JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 2, 1881. ] 
435 
2nd 
3rd 
Th 
F 
Royal Horticultural Society—Great Show (four days). Exhi- 
4 th 
S 
[bition at Manchester (seven days). 
5 th 
Sun 
"Whit Sunday. 
6th 
M 
Bath and West of England Exhibition at Tunbridge Wells. 
7th 
8th 
Tu 
W 
ARE WE PROGRESSING? 
HE thought has often crossed my mind within 
the last few years as to what would be the 
effect upon horticulture of the transitional 
times through which we are passing. Garden¬ 
ing is generally considered to be a luxury, and 
we know that the first effect of a diminished 
income is a curtailment of luxuries. How, then, 
can it be possible for our craft to keep its head up 
when the incomes of our wealthier patrons are daily 
growing less ? Well, I have come to the conclusion 
that a great deal has passed for gardening of late years 
which deserves to be called by another name, and that real 
gardening has been proportionally neglected. We know that if 
Mary Jane when she leaves the village school, where her happy 
face and clean pinafore made one of its brightest pictures, 
suddenly rolls in the luxury of some £5 a year, she very soon 
becomes transformed into a different if not a prettier being. 
So, I believe, our wealthy classes, the patrons of horticulture, 
have been luxuriating, and for a time at least have, in study¬ 
ing how to be grand, thrown away their own inborn taste and 
blindly followed fashions set by persons who in many cases 
have no taste or refinement whatever. 
But, “ Hurrah !" said I the other day on opening a circular 
headed “ School of Gardening," “ we shall have it all right 
now. The sons of our employers will have nothing to do but 
pay a couple of hundred pounds, take a few practical lessons, 
then come back and teach us how things really should be done." 
Being in the neighbourhood of this said school the other day, 
as I do not like to be behind everybody else, I thought I would 
call and steal a few lessons in advance, but I was sadly dis¬ 
appointed. The Crystal Palace is certainly, an elegant struc¬ 
ture and worth a long journey to see ; but I hope the next time 
I go, if such a punishment is to come upon me, that the 
terraces may be covered with 83,000 Foresters, as they were 
during my only other visit. School of Gardening indeed! 
Well, go if you wish to learn how not to do it. The teachers 
are there no doubt; one, indeed, is an old personal friend, who 
certainly ought to be efficient. But what should we think ef 
the London School Board if it gave all its attention to supply¬ 
ing teachers and did not provide books and other appliances 
for instruction ? Seriously, as a piece of ornamental garden¬ 
ing I pronounce the Crystal Palace grounds, as viewed from 
the terrace, to be an utter failure. The terraces are not in 
proportion to the building ; the beds are, many of them, in the 
wrong places and the ugliest possible shapes ; and the whole 
thing has a harshness which makes one feel indescribably un¬ 
comfortable, only relieved in my case by going downstairs 
and looking at the fishes. Judged, then, by my experience at 
the Crystal Palace, my answer to the question at the head of 
these notes would be a decided negative. But happily I had 
some of another kind. 
One of the things most noticeable to a countryman is the 
manner in which London itself is becoming ruralised. Trees 
are growing up everywhere as if by magic, bringing health 
and beauty where both are likely to be appreciated. A walk 
through Battersea Park, too, is a thorough enjoyment even for 
one who lives in one of the noblest parks in England ; and 
even the Royal Horticultural Society’s Garden at South Ken¬ 
sington, once a model of all that was ugly, though it would 
not be difficult to find some faults in it, is now becoming a 
very fair example of what a London garden should be. 
The best example of ornamental grounds which it was my 
privilege to see near London, if not the best I ever saw, is 
that in which "Wimbledon House stands, the residence of Sir 
Henry W. Peek, Bart. I will not attempt to describe it, but 
I advise all who like English gardening, as distinguished from 
Cockney and formal gardening, to obtain Sir Henry’s per¬ 
mission and take a quiet stroll in these beautiful grounds with¬ 
out delay, for I am sorry to hear they are soon likely to be 
invaded by bricks and mortar. Practical gardening, too, is ex¬ 
ceedingly well carried out at Wimbledon House, Mr. Ollerhead 
having many original ideas quite refreshing to one who does 
not like to always keep in the same track our grandfathers 
did without inquiring the reason why. The Orchids and Peach 
trees are marvels of cultivation ; and the Vines, although not 
up to Mr. Ollerhead’s standard of excellence, are such as most 
people would call good, and are still improving. 
Another establishment where I saw plenty to admire was 
that which was brought into prominence at Anerly by Mr. 
Wills, and is so ably presided over by Mr. Bause, the raiser 
of those grand Dracaenas which created such a sensation all 
over Europe a few years ago. I went fully prepared to see 
something good there, but I must confess that what I did see 
surprised me—house after house filled with one class of plants, 
and thousands of one variety in a batch so exactly similar in 
size and colour that they looked as if they had all been turned 
out of a mould, and that Mr. Bause and his assistants had 
nothing to do but stand them level and straight. The trade 
done in these plants is very great, and a house is cleared in a 
very short time ; so that with the exception of a few speci¬ 
mens to show their character there was nothing but young 
plants to be seen, and these had evidently been grown very 
quickly. Mr. Bause has recently turned his attention to Ferns, 
which he grows marvellously well, and he has some very 
promising hybrid forms of this class of plants. 
And now, what shall we say about Chiswick, dear old Chis¬ 
wick? Well, here a few years ago we had a very striking 
instance that wealth and the smiles of the great may lead to 
positive evil. Chiswick as a centre of practical experimental 
horticulture is something approaching perfection ; but Chis¬ 
wick depriving herself of her own life blood to clothe in gaudy 
and unbecoming colours her profligate foster-child at South 
Kensington was a pitiable object. Now, happily, misfortune 
has taught the foster-child to be less vain, though far lovelier, 
and Chiswick is once more a credit to the Royal Horticultural 
Society. Gardeners, pay a visit, learn a lesson ; and if, like 
myself, you cannot afford to become a Fellow, then pay a guinea 
annually and become a member, feeling assured that the money 
No. 49.—Yol. II., Third Series. 
No. 1705.—Vol. LXV., Old Series. 
