172 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



the proximity of the Wood of Haarlem greatly increases 

 its beauty, and produces a charming effect. 



In Mr Hope's time, the garden was very confined and 

 incomplete. Louis had the merit of adding a new garden, 

 communicating with the former by means of an arch thrown 

 over the high-road, which passes near the house. This ad- 

 ditional garden is skirted by a broad piece of water, abound- 

 ing with fish. From a summer-house here, raised only 

 three or four feet above the level of the water, we could 

 descry the steeples of Amsterdam, — so uniformly flat is 

 the intervening country. On a small branch or canal com- 

 municating with the lake, a bathing-house, with all its con- 

 veniences, is situate. 



The collection of plants in this garden was never, we be- 

 lieve, considerable ; at present, it is very scanty, the old 

 lady having no taste for botany. The pots containing the 

 greenhouse plants were sunk in the earth along the sides 

 of the walks, to keep them from being overset by the wind, 

 or from being overparched by drought, in case of regular 

 watering being neglected. They were of the most common 

 kinds, and generally poor specimens. 



We had the satisfaction, however, to find, that more at- 

 tention is paid to the raising of fruit of different kinds. 



Apricots are not commonly forced with us ; but here we 

 saw a small glazed house, containing apricot-trees which had 

 this year been forced. There was a narrow back-flue for 

 fire-heat ; but the principal dependence for increased tem- 

 perature was evidently placed on the heat arising from the 

 fermentation of tanners-bark and horse-dung, in front-pits. 

 Our conductor, one of the gardeners, informed us, that, in 

 the end of April and beginning of May last, no fewer than 

 250 ripe apricots were gathered from one small tree which 

 he pointed out to us. As, however, this fruit, after being 





