566 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I Bccember 20, 1888. 
result being :—First prize, £1, with the first class certificate of the 
Society, Mr. J. H. Walker, gardener to John Wesley Lewis, Esq., Hard¬ 
wick House, Nottingham. Second, 15s., with the second class certificate, 
Mr. Geo. Wilson, gardener to E. W. Field, Esq., Aspley Hall, Nottingham- 
Third, 10s., with third class certificate, Mr. G. Camp, Wollaton Hall> 
Nottingham. The Chairman, in presenting the prizes to the successful 
competitors, congratulated them upon the excellent manner in which 
they had dealt with such an important subject, and hoped the various 
opinions expressed in the essays would be productive of much good. 
Mr. S. Thacker offered a few encouraging remarks to the unsuccessful 
competitors, and on the motion of Mr. Walker, seconded by Mr. Wilson, 
a vote of thanks was passed to the donor of the prizes. 
-The annual dinner of the York Florists’ Society took 
place last Saturday night in the “ Old George.” The City Sheriff 
(Councillor Matthews) presided, and had with him at the cross-table 
the ex-Mayor (Alderman Ttymer), the Rev. F. Umpleby, Sir Joseph 
Terry, the ex-SherifE (Mr. S. Border), Mr. Cowper. Vice-President of the 
Society, &c. The Secretary (Mr. Lazenby) occupied the vice-chair. The 
usual patriotic toasts having been honoured, the Chairman proposed the 
toast of the evening, which was “Success to the Ancfent Society of 
York Florists, and all Lovers of a Garden.” He believed the Society 
was first established in 1720, and he need not tell them that it had 
had a somewhat chequered career. If it had not been for a few 
e. Lusiastic lovers of flowers it would not have been in exigence. 
'J. establishment of the Chrysanthemum Show nine years agi had 
contributed greatly to its strength. Its minor shows, by the kindness 
oE successive Lord Mayors held in the Guildhall, had been of such ex¬ 
cellence that they had been thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to 
with pleasure by the citizens generally. Mr. Key proposed “ The 
Treasurer,” and Mr. Fielding, the gentleman toasted, responded. He 
was happy to say that the Society was in a good financial position. At 
the termination of the last year they had a balance of £150; they had 
; on able to maintain their numerical strength. He was not aware, 
indeed, that they had ever been so strong as they were that day. 
The annual income by donations, &c., had been £120.. The money 
from the Chrysanthemum Show had not been so large as last season, 
but they had no great cause of complaint. The amount received was 
£140, and they would be able to pay their way, with possibly a £10 or 
£20 to add to their balance. Alderman Sir Joseph Terry next pro¬ 
posed “ The Secretary,” who understood from his daily avocations what 
ought to be done, and he was fully equal to the demands made upon 
him. Mr. Lazenby, in acknowledging the toast, said as they were 
aware he had from the time of his connection with the Society sought 
its extension and welfare. Since he joined it had very much increased 
in strength and usefulness, and was. in his opinion, second to none of 
its kind. He trusted it would keep on the fair way of prosperity, and 
that the members would co-operate to that end. 
LONDON’S LESSER OPEN SPACES—THEIR 
TREES AND PLANTS. 
(Concluded from page 402.') 
A somewhat bustling, decidedly not rural, road, from Oxford 
Street northward, is the Tottenham Court Road. We can hardly 
picture it to ourselves as it was less than a century ago, when it led 
to the old manor of Tottenham Court. This name, however, has 
no connection with the village farther off, but seems to have been 
originally “ Tuthill ” or “ Tottenhill.” The mansion, by turns the 
property of the Graftons and Southamptons, was on the east side 
of the road, the fields lying behind it being called the Tottenham 
Fields. On the west side of the road were the Bedford Fields ; 
both are now the site of streets and squares. In the seventeenth 
century the manor-house became a tavern and its private grounds 
a tea-garden. As a reminiscence, when the latter was cut up for 
building during the reign of George III. the new street there was 
called Eden Street. This locality is interesting to us, because 
Abercrombie, the worthy gardener, dates one of his books from 
Tottenham Court. Having taken a plot upon the estate near the 
main road, he carried on a nursery for several years bearing this title, 
until his infirmities obliged him to retire and become the occasional 
adviser of others. One of his fancies was to compose short pieces 
of poetry, which he put up here and there in arbours and upon 
walls, a line of things in which he has not had many successors. 
