Book T. 



PRIVATE BRITISH GARDENS. 



10-19 



or upwards, and, in addition to the park and gardens, they contain a home or family 

 farm managed by a bailiff. The garden-scenery, as in the case of a villa, is managed 

 by a head gardener, sometimes more circumscribed in his operations, but always re- 

 spectably provided for, both as to his person and garden. The worst point attending 

 residences of this description is, that the business of gardener and bailiff is, sometimes 

 in England, and often in the other districts of the empire, united ; and the consequence 

 almost universally is, that the business of both situations is very imperfectly performed. 

 The master's object in attempting this union is obviously the saving of a bailiff's wages, 

 which, it is allowed, is an apparent saving, tliough certainly not always so ultimately. 

 The gardener and bailiff cannot be present at one time, both in the garden and on the 

 farm ; he mus.t pass alternately from the one to the other, and it may be questioned 

 whether the time lost in liis absence from both, while going between them or at market, 

 and from the one while on the other, does not more than counterbalance the wages of 

 a bailiff, independently of any other consideration. But the loss both to the farm and 

 garden, in cases of this sort, though not very obvious at first sight, is very considerable 

 when details are entered on. Xo man brought up as a gardener can at once become a 

 good bailiff ; and admitting that he may become one in time, yet he acquires his ex- 

 perience at his master's expense. It is generally imagined that a gardener makes a 

 good arable farmer ; but this he does not become without experience ; for though he may 

 know what good culture is, and may bring the fields of corn or green crops under his 

 charge into a state of good cultivation, yet he may do this at much too great an expense 

 to afford any profit. But the management of arable land is but a small part of a bailiff's 

 duty ; the grand object is the breeding, rearing, fattening, buying, and selling of live 

 stock ; and a knowledge of these parts of farming cannot be acquired imder several 

 years' experience. In tlie mean time, the losses to the master by bad marketing must 

 be most considerable. Suppose the gardener and bailiff goes to purchase a few scores of 

 sheep, and a dozen of oxen for feeding, every grazier knows that on the nature of the 

 feel alone, which no man can communicate to another by description, much of the value 

 of the animal depends. But a gardener knows notliing of this feel, and the tact of dis- 

 covering it is not to be acquired but after such a course of experience as no prudent 

 master, who knows any thing of the subject, would wish a bailiff to acquire in his ser- 

 vice. As much might be said on the* correctness of judgment required in selecting 

 animals to breed together, and in the shrewdness required for marketing ; the latter, a 

 duty totally inconsistent with the retired habits of a gardener. 



7441. Tliaf sotne gardeners 7nay hecome good bailiffs we readily allow, because a man of moderately good 

 natural faculties and persevering application, will acquire any thing ; but from the nature of the duties 

 which a bailiff has to perform, and the time he must occupy on the farm and at ni:^rket, it is impossible he 

 can attend sufficiently to the garden. We have never yet known an instance where the duties of both the 

 offices were well performed by the same person, but almost universally found both the garden and farm 

 deficient in the products expected from them. That the master is content is no proof to the contrary, for 

 knowing no better, he naturally considers what he has as the best 



7442. Fro7;i the country-gentlt iuan's gardener, ivlio does not unite the duties of bailiff, a good deal is ex- 

 pected ; he must know his' profession well ; he cannot probably from limited extent and means produce 

 all he could wish, or that a garden should afford, but what he undertakes to raise he must raise in per- 

 fection, according to the kind and season, and the main crops in suilicient quantity, because he cannot, 

 like the citizen's gardener, have recourse to Covent-gardcn, nor like the villa-gardener, surrounded by 

 neighbors, borrow from them melons, mushrooms, or asparagus, in cases of emergency. He has one 

 duty also which does not belong to either of these classes of gardeners, that of packing and sending fruits 

 and other garden products to town when the family reside there. 



7443. The mansion-residence may be considered as including all those between the 

 villa and tlie royal palace. The dwell inghouses are called houses, halls, courts, or 

 palaces, according to the custom of the country, where they are situated ; or castles, 

 abbeys, or Grecian buildings, according to their style of architecture ; and mansions or 

 palaces, according to their extent and magnificence. Tlie mansion-residence consists of 

 the -same parts as in the mansion and demesne (7270.) ; it may contain from five hundred to 

 ten thousand acres, or upwards, and the whole is managed in the first-rate establishments 

 by the follo\^■ing officers : — A secretary, who receives the commands of the master, and 

 conveys them to the honse-steward, who manages the expenditure of the house and offices, 

 and gamekeeper ; io the land-steward, who manages the tenanted lands, receiving rents, 

 and seeing to the fulfilments of covenants in leases, repairs, See. ; to the bailiff, who 

 manages the family farm ; and to the gardener, who m.anages the garden-scenery, in- 

 cluding the park, as far as respects the trees. and grass, and the internal plantations or 

 forests. 



7444. The gardener icho occupies a Jirst-rate situation has under him a forester, for the 

 demesne-woods and park-trees ; a pleasure-ground foreman for tlie lawns and shrubbery ; 

 a flower-garden foreman, a forcing-department foreman, and a kitchen- garden foreman. 

 A horse and two-wheeled chaise is kept for his use, by a boy, who also acts as his mes- 

 senger and house-servant. He lives in a respectable house, near the kitchen -garden, 

 with a stable and cowhouse not far distant. His wages are from 150/. to 300/. a-year, 

 independently of a free house, fuel, and other advantages. He should be at the head of 



