September 20, 1S64. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



237 



laying out grounds, and more especially as you have had 

 some experience in that line. 



Such a flower garden would look well in any position, but 

 best when looked down upon. "We have no objection to the 

 four circles being of Irish Tew ; but the garden would look 

 well if grouped all over, and, instead of being suitable for a 

 cottager, it is quite fit for the garden of a duchess. Such a 

 compact well-balanced plan must be ever more satisfactory 

 than placing a circle here, a star there, and a diamond 

 yonder, without the least connection with each other. Your 

 design so far fulfils the necessary conditions advocated by 

 the late" Mr. Loudon — namely, that no one clump could be 

 altered in shape without spoiling the figure as a whole. 



With regard to giving advice as to your future employers, 

 and as to what line connected with gardening you are most 

 likely to succeed in — these are matters which no stranger 

 with the best intentions could well give advice upon, and 

 the responsibility of which we are obliged to decline when 

 our opinion is asked publicly or privately. The bent of 

 genius in the individual will do more to determine the matter 

 than the advice even of the best friends. 



We have had many letters lately stating the writer's cir- 

 cumstances even more fully th£,n you do, but making similar 

 applications as to the ins and outs of landscape gardening, 

 and as to whether it would not be preferable to leave a 

 gentleman's garden and go into a nursery or a market 

 garden in order ultimately to engage in one of these branches 

 of commercial enterprise. The chief arguments adduced 

 by such inquirers against the service of gentlemen are the 

 low rates of wages given to gardeners, the objections often 

 made to their marrying and having families, the amount of 

 labour of body and of mind expected from them, the dis- 

 comfort arising from the low estimate of their social position 

 held by employers of men who elsewhere are regarded and 

 treated as gentlemen of intelligence, the great uncertainty 

 of servitude, and the liability of being dismissed without 

 ceremony and without assigned cause after twenty or thirty 

 years of faithful service, and a remuneration from which 

 little can be saved for the future. These are some of the 

 black points. Nothing is said of the kindness and the 

 sympathy of so many employers, of the quiet and tran- 

 quillity of the gardener's life, of the worry and mental strain 

 which he escapes on a Saturday or rather the Friday pay- 

 night which the young tradesman experiences when he has 

 men or bills to pay, and cannot obtain settlem ent of his own 

 accounts to pay them, or the feelings which he must smother 

 when for some trifling omission he is well scolded by a paltry 

 customer, and dare not resent it even by a look of discon- 

 tent, and when he finds there is trouble in serving the 

 many as well as in serving the few. We have had pene- 

 tration enough to see that in some cases the chief causes 

 of discontent proceeded from an unwillingness to feel the 

 working collar under any circumstances, united with the 

 desire to be the gentleman, and to reach at once the top of 

 the ladder by any or every means, by any or what help, 

 instead of ascending step by step by self effort and self 

 denial — the only steps open to young men of thorough self- 

 reliant independence of character. 



We do not for a moment suppose that our " Young Gae- 

 deneb" is one of the class who aims at getting on the crest 

 of the wave, careless who sinks provided they can help him 

 to swim ; and therefore, though we would not advise him, 

 we will make a remark or two, merely adding that our pub- 

 lishing his letter will be the best thing we can do for him, 

 and the best part of any advice we can offer. First, then, 

 we would advise him, as he is only twenty years of age, to 

 go into a gentleman's place, or a commercial establishment 

 where stove and greenhouse plants are cultivated; as, inde- 

 pendently of the professional lore, the great variety of forms 

 will expand and amplify his ideas, and make him fitter to 

 act as a landscape gardener and the layer-out of grounds 

 and gardens. We are supposing that, like most north- 

 country lads, he must chiefly depend on his own resources 

 for making his way in the world. 



