LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
205 
winter potato I would plant a little deeper, and earth up slightly. 
I feel convinced much of it does no good To cottagers, small gar¬ 
deners, &c., I would recommend saving all the refuse of their gardens, 
such as leaves, cabbage-stalks, and everything of that sort, to lay up to 
rot through the winter: if they have moss near, get that also. This 
will answer every purpose of stable-manure, and will cost nothing but 
a little trouble. 
May 2nd , 1836. 
I was passing by a cottager’s garden a few days since ; he was busily 
employed setting his potatoes, many of which had shoots two or three 
inches long. I observed, as he planted them, most of them broke off. 
I asked him if he thought they were good seed ? He said they were 
such as he had always planted ; but he had often had poor crops. I 
explained to him how it was. The man seemed quite surprised, but 
much pleased, and determined in future to adopt a different plan. 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
LETTER TWELVE. 
Dear Sir —I ended my last with a short description of the view of 
the abbey, as seen from the lower end of the front lawn. This is a 
truly picturesque scene. The irregular course of the river winding 
along its abrupt banks and natural channel—in one place rippling 
over a pebbly shallow—in another, arrested in a glassy pool—gives 
animation; while the stately and venerable trees which skirt the woods 
on each side, overtopped by the pines and firs which crown the heights, 
seclude, 'while they protect, the principal object in the picture. The 
site of this ancient establishment, like all others of the same character, 
commands all those circumstances which were, at the time of their 
foundation, considered indispensable—namely, shelter from the rigours 
of a northern climate ; a command of water, by which, in those turbu¬ 
lent times, the buildings could be secured by an impassable moat, 
except by a drawbridge; and, at the same time, the moat served as a 
stew or nursery for fish, so necessary to a Catholic ecclesiastical com¬ 
munity. The land in its immediate vicinity being, like the bottom of 
all valleys or sides of rivers, exceedingly rich, answered well for kitchen 
gardening and the culture of fruit-trees, so necessary also for such an 
establishment. Its situation in a valley gave, moreover, a better view 
