Book I. GARDENING IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 



95 



twelve acres. The lawn or park varies from thirty or forty to three or four hundred 

 acres. The whole is in general respectably kept up, thougli there are many exceptions 

 arising from want of taste, of income, or engagements in other pursuits on the part of 

 the proprietor ; or restricted means, slovenliness, and want of taste and skill in the 

 head gardener. These gardens abound in every part of every district of Britain, in 

 proportion to the agricultural population. 



437. The first-rate gardens of Britain belong chiefly to the extensive land-holders ; but 

 in part also to wealthy commercial men. The kitchen-gardens of this class may 

 include from three to twelve acres, the flower-garden from two to ten acres, the pleasure- 

 ground from twenty to one hundred acres, and the park from Ave hundred to Ave 

 thousand acres. Excepting in the cases of minority, absence of the family, or pecu- 

 niary embaiTassments, these gardens are kept up in good style. They are managed 

 by intelh'gent head gardeners, with assistants for the different departments, and appren- 

 tices and journeymen as operatives. A few of such residences are to be found in 

 almost every county of England, in most of those in Scotland, and occasionally in 

 Ireland. 



438. The rayal gardens of England cannot be greatly commended ; they are in no 

 respect adequate to the dignity of the kingly office. That at Kew has been already 

 mentioned as containing a good collection of plants ; but neither this nor any of the 

 other royal gardens are at all kept in order as they ought to be, not on account of want 

 of skill in the royal gardeners, but for want of support from their employers. 



439. Gardens for public recreation are not very common in Britain ; but of late a con- 

 siderable specimen has been formed at London in the Regent's Park, an extensive 

 equestrian promenade, and one at Edinburgh on the Calton Hill, of singular 

 variety of prospect. There are also squares and other walks, and equestrian promenades, 

 in the metropolis, and other large towns; but in respect to this class of gardens, they 

 are much less in use in Britain than on the continent, for Britons are comparatively 

 domestic and solitary animals. 



440. Of gardens for public instruction, there are botanic gardens attached to the princi- 

 pal nniversities and exijeri mental gardens belonging to the London and Edinburgh hor- 

 ticultural societies. 



441. Commercial gardens are very numerous in Britain, arising from the number, 

 magnitude, and v/ealtli of her cities being much greater in proportion to the territorial 

 extent of the country than in any other kingdom. In general, they have been origi- 

 nated by head gardeners, who have given up private servitude. 



442. Market-gardens and orchards are numerous, especially round the metropolis, and 

 their productions are unequalled, or at least not surpassed by any gardens in the 

 world, public or private. Forcing is carried on extensively in these gardens, and the 

 pine cultivated in abundance, and to great perfection. Their produce is daily exposed 

 in different markets and shops ; so that every citizen of London may, throughout the 

 year, purchase the same luxuries as the king or as the most wealthy proprietors have 

 furnished from their own gardens, and obtain for a few shillings what the wealth of 

 Crcesus could not procure in any other country ! a striking proof of what commerce will 

 effect for the industrious. Some gardens are devoted to the raising of garden-seeds for 

 the seed-merchants, and others, to the growing of herbs and flowers for the chemist or 

 <iistiller. 



443. There are fiorists' gardens, where plants are forced so as to furnish roses and 

 other flowers of summer in mid-winter. Tlie tradesman's wife may thus at pleasure 

 procure a drawing-room garden equal to that of her sovereign, and superior to that of 

 all the kings and nobles on the rest of the globe. 



444. Of nursery-gardens for stocking and forming new gardens and plantations, and 

 repairing or increasing the stock of old ones, there are a number in which a very con- 

 siderable capital is embarked, lliese have greatly increased with the increasing spirit 

 for planting, and other branches of gardening. The principal are near the metropolis ; 

 but they are to be found in most districts, originated in almost every case by head gar- 

 deners, whose capital consists of the savings made during their servitude. 



445. The operative j^art of gardening is canied on by labourers, apprentices, journey- 

 men, and masters. 



The labourers are women for weeding, gathering some descriptions of crops, and other light works : and 

 men for assisting in the heavier operations in extraordinary seasons. The permanent sub-operatives are 

 the apprentices and journeymen ; the former are indentured generally for three years, at the expiration 

 of which they become journeymen, and after a few years' practice in that capacity, in different gardens, 

 they are considered qualified for being masters, or taking the charge of villa, private, or first-rate gardens 

 according to their capacity, education, and assiduity, and the class of gardens in which they have studied 

 and practised. Formerly there were lodges, or societies of gardeners, and a sort of mystic institution and 

 pass-word kept up, like those of the German gardeners and masons ; but within tlie last fifty years this has 

 been in most places given up. The use of books, and the general progress of society, render such institu- 

 tions useless in point of knowledge and hospitality, and injurious politically, or in respect to the market- 

 value of labor. {Preston's History of Masonry.) 



