486 



MISCELLANEOUS GARDEN STRUCTURES. 



washhand- stand, water jug, basin, and 

 towel. Both bed and table linen 

 should be changed once a-week, and the 

 bedding cleaned twice a-year. It is 

 extremely desirable that an apartment 

 should be set apart for cooking and clean- 

 ing ; and into it a supply of water should 

 be brought, as well as a sink for the escape 

 of slops. In this apartment should be a 

 set of cupboards, one at least for each 

 person, in which to keep his provisions, 

 and these should be provided with differ- 

 ent locks. A clean jack, or round towel, 

 should be hung up in this apartment 

 every day ; and the washing, cooking, and 

 bed-making should be attended to by an 

 elderly female. The men should be pro- 

 vided with fuel and light ; and if the em- 

 ployer studies the moral condition of his 

 servants, the most useful practical books 

 on their profession should be at their ser- 

 vice. The rooms should be dry, and well 

 lighted and ventilated, the floor standing 2 

 feet above the ground-level, and boarded. 

 If a cellar be underneath, so much the 

 better ; and in a portion of this the cooking 

 apartment may be placed. In time of 

 sickness, medical and nursing attendance 

 (if the latter is required,) should be found 

 them ; and in the case of death, they 

 should be buried respectably. Some may 

 think these indulgences great ; we do not 

 envy the minds of such ; — and for prece- 

 dents we have only to name Dalkeith and 

 Drumlanrig Castle, where even more than 

 these reasonable comforts are provided. 

 As these pages may be perused by the 

 younger members of our profession, we 

 shall state some of the duties required of 

 young men enjoying those privileges; for 

 privileges they assuredly are, compared 

 with the dreadful dens to which many 

 are driven, and more dreadful influence 

 which an opposite mode of treatment has 

 on many youthful minds. The master 

 has a right to expect constant attendance 

 to duty night and day ; he is entitled to 

 insist on no outgoings at night to public 

 houses, or otherwise, without leave asked 

 and given, and to prohibit all Sunday visit- 

 ing. He has a right to require that those 

 who are not needed on Sunday for the 

 works of necessity, which in extensive gar- 

 dens are many, be recommended to attend 

 some place of worship at least once a-day, 

 without using any coercion as to what 

 church ; and that orderly conduct, clean- 



liness in person, and polite demeanour to 

 superiors, be insisted on. 



That great advantages arise from young 

 men visiting other gardens is unquestion- 

 able; and therefore, to enable them to do so, 

 we have long made it a rule that they shall 

 have any reasonable time, at convenient 

 seasons, and be furnished with letters of 

 introduction to other head gardeners, to 

 see the gardens under their charge. The 

 bothy system we wish to see completely 

 swept away ; nay, the very name obliter- 

 ated from our national vocabulary. 



§ 2. — THE FRUIT-KOOM. 



It is somewhat surprising, after all the 

 expense gone to in the formation of gar- 

 dens and orchards, the building of walls 

 hot and cold, the erection of fruit-houses 

 of all descriptions, which we see going on 

 from one end of the land to the other, 

 that after all these are completed, and the 

 fruit produced, there is not one garden in 

 ten, nay, perhaps less, where any reason- 

 able provision is made for its proper re- 

 ception and preservation. Why this 

 should be so is not easy to account for, as 

 the fruit-room in itself is certainly as in- 

 teresting a part of a garden structure as 

 any of those we have named. 



Upon this subject we find a great 

 diversity of opinions, some of them dia- 

 metrically opposed to each other, and not 

 a few scarcely consistent with sound 

 sense. To the sounder views on the sub- 

 ject we shall confine ourselves, as being of 

 the greater importance. We shall only 

 premise by observing that these things 

 are done differently on the Continent, 

 where great care is taken of their winter 

 fruit — pears and apples in particular — and 

 where a species of accelerating and retard- 

 ing, ripening and colouring, goes on con- 

 stantly, in itself an important branch of 

 horticultural science. The results are, 

 that in France and Germany apples and 

 pears are brought to the table in higher 

 perfection, and for a longer period of the 

 year, than with us ; and by this art of 

 retarding and ripening them at will, we 

 find certain popular kinds daily on the 

 table for several months in succession. 

 Nor is it altogether to the climate that 

 all this is to be attributed ; nor is it to 

 be attributed to their better constructed 



