48 



GENERAL FORMATION, &c, OF GARDENS. 



This is an instance of a well laid out 

 garden, in which the arrangements are 

 adapted to the natural disposition of the 

 ground -level and situation, without 

 being shaded ; and, although now in a 

 state almost of ruin, it offers the best 

 specimens we know of, excepting Hope- 

 toun House garden, of one of such size 

 and pretensions laid out in the irregular 

 style. With improvements in heating 

 the hothouses and pits, and a few other 

 modern additions and amendments in 

 these structures, this might be made a 

 garden of peculiar interest. 



In gardens of an irregular form, all 

 dead walls of buildings within them 

 should be carefully avoided ; and hence 

 the span-roof, or ridge -and- furrow prin- 

 ciple, should be carried out in all glass- 

 houses, having the sides all round glass 

 to within a foot of the ground, so that 

 these structures, from whatever part of 

 the ground they are viewed, may be seen 

 with equal advantage. This can more 

 readily be accomplished, as the necessary 

 accommodations of potting sheds, &c, 

 may be in cellars under ground. 



As a specimen of a fruit and culinary 

 garden combined, with little pertaining 

 to the flower garden, we may instance 

 that of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn 

 Abbey. This is thus detailed by Mr 

 Forbes in his excellent description of the 

 gardens and grounds of that princely re- 

 sidence, published under the very appro- 

 priate title of " Hortus Woburnensis " : — 

 " The space enclosed within the walls 

 contains about four English acres, and is a 

 parallelogram in form, surrounded by a 

 broad slip, which, being planted with a 

 selection of the best sorts of apples and 

 pears, as standards, gives the exterior of 

 the garden the appearance of an orchard." 

 This garden, as is usual with those of the 

 same extent, is divided into four quarters, 

 having a single row of fruit trees planted 

 along the sides of the walks, and trained 

 in the French or weeping form, quenouille, 

 which checks the flow of the sap, and 

 throws the trees into a bearing state much 

 sooner than if they are allowed to grow 

 in the natural or upright form. Trees 

 thus trained never attain a great diame- 

 ter through their branches, and, there- 

 fore, they cause much less shade or inter- 

 ception of the sun and air to the vegetables 

 growing around or underneath them. 



The hothouses occupy the greater part 

 of the south side of the north wall, ter- 

 minating at one end by Mr Forbes's house : 

 this wall at both ends of the hothouses is 

 built hollow, and heated with hot-water 

 pipes, (vide Hot Walls.) The for- 

 cing-ground is in the rear, but at a 

 sufficient distance so as not to be shaded 

 during winter. This department consists 

 of three ranges of pits, two of which ex- 

 tend to about half the length of the gar- 

 den, and are heated by dung linings in 

 the usual way. The two pits farthest 

 back are heated by hot water, and the 

 spaces between them are paved with 

 bricks, which appear to be the best mate- 

 rial the situation affords. "An apartment 

 is fitted up in the centre of the range of 

 hothouses for the entertainment of com- 

 pany in the fruit season : the ceiling of 

 this room is ornamented by paintings of 

 several kinds of birds, and the floor is in- 

 laid with different kinds of oak. On the 

 walls are hung two magnificent fruit- 

 pieces, painted by G. Lance, Esq., whose 

 accuracy in the delineation of fruit is uni- 

 versally admired." 



Few gardens have so complete a range 

 of offices behind as this has. It would 

 have been, however, more complete had 

 a range of cellars been carried under 

 them, as exemplified at Dalkeith. The 

 offices at Woburn consist of open cart- 

 sheds, tool-house, foreman's room — the 

 latter word we would rather have had to 

 read in the plural — onion-room, root- 

 room, store-room, room for dessert apples 

 and pears, room for kitchen apples and 

 pears, seed-room, office, &c. The head 

 gardener's house is placed outside the 

 north-west corner, and is one of the best 

 in the kingdom. The principal range of 

 glass consists of three vineries in 28, 35, 

 and 39 feet lengths, and 12 feet in width, 

 at one end ; and at the other, three peach- 

 houses of the same dimensions, having 

 between them a citron or lemon house 

 and a fig-house. In the centre of the range 

 is the room for company noticed above, 

 with a commodious waiting-room behind. 

 In the melon ground is placed a pinery 

 for fruiting plants, a range for succession 

 plants for the same, with other pits for 

 bringing on the younger stock, as well as 

 for melons, cucumbers, &c, to which 

 latter purpose there is a considerable ex- 

 tent of ground devoted. 



