Deeember 13, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



475 



soothing vent in garnishing the place where the loved one 

 awaits a second life, were long unknown among us. 



Whitley Abbey is about two miles from Coventry. It is 

 a capacious Elizabethan mansion of stone, situated on rising 

 ground. It was here that Charles I. is said to have fixed 

 his station, when, in 1642, he ineffectually summoned the 

 city of Coventry to surrender. The stove and greenhouse 

 attached to the south side of the house, as seen in the ac- 

 companying engraving, are 60 feet by 25, supported by 

 pillars covered with Mandevilla suaveolens, Ipoma^a Learii, 

 Passiflora Buonapartea, Bignonia venusta, Lophosperinuni 

 scandens, and other choice climbers, trained also beneath 

 the roof from which they hang in rich garlands and festoons 

 of flowers and foliage. Smith's Giant Scarlet Geranium 

 covers a large space on the back trellis, and is 25 feet high ; 

 there are also magnificent specimens of Punch Geranium, 

 Fuchsias, Camellias numerous and luxuriant, with their 

 bright glossy leaves, and thickly set with bloom-buds, 

 and Japan Lilies in full bloom, with fine healthy foliage. 

 The Acacias are also worthy of notice for variety and good 



cultivation. The fine Gloxinias also require favourable 

 notice. In front are flower-beds on grass planted with the 

 usual bedding-out plants — Scarlet Geraniums, Calceolarias, 

 Verbenas, &c. Trained against the house, as seen in the 

 engraving, are large specimens of the White Banksian Rose, 

 Magnolias, and Glycine sinensis. In front of the lawn is 

 the lake, and by a tasteful treatment of its boundaries con- 

 siderable indefiniteness is obtained. At the head of the 

 lake is a natural rockery, secluded, and approached from 

 the pleasure-ground walk ; it is composed of arches mantled 

 with climbers, and narrow winding passages, steep and 

 abrupt, canopied and darkened with evergreens. The crevices 

 are filled with Ferns, seedling Azaleas and Rhododendrons, 

 Orchis, Primroses, Foxgloves, and other and more rare sorts 

 of British plants. The masses of Rhododendrons and hardy 

 Azaleas with other shrubs of trailing habit on the rocky 

 margin of the lake, which is varied by indentations and 

 projections, must appear gorgeous in spring when covered 

 with bloom and reflected in the water. The quiet character 

 of the lake, its caverns, and its rockery, combine to make 



WHITLEY ABBEY. 



this place a scene of picturesque and artistic beauty. It is 

 truly delightful to saunter through these lovely scenes with 

 a mind capable of feeling the beauties and the glories of the 

 creation, displayed in the insects climbing up the spiry 

 grass or disporting on the fragrant flowers ; in the scattered 

 fish, of various colours, poised on tennuous fins ; in the 

 feathered inhabitants of the grove that make the welkin 

 ring with their sweet music, and in the contrasted wonders 

 of vegetable life, " from the Cedar that groweth in Lebanon 

 to the Hyssop that springeth out of the wall." 



In the pleasure grounds are fine specimens of Evergreen 

 Oaks, Pinus excelsa, Deodar Cedars, and other Conifers, 

 planted by Colonel Hood, who was killed in the Crimean 

 war, and on that account they give a hallowed and melan- 

 choly charm to the place. 



The kitchen garden of three acres is some distance from 

 the Abbey. It contains three vineries and a Peach-house, 

 old-fashioned, but in good preservation, with strong healthy 

 Vines and Peaches. The collection of Pears numbers as 

 many as fifty sorts. They are to be seen against the walls, 

 also as standards and dwarfs. One fruit of Leon le Clerc 



weighed 12 ozs. ; Louise Bonne of Jersey and Eastei Beurre 

 were very fine. Plums on dwarf bushes were bearing heavy 

 crops, and the collection of Apples had that yellow, mellow, 

 yet juicy appearance so agreeable to the eye and taste. 



The park of 250 acres commands an agreeable prospect 

 over some extent of country, and is adorned with some mag- 

 nificent Beech and Oak trees ; one of the latter measured 

 15 feet in circumference 3 feet from the ground. " Oaks," 

 says Shenstone, " are in all respects the image of the manly 

 character. As a brave man is not suddenly either elated 

 by prosperity or depressed by adversity, so the Oak displays 

 not its verdure on the sun's first approach, nor drops it on 

 his departure : add to this its majestic appearance, the rough 

 grandeur of its bark, and the wide protection of its branches. 

 A large, spreading, aged Oak is, perhaps, the most venerable 

 of all inanimate objects." 



" Mark yonder Oaks, superior to the power 



01 all the warring winds of heaven they rise, 

 And Jrom the stormy promontory tower, 

 And toss their giant arms amid the skies. 

 While each assailing blast increase of strength supplies." 



