u.] 



ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 



11 



plying the paper-mills and powder-mills, it fall into the river 

 Wey. The two end walls of the garden have plantations of trees 

 at the back of them ; so that, except that here is no ground, 

 but the terrace, which is not upon the slope, this garden, which 

 is said to have been laid out by Sir Philip Evelyn for some 

 member of the family of Howard, is everything that one could 

 wish. The mansion-house stands at a little distance opposite the 

 garden, on the other side of the brook ; and, though all the grounds 

 round about are very pretty, this kitchen-garden constitutes the 

 great beauty of the place. Here, too, though Evelyn might have 

 revivedj this charming spot was chosen, the garden was madey and 

 the cloister of yew-trees planted, by the monks of the Priory of 

 St. Austin, founded here in the reign of Richard I., and the estates 

 of which Priory were given by the bloody tyrant to Sir Anthony 

 Brown. 



SOIL. 



20. The plants and trees which grow in a garden, prefer, like 

 most others, the best soil that is to be found ; and the best is good 

 fat loam at the top, with a bottom that suffers the wet gently to 

 escape. But we must take that which we happen to have, avoiding, 

 if we possibly can, a stiff clay or gravel, not only as a top-soil, but 

 as a bottom-soil also, unless at a very great distance. Oak-trees 

 love clay, and the finest of that sort of timber grows on such 

 land ; but no trees that grow in a garden love clay, and they 

 are still less fond of gravel, which always burns in summer time, 

 and which sucks up the manure, and carries it away out of the 

 reach of the roots of the plants. Chalk, if it be too near to 

 the top, is not good ; but it is better than clay or gravel ; and by 

 the means of trenching, of which I shall presently speak, chalky 

 soil may make a very good garden ; for chalk never burns in 

 summer, and is never wet in winter ; that is to say, it never causes 

 stagnant water. It absorbs it, and retains it, until drawn upwards % 

 by the summer sun. And hence it is that the chalky downs are 

 fresh and green, while even the meadows in the valleys are burned 

 up so as to be perfectly brown. No tree rejects chalk ; chalk 

 is not apt to produce canker in trees ; and, upon the whole, it 

 is not a bad soil even for a garden, while, if it have a tolerable 



