STYLE. 



51 



mended in this work, all of which changes 

 are contemplated, it wonld be a perfect 

 specimen of a garden for a country gen- 

 tleman. The plan is drawn on a scale of 

 1 inch to an imperial chain of 66 feet. 

 The following reference will explain the 

 details : a gardener's house ; b tool-house ; 

 c seed-room — over each of which is a fruit- 

 room; d balcony communication between 

 the two towers, of one of which, 6, is the 

 elevation shown above the roof of the 

 greenhouse ; e e, &c, espalier ; f f dwarf- 

 trained apples and pears; g <pp,g flower 

 borders ; h h flower beds with a row 

 of standard roses in front ; i i orchard ; 

 k h flower garden, through which the 

 principal entrance passes ; I gooseberry 

 and currant ground ; m space for green- 

 house plants duriDg summer ; n nursery ; 

 o pine-house ; p pine pit ; q q q vineries ; 

 rrr peach-houses ; s greenhouse ; t open 

 sheds ; u men's lodge ; v v offices ; x com- 

 post ground ; y principal entrance from 

 the mansion ; z secondary entrance from 

 do. ; 11, pump wells, which seem rather 

 out of place — a basin of water in the 

 centre, 2, would have been more conve- 

 nient ; 3, melon ground. One feature in 

 this garden, in which it differs from any 

 one we have seen, is the two lofty octagon 

 towers behind the north wall, one of 

 which serves for a staircase leading to the 

 balcony over the greenhouse, from which 

 the whole garden is seen ; the other is 

 used as a fruit-room, or may be used as 

 a tea-room, library, or small horticultural 

 museum. The gardener's house is com- 

 modious and comfortable — a part of gar- 

 den arrangements too often disregarded. 



There is water laid on to the hothouses, 

 but, from local circumstances, it is too 

 limited in supply ; and an evident neglect 

 has been shown in no provision having 

 been made to collect the rain water from 

 the roofs, &c. Cellars for roots, mush- 

 rooms, forcing sea-kale, rhubarb, &c, 

 would be an improvement if they had 

 been placed under the back sheds and 

 offices. 4 is section of gardener's house ; 

 5, section of garden walls ; 6, elevation of 

 the octagon towers. 



The flower garden here, very properly, 

 is outside of the kitchen garden, and oc- 

 cupies the space marked k k on the plan. 

 It forms the connecting link between the 

 garden and the park, and through it the 

 main entrance walk has to pass before 



entering the kitchen garden. The flower 

 borders, marked g g, along the sides of the 

 principal walk leading to the range of 

 hothouses, seem, as it were, a continua- 

 tion of the flower garden, which may be 

 said to terminate in the flower border in 

 front of the houses, the centre one of 

 which is a greenhouse. Had this house 

 not existed there, we would have wished 

 to have seen the side borders along the 

 principal walk, and those in front of the 

 houses, otherwise occupied. It ought, 

 however, also to be observed, that as the 

 sides of the principal walk beyond the 

 border are hedged off with a well covered 

 espalier rail, little of the kitchen garden 

 crops is to be seen. 



Hay's great error, as well as that of his 

 contemporaries, was not in general ar- 

 rangement, but in details. In none of 

 these did he err more than in the unne- 

 cessary height he gave to most of his 

 forcing-houses in front, and the high 

 angle of roof elevation which led to back 

 walls of great height, and to an internal 

 space not easily heated by smoke flues, 

 without heating them to an extent emi- 

 nently injurious to the trees that grow 

 within these houses. We have no great 

 objection to ascend a few steps on entering 

 a range of hothouses, but, having gained 

 the summit, we must protest against 

 having to descend again' and still more to 

 see the peaches so far removed from the 

 glass, or our eye so far below the fine crops 

 of grapes produced in these houses. 



This artist appears to have paid little 

 attention to a general ground-level, but 

 to have built his houses, for the most part, 

 upon the inclination natural to the 

 ground. Hence one end of a house is 

 often found three or four feet above its 

 level at the other end, — a sad mistake, 

 which can only be, and that imperfectly, 

 remedied by steps and stairs. 



The new garden at Poltalloch, on the 

 princely property of Neill Malcolm, Esq., 

 on the west coast of Argyllshire, Plate 

 VI., forms a square of 300 feet on the 

 side, enclosed within hollow 20-inch walls 

 of composition bricks ; the front and 

 side walls being 1 1 feet in height, while 

 that on the north side is 1 9 feet as far as 

 the hothouses extend, ramping down in 

 two breaks to the height of the side walls. 

 The walled garden is surrounded by slips 

 enclosed with a rabbit-proof wire fence ; 



