Book I. 



GARDENS AND COUNTRY-RESIDENCES. 



1061 



7511. Of state of gardening in each of the different counties of the United Kingdom^ 

 the following notices are necessarily imperfect to a certain extent ; from defective inform- 

 ation some things are omitted, and erroneous statements may exist as to others. In the 

 selection of the names of the principal country-residences, some are undoubtedly admitted 

 which may not have that claim, in comparison to others which are excluded ; and others, 

 though they once had that claim, may now have it no longer, from neglect, change of owner- 

 ship, or even destruction as a countiy-seat. Most of the descriptive hints, added after the 

 names of country-residences, refer to the state they were in some years ago, some as far back 

 as 1805 ; and the changes in the names of the possessors that may have taken place since 

 that time must no doubt be the cause of various errors, though we have spared no pains 

 to avoid them. The descriptive epithets, added to the names of places in the southern 

 kingdom, are taken generally from the Beauties cf England and Wales (London, 26 vols. 

 8vo. published from 1801 to 1815) ; those of Scotland from the beauties of that country 

 (5 vols. 8vo. Edin. published from 1802 to 1809); and those of Ireland from The 

 Traveller s Guide (1 vol. 8vo. Dublin, 1819), and from the information of a correspondent 

 there, well acquainted with every part of that country. We have visited all the counties 

 of Britain ourselves in 1804, 5, and 6, and since been professionally engaged in several 

 of them ; and we have also made a general tour of Ireland in 1811. When any remarks 

 occur which are not found in the ])ooks referred to, they may, for the most part, be con- 

 sidered as the result of our own observation at these periods or since. From the limited 

 space that we can devote to this part of the work, these remarks are necessarily very few ; 

 we have omitted stating any thing as to the indigenous plants ; and said very little as to 

 the natural woods or artificial plantations of each county. All the seats which are of 

 established celebrity, and are, or were, what are called show-places, are distinguished by 

 a cross ( x ) : of most of these places accounts have been published in the local guides, sold 

 in country-towns. 



Sect. I. Gardens and Country-Residences of England. 



7512. The surface of England is estimated at 32, 150,000 acres, almost everywhere 

 cultivated, and nowhere incapable of cultivation ; in most places varied — gently and 

 beautifully in some districts, and abruptly and on a grander scale in others. The most 

 hilly and mountainous districts are those of the north, and the most level those of the 

 east. The most humid climates are those of the western and northern counties, as Lan- 

 cashire and Cheshire ; and the most dry those of the east and south, as Norfolk and 

 Sussex. The richest soils, and those in which gardening, as an art of culture, and as a 

 trade, has been carried to the greatest perfection, are those round the metropolis ; there, 

 within the circuit of ten miles, it is estimated (Lt/sons Environs of London, pub- 

 lished 1792 to 1796), 500 acres are employed in raising culinary vegetables ; 800 acres 

 covered with fruit-trees and shrubs ; 300 acres in medicinal herbs ; 500 as nursery and 

 florists' gardens ; besides not fewer than ] 200 acres employed by farming gardeners in 

 growing potatoes for the market; and 1200 occupied with turnips, cabbages, parsneps, 

 and white beet for milch-cows. Gardening, as an art of design and taste, may be con- 

 sidered as nearly equally advanced in almost all the counties. Some of the most highly 

 kept gardens and country-residences are in Middlesex and Surrey ; of the most extensive 

 and magnificent in Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Devonshire. The best 

 examples of cottagers' and farmers' gardens are in Essex, Kent, Norfolk, and Lanca- 

 shire;, the seed -gardens are chiefly in Essex and Kent ; orchards in Herefordshire, War- 

 wickshire, and Devonshire ; and market-gardens and nurseries are distributed according 

 to the extent and population of the different counties. These counties are forty in num- 

 ber, and we shall take them in the order of the circuits made by the judges, being that 

 in which their names are most generally associated in our memories, and that also in 

 which they are not unaptly classed in regard to beauty and character. 



7513. MIDDLESEX, occupies the north side of a vale watered by the Thames, and containing 179,200 

 acres, of which one part is clayey and another marshy, but the greater part productive. As containing the 

 metropolis, it may be considered the richest county in the United Kingdom as to culinary and flower 

 gardening. The depot or market, where chiefly these productions are exposed for saJ.e, is Covent-garden, 

 an open square, laid out with fixed temporary wooden shops and stalls. The vegetables and commoner 

 fruits and flowers are brouglit in by carts and waggons three days in the week, Tuesday, Thursday, and 

 Saturday, so as to arrive in the market between three and five o'clock; they are then sold by regular 

 salesmen to the retailers of the market, or to green grocers, fruiterers, and stall-keepers from different 

 parts of the town. In general the terms are adjusted, and the market cleared of the vehicles and horses 

 by ten o'clock or earlier in the summer, no more remaining in the market than what is found by the 

 different tenants to be sufficient for the local consumption. The more valuable fruits and flowers, such as 

 forced strawberries, peaches, grapes, and pines, and forced roses, hyacinths, and nosegays, during winter, 

 are generally sold by private contract to the fruit-shops in the market, or to others distributed in different 

 parts of the town. The principal fruit-shop is that of Grange, in Piccadilly, who is the king's fruiterer ; 

 the principal flower-shop that of Smith, in Covent-garden market. Besides the central market of Covent- 

 garden, there are others in different parts of tlie town, as the Fleet, Newgate, Borough, &c. which re- 

 ceive very considerable supplies of the leading kinds of vegetables direct from the country ; but the forced 

 productions, and the more expensive fruits, are generally brought to Covent-garden, when not dispose^ 

 of to the shops by private contract. 



