flower laden branches in charm- 

 ing profusion. There were the fine old Tacsonias mollissima 

 and manicata, the beautiful Van-Volxemi, never so fine as 

 when seen thus suspended, the variegated Cobaja, Clematis 

 Lady Caroline Nevill, the sweet Mandevilla, and a fine blue 

 mass of that excellent but much-neglected plant Plumbago 

 capensis. Beneath and among the branches of the climbing 

 plants were hanging-baskets suspended from the roof, and 

 tastefully filled with a brilliant mixture of plants. These, 

 seen as they were among the somewhat wild yet graceful 

 growth of the roof plants, had a charming effect. Two fine 

 groups of Camellias, surrounded by a variety of interesting 

 pot plants arranged in excellent taste, occupied the centre of the 

 building, and various plants in flower, elevated on stands and 

 brackets, gave to the scene a pleasing ah' of lightness and grace. 



A winding walk, fringed with Rhododendrons, leads to a 

 more secluded part, where was a ribbon border 700 feet long, 

 having a sheltering belt of shrubs behind, and agreeably re- 

 lieved by a considerable breadth of turf stretching along its 

 front. The border contained six rows ; the first of Ageratum 

 Imperial Dwarf, bluish grey ; the second of Pelargonium 

 Little David, scarlet; the third, Verbena venosa, purple ; the 

 fourth, yellow Calceolaria ; the fifth, Lesine Lindeni, crimson ; 

 and the sixth or back row, Anthemis fceniculata, a species of 

 Chamomile, a capital plant for the purpose, having serrated 

 foliage and simple flowers of a pure white. This arrangement, 

 composed as it was of simple yet most suitable materials, had 

 an excellent effect. Ageratum Imperial Dwarf is really a fine 

 dwarf plant, easily raised from seed, as is the Anthemis ; and 

 I believe I am correct in stating that the whole of the plants, 



