S2 



JOURNAL (3F THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



wooded banks of the Thames, and covers an area of more than live 

 acres. It is a fine and big construction, midway between a rockery and 

 alpine garden. It recalls in its varied views and outlines the great 

 rocky masses of the Pennine Alps with a semblance of the bold peak 

 of the Matterhorn dominating the whole. 



The great work has been carried out by Sir Frank himself with the 

 intelligent collaboration of the head-gardener of Friar Park, Mr. 

 Knowles. Begun about fourteen years ago, this rock-garden has 

 grown into a remarkably faithful portrayal of high alpine landscape. 

 The picture — for it is a picture — owes its perfection to a right compre- 

 hension of proportion and of the artistic values of the mountain heights. 

 The dimensions of the plant masses, as well as those of the trees which 

 surround the whole, are in perfect harmony with the nature of the 

 stone and its lines of cleavage, while the scale of the whole composi- 

 tion is admirably proportioned. It is just these qualities of appreciation 

 of scale and proportion that are so rarely seen in such undertakings, 

 however large their extent may be. Inside these boundaries everything 

 is so well adapted to the alpine flora that one can see there the most 

 varied plants flowering in perfection. There one sees most hetero- 

 geneous specimens, from the Soldanella, Gentiana verna, and Androsace 

 glacialis of our Alps to the superb Schizocodon soldanelloides of Japan. 

 Side by side open the suave corollas of Daphne Blagayana (the most 

 beautiful specimen I have ever seen) and the other species, collina 

 alpino., striata, rupestris, Genkwa, and odora; the pansies of the 

 Alps and the Pyrenees ; the asters and the gentians of all the boreal 

 hemisphere; the delicate Omphalodes Luciliae by the side of the bril- 

 liant Zauschneria of California; the Ehododendrons of all the zones; 

 the rock Primulas, the Androsaces — ^in short all that belong to the 

 mountains of the whole world and to the Arctic and Antarctic. The 

 Orchids growing on the open ground are beside the hardy Cacti, the 

 pines, low-growing and short, scarcely attaining a few inches in height, 

 cover the blocks of stone which hide in their fissures the Sempervivums 

 or the most delicate Saxifrages. And the water which flows from the 

 heights of the Matterhorn sings the same sweet mountain cantilena, 

 so that we are able to imagine we, though here, are far, far away and 

 lost in the high iriountains. 



The stone used is what is known in England as millstone grit. It 

 occurs in great blocks that often measure several yards across. The 

 weight of the stone used exceeds 10,000 tons; it comes from the 

 neighbourhood of Bradford. 



Lord Henry Bentinck's garden at Underley Hall is well known 

 for its beauty and magnificence. I saw it one autumn five years ago 

 and again last year in the pride of the springtime. It is a real wonder 

 in the sense of "wild garden," and a creation of which I cannot 

 sufficiently describe the beauty and grandeur. Situated near Kirkby 

 Lonsdale, it extends over four acres, and to reach it one crosses 

 a fairly wide river in a ferry-boat. This garden stretches from the 

 river-side to the bottom of a wood of time-honoured trees. Though 