Secondly. If he resolves to enter on the landscape depart- 

 ment whilst engaged in his usual avocations, he should not 

 only study works on landscape gardening, such as Repton's, 

 Gilpin's, &c, but he should make himself well acquainted 

 with the outlines of all trees and shrubs as well as their 

 naines, and should omit no opportunity of visiting fine parks 



as well as gardens and studying the effects produced by 

 trees when in light and shade, singly and in mass ; and this 

 will be of great benefit to him whether he succeeds as the 

 superintendent of a large demesne or follows the art of land- 

 scape gardening. The mere ability to draw pretty flower 

 plots may fit him for laying out small suburban gardens, 

 but will leave him quite at a loss how to grapple with more 

 massive effects as they tell on the beauty and picturesque 

 interest of a park or woodland scenery. 



Thirdly. Having commenced as a gentleman's gardener, 

 we would advise him to continue as such some time longer, 

 until his mind were more settled and be saw clearly what 

 would be best for him to do. Meantime, as stated above, 

 no time would be lost ; and such preparatory work might as 

 well be done in Scotland as in England, there being as much 

 to be learned in one country as the other. 



Fourthly. Do not run away with the idea that in laying 

 out gardens and grounds all is gold that glitters. No doubt 

 the landscape gardener is treated by his employers as an 

 artist and a gentleman, but that is a poor affair if it does 

 not put something reliable in the larder and the kitchen 

 cupboard. A few, very successful, may be able to keep their 

 carriage and an establishment in unison. Of all disagree- 

 ables, there is nothing to us more repulsive than the idea of 

 being forced to keep up the appearance of gentility, and 

 stinting, screwing, and starving to make that appearance. 

 Sooner would we wear the apron and the flannel jacket, 

 have a little in our pocket, and be able to look every man 

 honestly in the face. Amongst the number of clever gar- 

 deners we have known, who in their riper and best days 

 have left Cabbage-growing for the line, the level, and the 

 pencil, comparatively few have thereby increased their com- 

 forts or their emoluments. True, they were paid pretty 

 well when they had a job, and were then generally treated 

 with respect ; but when there was nothing to do the surplus 

 gains were soon exhausted in supplying their necessities. 

 Except a very few who rise to a high position and are con- 

 stantly employed, the most fortunate layers-out of grounds 

 are those likewise possessing a mercantile establishment. 



Fifthly. As to your coming to England. November and 

 December are rather bad times unless you were insured of 

 work beforehand, which is generally obtained through friends. 

 In some nurseries they are busy at that time taking up 

 trees, &e., and for a few weeks they will give employment 

 to any one that suits them. For anything like a permanent 

 job, that, however, can only be obtained by a good character 

 and letters of introduction, and the best time for that would 

 be early spring. The letters should come from your present 

 master, or the gentleman, or some of either of their friends 

 who know or deal with the nurseryman to whom you apply. 

 If you suited there, you might remain or be sent to some 

 gentleman's establishment where a young man was wanted. 

 It is next to folly for any young man to come to London 

 now without these letters of introduction. Even then he 

 should have a few pounds in his pocket, as we have known 

 young men tramp to every nursery round London and fail 

 to obtain a day's work. The very number seeking employ- 

 ment keeps wages down. 



And lastly. Whether you remain as a gentleman's gar- 

 dener, or resolve to be ultimately a landscape gardener, lose 

 no opportunity of improving yourself. Knowledge is always 

 to be carried about, and it will be your own fault if it ever 

 make you conceited and proud. The most intelligent man 

 is generally the most humble and considerate. Above all, if 

 your aim is high spare no effort to write clearly and cor- 

 rectly. In your short letter we detect eleven or twelve 

 instances of misspelling. This is a crying evil even amongst 

 some that write well, and is often done more from careless- 

 ness than want of knowing better. One of the best cor- 

 rectives is to take a favourite author, learn short periods by 

 heart, then write them down, and compare each word with 

 the printed copy. Many have thanked us for the advice, 

 and it is far from such dull and dry work as ever and anon 

 consulting the dictionary. In a short time the dictionary 

 may be pretty well a fixture as respects spelling. — R. F.] 



The Big Tbees of California. — Let us first walk upon 

 the ". big tree stump." You see it is perfectly smooth, sound, 

 and level. Upon this stump, however incredible it may 



