A Visit to Chatsworth. 201 



a we would amuse ourselves by seeing Chatsworth, and 

 t one of the gardeners with us to show us every thing. 

 Where I shall begin with my description of the most complete, 

 st extensive, and best cultivated garden I ever saw, whether 

 • exotic plants, stove and hot-house fruits, kitchen stuff, hardy 

 f nits, or herbaceous flowers, I hardly know. You must 

 ccompany me, attended by an intelligent gardener, into the 

 two conservatories, attached as wings to Mr. Paxton's house, 

 which were filled, on one side with stove plants, all gigantic 

 but flourishing, and such as are in season in full flower, the 

 narasitical plants falling from the roof in clusters of flowers ; 

 on the other side, conservatory plants, among the most con- 

 spicuous of which were some Ericas (Heaths) standing two or 

 three feet high, and five or six feet in circumference, so covered 

 with flowers as to leave hardly a space through which you 

 could discern the leaves and branches. We next went to the 

 succession fruit houses, consisting of eight ranges of hot houses, 

 three in each range, and each range measuring two hundred 

 and forty feet long. In the first six houses were Pine-apples 

 in every state, from young plants to ripe fruit. In the next 

 six houses were Grapes, each house in succession to the prece- 

 ding one, and with the most superb crop of grapes you can 

 conceive. Then came Peach-houses, filled with fruit; then 

 Melon-houses, and last of all, Fig-houses, with full crops of figs 

 just ripening. These houses, though very interesting, I have 

 hurried you through to accompany me to the mushroom houses, 

 or rather cellars ; I dare not say what was the length of these, 

 but I should think at least one thousand feet. We next walked 

 through a part of the kitchen-garden, consisting of half an acre 

 of asparagus beds, quarter of an acre of onions, the same of 

 carrots, and the same of rhubarb, the finest I ever saw, and 

 every other vegetable in the same proportion. " Why," said 

 one of us to the gardener, " you can never consume these 

 vegetables ?" The reply was, " When the Duke is here, we 

 make a pretty considerable hole in them, when you recollect 

 we have one hundred mouths in the servants' hall, besides 

 from fifty to sixty at his Grace's table, and the stewards' 

 table, housekeepers' table, &c, to supply in addition." The 

 orchard also consists of eight acres, and contains the finest 



