8 



SITUATION;, SOIL, 



[chap. 



in ^vhich it lies, A lofty sand-hill sheltered it to the north ; others, 

 in the fomi of a crescent, sheltered it to the east. It was well shel- 

 tered to the west ; open only to the south, and a little to the south- 

 west. A vallev let in the river Wey at one end of this secluded spot, 

 and let it out at the other end. Close under the high hill on the 

 north side, a good mansion-house had been built by the proprietors 

 who succeeded the monks ; and these proprietors, though they had 

 embellished the place with serpentine walks and shrubberies, had 

 had the good taste to leave the ancient gardens, the grange, and 

 as much of the old -avails of the convent as was standing ; and, 

 upon the whole, it was one of the most beautiful and interesting 

 spots in the world. Sir Robert Rich tore even thing to atoms, 

 except the remaining wall of the convent itself. He e^ en removed 

 the high hill at the back of the ^■aIley : actually carried it away in 

 carts and wheelbarrows ; built up a new-fashioned mansion-house 

 with ^rev bricks, made the place look as bare as possible ; and, in 

 defiance of nature, and of all the hoar of antiquity, made it very 

 little better than the vulgar box of a cockney. 



15. I must be excused for breaking out into these complaint^. It 

 was the spot where I first began to learn to work, or, rather, ^vhere 

 I first began to eat fine fruit, in a garden ^ and though I have now 

 seen and observed upon as many fine gardens as any man in Ens:- 

 land, I have never seen a garden equal to that of Waverley. 

 Ten families, large as they might be, including troops of servants 

 (who are no churls in this way), could not have consumed the fruit 

 produced in that garden. The peaches, nectarines, apricots, fine 

 plums, never failed ; and, if the workmen had not lent a hand, a 

 fourth part of the produce never could have been got rid of. Sii* 

 Robert Rich buf.t another kitchen-garden, and did not spare 

 expense ; but he stuck the walls up in a field, un-heltered bv hills 

 and trees; and, though it was twice the size of the monks' garden,. 

 I dare say it has never ydelded a tenth part of the produce. 



16. It is not every-where that spots like this are to be found : 

 and we must take the best that we can get, never forgetting, how- 

 ever, that it is most miserable taste to seek to poke away the 

 kitchen-garden, in order to get it out of sight. If well managed, 

 nothing is more beautiful than the kitchen-garden : the eififiest 

 blossoms come there : we shall in vain seek for fiowering shrubs in 

 March, and early in April, to equal the peaches, nectarines, apri- 

 cots, and plums ; late in April, we shall find nothing to equal the 