The district of St. Pancras, with Camden and Somers Towns 
adjacent thereto, is not only bare of venerable trees, but of any 
memorials of such, and the historian of London suburbs describes 
it as a bare, unpromising region, chiefly grass land, only here and 
there a market garden, but the side of one hill was set with fruit 
trees and trellised Vine'. Railways and depots, also an increase of 
houses, have so far polluted the air that gardening has become 
unprofitable, and I recently witnessed the clearing of one of the 
last plots at Camden Town upon which vegetables had been 
raised laboriously. As to the railway openings or cuttings, I may 
remark that some of these might be advantageously planted with 
trees or shrubs. This has, in a few instances, been done on the south 
side of London ; probably evergreens are preferable to deciduous 
species. But of lesser open spaces accessible to the public this 
district is remarkably scant; the only two of consequence are the 
ground of St. James’s Church, Hampstead Road, and the connected 
grounds of St. Pancras and St. Giles, a little further north. Situate 
in a populous district, formerly the churchyard of St. James’s, is 
much resorted to, though its extent is but three acres. It presents a 
peculiarity I have noticed in no other suburban garden, that its 
asphalted walks are each distinguished by names and geometrically 
planned. The method is also followed, which is observable else¬ 
where, of placing in the centre of most of the flower beds some 
evergreens and herbaceous plants, and outside these a circlet 
of bedding plants during the summer. When these are removed 
in autumu, as- the centre is not touched the beds do not present 
that bare appearance which in some of these gardens is unpleasantly 
noticeable at the winter season. Though the dark December 
days were setting in, here, as in a few more of our London gardens, 
the Chrysanthemums along the borders still had some of their 
blooms unwithered, though tinged with the smoke, and flaccid from 
heavy rain. The trees, not numerous, in this open space, are com¬ 
paratively young, and the kind most conspicuous is the Lombardy 
Poplar, lines of which have been planted in various directions. It is 
a tree which looks well up to a certain age in the London air, but 
after a time does riot' thrive as does the Black Poplar. 
The larger ground of St. Pancras church comprises seven acres, 
and it is sufficient to furnish employment to four gardeners and a 
foreman. But the picturesqueness of this garden is marred by the 
circumstance, that as many of the old tombstones have been left, it 
still retains much of the churchyard look. Curiously suggestive of 
the link between this district and the iron regions of England are 
the rockeries placed here and there made up partly of fragments of 
brickwork and partly of slag. Upon these have been placed a 
variety of plants, but only such as do not need a constant moisture, 
for they are dry rockeries. A very abundant plant was the common 
Moneywort, and the familiar Saxifraga umbrosa (London Pride)', 
suitable, because green all the year round in London. Some of the 
Heaths are specially suitable for such banks, though they will not 
always flower. In this ground the trees are not numerous. We 
find the Weeping Ash and the Willow, some Limes and Elms of 
moderate growth, and a few twisted Hawthorns. There are many 
evergreens, scattered, and in clumps. A pretty effect is produced 
in one part by a circle of Privet formed into a dense hedge, with 
inter-radiating lines of Thuias, Laurels, and other species. Some 
Yuccas showed signs of good progress made since they were put 
in, but, as is not unusual about London, Ferns refuse to grow 
satisfactorily. 
On the slopes north of Oxford Street, formerly Bedford Fields, 
to which we have already referred, once resorted to by duellists 
and foot-pads, also visited, it is said, by the City damsels, for the 
purpose of gathering herbs to be used as cosmetics, there are now 
squares, occurring frequently, and giving a semi-rural character to 
the locality. In one instance we have several open spaces in 
approximation, by the joining of Brunswick and Mecklenburg 
Squares to the garden of the Foundling Hospital and an old burial 
ground. Largest of all is Russell Square, with its ten acres, 
deemed by some the finest square in London. Euston Square 
contains seven. This is interesting as having been an old nursery 
garden in the reign of George III. At present these squares are 
jealously “ preserved,” but they may some day become popular 
resorts. Having been formed in comparatively recent times they 
exhibit few trees of any age. Bloomsbury Square has a tradition 
of a remarkably graceful and tall Robinia which was cut down in 
1800, and was supposed to have been planted by Lord Southampton 
soon after the Restoration. And the last of some old Pear trees,, 
which had once been in the gardens of Bedford House succumbed 
to time about thirty years ago. In most respects these squares 
resemble each other. Elms, Limes, Ashes, and Planes predominate, 
a few Chestnuts and Birches mingling with these, and the familiar 
Lilacs and Laburnums, w'hich one expects to see in every London 
garden of the old style. Such antique favourites amongst the 
plants as the Iris germanica, the common Golden-rod, and Dianthus 
barbatus are, however, yielding ground to the newer species. But 
I should like to see more freely planted about London the Coronillas, 
Hepaticas, Helichrysums, GInotheras, and other species I might 
enumerate, which will grow with proper management, even in 
poorish soil, and such as Ailantus glandulosa, Catalpa speciosa, 
