VISITS TO REMARKABLE GARDENS. 
employed before ; and we believe we are within the mark in stating that these resoin'ces are Ulvely to clear 
the fee-simple of the estate within the next fifteen years. At the time of our visit, 487 men and boys 
were employed upon the estate, the wages ranging fi-om ten shillings to ten pounds per week. 
To proceed, however, with the subjects as connected more immediately with the object of this work. 
The park is spacious ; the surface is beautifully broken by imdulations, and containing some very hand- 
some specimens of trees, such as elms, oaks, thorns, &c., several of which, especially the elms, being 
remarkably fine. Upon a suitable knoU, commanding a fine view of the chain of Kentish hills, the 
mansion is now in com-se of erection, siuTouudcd by Terrace Gardens, fi-om the designs, and under the 
superintendence of Mr. Nesfield. That the arrangement of this garden will be highly effective, no one 
who has seen Mr. Nesfield's works can, for a moment, doubt ; but it is to be hoped, that in selecting 
plants for this terrace, he will ventm-e to depart fi-om the custom of by-gone times, and use some of the 
many new and beautiful shrubs now so numerous and appropriate, where plants of formal habit are 
requii-ed ; for, however necessary it may formerly have been to use only such plants as yew, box, 
holly, and the like, clipped, pruned, and tortured too frequently into very unsightly forms, there can be 
no such excuse now, when the researches of Botanical Collectors, and the enterj^rise of private in- 
di^-iduals, have placed within the reach of every one, plants, equally suitable, and far more effective, 
which, when properly planted, will requii'e no priming beyond the occasional use of the finger and 
thumb to curtail exuberant growth, and to make them assume at once suitable, but at the same time 
natm-al and elegant forms. In the front of the house in the park, a lake of some fifteen or twenty 
acres is to be formed, and for the purpose of siipplying it, as weU as the house, garden, &c., an engine 
is to be erected, to draw the water fi-om a spring some two or thi-ee miles distant, passijig in its com-se 
under the bed of the Medway, delivering it first at the house, and passing thence to the fountains f 
from the fountains to the kitchen garden, and forcing-houses ; from the latter to the farm-yard, and 
thence to the lake. 
Writing of the farm-yard, reminds us of a barn built A. D. 1100, the timber used being Spanish 
chesnut, which is in as fine a state of preservation as could possibly be desired ; and looking as little 
likely to be affected by the next, as it has been by the last 750 year's. In some pai'ts where the 
sap wood has been left, dry rot is making inroads; but, so far as we could ascertain, the heart 
wood was as soimd as could possibly be desired. Tliis is a good lesson for planters ; and it is to be 
hoped, that upon suitable soils, they will not fail to avail themselves of it. 
Running parallel with the park wall, and some two hundred yards from the south and enti-ance 
front of the house, is the Maidstone and London Road, and abutting upon this road, and in a straight 
line with the front door, the principal entrance gates and lodges are to be erected. This, we ventm'e 
to assert, is a great mistake, not only as converting the mansion into a mere road-side house, and 
exposing to every person the narrowness of the park in that dii-ection, but also by detracting ft'om the 
magnitude of the estate, by showmg a public thorouglrfare within a few yards of the house. Had the 
old entrance from IMaidstone been retained, letting the approach road wind gently through the park, 
showing in its com-se some nice bits of landscape scenery, and some splendid specimens of trees — 
enriching, at the same time, the sides of the plantations by the introduction of good evergreens, and 
single specimen trees of Cedi-us Deodara, and Libani, Ai-aucaria imbricata, Taxodium sempervirens, Cryp- 
tomeria japonica, and other of the finer kinds of Finns, Quercus, Crataegus, &c. ; and had the new 
enti-ance from London been made near the south-west corner of the park, taking- also a gentle sweep to the 
house, plantmg this also in the same manner, sometliing imposing, something rich, and different from the 
common run of entrances, might have been produced ; but as it is, the narrowness of the land is shown 
at the fh-st view, and a mansion and terrace of high architectui-al and artistic finish, instead of standing, as 
it were, in the centi-e of an extensive demesne, embosomed in rich and appropriate scenery, is converted 
by this one false step into a mere subm-ban villa, which only wants the accompaniment of a passing 
omnibus to fancy it on Clapham Common, or within the sound of Bow bells. If, for the sake of appro- 
priate finish to the south front, a straight line was necessai-y in that direction, why, then, a broad 
grass walk, with a double row of Cedrus Deodara on each side, woiild have been more appropriate, 
while a group of figm-es, an obelisk, or a temple, at the end of the avenue or view, would have given 
at once an artistic and harmonious finish to the scene. 
A new Idtchen garden, and a range of ten forcing- houses, -with appropriate pine, melon, cucumber, 
and other pits are ah-eady formed, which, together -svith the pleasure-grounds, must form the subject of 
another paper. In conclusion, we must not omit to remark that the practical direction of the gai-den 
is \mder the care of Mr. T. Frost, a brother, we beheve, of Mr. Frost, Lady GrenviUe's gardener at 
Dropmore. 
