SOME IRISH GARDENS. 



251 



Another feature at Woodstock was the famous old Dutch Garden. 



Not very far distant from Woodstock, and in the same lovely 

 valley of the Noire, is Mount Juliet. The " silvery Noire," as it 

 is often called, is famous for its trout and salmon fishing. 



Mount Juliet formerly belonged to the Earls of Carrick, a branch 

 of the famous Butler family. It is about eleven miles from Kilkenny, 

 and now belongs to General McCalmont, who has restored the place 

 to more than its former splendour, and has made the gardens amongst 

 the best kept in Ireland. The kitchen-garden alone is six and a half 

 acres in extent, and has now the largest variety of fruit trees of 

 any private garden in Ireland. But the main feature of the place 

 is a fine rock-garden, which is laid out in an open field. Round the 

 rockery proper are clumps of many herbaceous and bulbous plants. 

 The rockery has a never-failing stream running right through its 

 centre, which adds greatly to its charm, and all lime-loving plants 

 thrive exceedingly well. The rose-garden is surrounded by high 

 walls. The herbaceous borders and its walks are paved with stone 

 slabs, with some of the smaller Sedums, Thymes, and similar creeping 

 plants planted in the crevices. 



A garden justly famous in Ireland twenty years ago was the 

 late Countess of Kenmare's garden at Killarney. The mansion 

 was entirely destroyed by fire some years ago. Perhaps the finest 

 features of the gardens here are the magnificent hedges, both of Yew 

 and Cupressus macrocarpa. 



The Lily garden shows a beautiful combination of garden, park- 

 land, lake, mountain, and wood, which caused a famous General, who 

 had travelled the world over, to remark that it was " a combination 

 not to be equalled anywhere in the world." 



Hybrid perpetual roses were not a success in these gardens, but 

 China roses were magnificent. Such plants as bamboos revel in the 

 moist atmosphere of Killarney, practically all varieties succeeding 

 admirably, Arundinaria nobilis growing 20 feet high in five years from 

 home-saved seed. 



Derreen. — The Marquis of Lansdowne's place in Co. Kerry is 

 situated right on the sea coast of Ireland. Though I have not been 

 fortunate enough to visit Derreen, I have had charming accounts of 

 the almost tropical vegetation which abounds there, and, naturally, 

 such plants as bamboos and the choicer conifers do exceptionally well. 



The dimensions of some of the latter are very large. This is 

 not surprising in view of the warm and humid atmospheric con- 

 ditions. The rainfall averages 80 inches a year. In 1914 it measured 

 over 94 inches. This amount of moisture combined with a light peaty 

 soil gives excellent conditions for vegetation, but not exactly what most 

 of us would choose to five in all the year round. 



I am not able to illustrate the fine specimen trees and shrubs 

 growing at Derreen, but Mr. Arrowsmith, the present gardener, 



VOL. xlv. s 



