November as, 1864. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



435 



DLNOKBEN HOUSE. 



In times gone by it was usual to look for good gardening 

 only in retired country places, where the smoke of factories 

 and the dust of much-used thoroughfares never found their 

 way, and when many gardening requirements, especially for 

 forcing purposes, were only to be had in such rural retreats. 

 Oak and Beech leaves for supplying bottom heat and subse- 

 quently furnishing leaf mould, were only to be had in quan- 

 tity in places where they grew, and many other things 

 wanted in a garden, as stakes of all kinds, were only to be 

 obtained where grown. However, times have altered ; the 

 most bulky commodities are removed long distances with 

 ease and economy, and the benefits of one neighbourhood 

 are brought home to another. Facilities for gardening are 

 now as much at the command of the suburban dweller as of 

 those further removed ; and we often see villa residences 

 in fashionable neighbourhoods possessing all the require- 

 ments of country places of longer standing. A plot of ground 

 of no great extent is made to combine park, pleasure ground, 

 and garden; and the natural features of the locality being 

 often judiciously blended in, the whole frequently presents 

 effects that may be copied elsewhere. Amongst such sub- 

 urban dwellings we now and then meet with some which 

 claim a higher position alike for their extent and the taste 

 and skill displayed in their management or arrangement. 

 Conspicuous amongst these is that to which I now call 

 attention, and which from its many artistic features will 

 well repay a visit. 



Dinorben House, the residence of — Reed, Esq., is beau- 

 tifully situated on the slope of a hill a little distance from 

 Tunbridge Wells. The site of the mansion is the side of 

 one of those eminences which give the district around this 

 fashionable town so richly varied an aspect. The house 

 itself is new — in fact it may be said to be still in the builder's 

 bands from the great number of workmen about it ; but when 

 finished it will no doubt present a noble aspect, and for 

 many generations remain a monument of the taste of its 

 founder. It is hardly my province to enter upon the 

 architectural features, but I may state that the mansion 

 is faced with Caen stone of the best quality, which, as every 

 one knows, is the most suitable for the highest description 

 of decorative work. I need hardly say that such has been 

 largely introduced without at the same time running into 

 any of the superfluities which defeat the purpose of or- 

 namentation, and of which in the present age we have 

 certainly many examples ; but here a sufficiency of plain 

 surfacing has been reserved to give solidity to the whole, 

 while ornament where really wanted has been furnished 

 with no sparing hand. The mansion, which faces the south- 

 east, is approached from the contrary direction by a car- 

 riage road making a curve round the high ground at the 

 back. The entrance-gates, which are very handsome, open 

 from the high road leading from Tunbridge Wells to Pem- 

 bury. The width of this road gives no little importance 

 to the villas and mansions to which it affords access ; while 

 the scrupulous cleanliness of the whole, the salubrity of the 

 air, the picturesque scenery, and, certainly not the least, 

 the fashionable company by which the various tenements 

 are occupied, all tend to give this district an appearance of 

 wealth which only the higher class of watering-places present. 

 The example set by the proprietor of Dinorben House has 

 evidently had a great effect in inducing others to build in the 

 same neighbourhood, and mansions of greater or less claims 

 to notice are rising in various directions. 



As I have just remarked, the mansion faces the south- 

 east, and is sufficiently removed from the highway to secure 

 the requisite degree of privacy. The ground at the back of 

 the house, now in a transition state, will doubtless hereafter 

 he rendered attractive by the many valuable trees removed 

 there, Mr. Reed having for years been an extensive pur- 

 chaser of fine specimens of Pinuses and other trees ; and some 

 good examples of successful transplanting were pointed out 

 to me, amongst others was an Araucaria imbricata about 

 35 feet high, which had been three times transplanted in 

 the last seven years. This, however, was not on the plot of 

 ground alluded to, neither had the various removals which 



the tree had undergone been beneficial to it, although its 

 appearance was better than could have been expected in the 

 case of a tree which had been so often subjected to such an 

 ordeal. 



Between the mansion and the high road is situated the 

 kitchen garden, in which are some good, useful hothouses. 

 The Grapes are particularly fine ; in fact, I should say by 

 the appearance of the Vines, that the soil of the neighbour- 

 hood seemed better adapted to their well-being than most 

 of the mixtures that are compounded at so much cost else- 

 where. A very short distance from Dinorben House is 

 the garden whence Mr. Drummond sent some remarkably 

 fine Black Hamburgh and Muscat Grapes to the London 

 shows two years ago, winning the first prizes in his class ; 

 and when I state that those at Dinorben House were scarcely 

 inferior, I need say no more in their favour. The trees and 

 other things in the garden were also good, and a conserva- 

 tory adjoining the mansion was well furnished with flowering 

 plants ; but the principal feature of the place was the pic- 

 turesque grounds fronting the mansion, and stretching a 

 considerable distance to the right and left of it. 



The mansion being on a ridge, the descent ends in a 

 valley, the ground rising again on the opposite side. la 

 this valley the spirited proprietor has at great cost formed a 

 fine piece of ornamental water of some three or four acres in 

 extent, and so contrived as to present a more natural ap- 

 pearance than most artificial sheets of water. A judicious 

 disposition of trees and shrubs about it, with a very large 

 amount of excavation, have rendered it as a whole a3 highly 

 ornamental as its limited size will admit. The ground at 

 the opposite side of the water has likewise not been for- 

 gotten in the liberal disposition of shrubs and trees, while 

 the more dressed side nearer the house has been rendered 

 highly interesting by the excavations and embankments, 

 rendered necessary by the artificial damming up of the water, 

 having been tastefully formed into rockwork. This has not 

 been frittered away into whimsical combinations, of which we 

 see so many examples, but has the more plain and solid ap- 

 pearance which natural scenery in an undisturbed state 

 presents at places to our view, the only difference being 

 in the class of plants which are grown. These consist 

 of a liberal quantity of Pampas Grass, Cotoneaster, Juni- 

 perus, double Furze, on the higher and drier places, and 

 many other plants, with some weeping deciduous plants 

 overhanging the whole. In one of the groups I noticed a 

 fine specimen of Aralia in beautiful flower, and as shrubs 

 flowering in October are far from numerous, it would be well 

 if those intending planting would secure plants of this 

 pretty shrub, which, together with Ligustruin japonicum, 

 and some others, form fine objects at this season. Return- 

 ing from this digression, I may observe that the rockwork * 

 and its accompaniments formed a pleasing object by the edge 

 of the water ; and where this emptied itself into a lower level 

 a waterfall was provided, and the water was subsequently con- 

 veyed through other channels to an artificial basin, forming 

 a feature that will be described hereafter. 



I have said that considerable addition is being made to 

 the mansion, and numbers of workmen were busily em- 

 ployed. A large force was also engaged in removing earth 

 immediately in front of the house, preparatory, I believe, to 

 a terrace with balustrading, &c, being formed, and probably 

 below this a geometrical garden, but of this I am not certain. 

 Operations are going on over a considerable part of the space 

 between the mansion and the shrubbery forming the screen- 

 work to the rockery at the extremity of the lake. Eastward, 

 however, of this there was a large space which had been 

 planted some years, and the health and vigour of the trees 

 told that the treatment they had received, had been to their 

 liking. The natural inclination of the ground being to the 

 south-east, an avenue of Deodar Cedars formed the extreme- 

 eastern boundary of the dressed ground in that quarter, 

 the ground descending in a somewhat uniform fall of, per- 

 haps, one in eight or nine, for about two hundred yards to 

 the bottom, where a handsome basin received the water that 

 passed from the lake above alluded to, which in some unseen 



