January 23.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
240 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
W 
D 
JANUARY 23—29, 1851. 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef.Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
i Barometer. 
Thermo. Wind. 
Rain in In. 
23 
Th 
Male Hazel flowers. 
30.449—30.397 
40—25 
s.w. 
54 a. 7 
30 a. 4 
mom. 
21 
12 
5 
23 
24 
F 
Woodlark sinss. 
30 . 370 — 30.168 
36-31 
IV. 
0.01 
53 
32 
0 
20 
€ 
12 
20 
24 
25 
s 
Conversion of St. Paul. 
29 . 993 — 29.721 
51—45 
1 s.w. 
0.14 
51 
34 
1 
33 
23 
12 
35 
25 
28 
Son 
3 Sunday after Epiphany. 
29.874 — 29.384 
51—21 
1 w. 
0.12 
50 
36 
2 
44 
24 
12 
48 
26 
27 
M 
Nettle Butterfly seen. 
30.452 — 30.316 
37—29 
s.w. 
49 
37 
3 
51 
25 
13 
1 
27 
28 
Tu 
Shell Snail seen. 
30.089 — 29.803 
49—33 
s.w. 
0.11 
47 
39 
4 
54 
26 
! 13 
13 
28 
29 VV 
Hive Bee flies abroad. 
30.003 — 29.879 
50—32 
1 N.E. 
0.08 
46 
41 
5 
50 
27 
13 
24 
29 
Landscape Gardening is the arrangement of the trees and other plants, 
water, and ground in the neighbourhood of a residence, so as to be 
beautiful and apparently natural. It is, therefore, as superior to land¬ 
scape painting as a reality is to a pictorial representation, and requires 
still more skill in the arranger ; for in the picture it is sufficient for the 
painter to delineate a scrap of pleasing nature in some happy conjuncture 
of light and shade, whereas the landscape gardener fails in his object if 
he does not arrange all his extensive compositions so as to be in some 
degree ornamental at all seasons, and at all times. Landscape gardening 
can only be practised effectively when there is a considerable space of 
ground to work upon ; and he who attempts the picturesque in the 
hundred square yards round a suburban villa only produces the ludicrous, 
for it is like attempting to write an epic poem on a page of paper. In¬ 
deed, we are far from admiring anything but geometric and Italian 
gardening close about a residence ; and even where the surrounding 
domain is extensive, we like best to pass from art to nature by degrees. 
All sudden extremes are displeasing, but few more so than stepping from 
a portico on to an unadorned expanse of turf; and Mr. Payne Knight 
was quite correct when he observed, “ The poor square edifice exposed 
alone amid spacious lawns, interspersed with irregular clumps, or masses 
of wood, and sheets of water, is a melancholy object—it neither asso¬ 
ciates nor harmonizes with anything.” Yet this was the prevailing style 
when the present century commenced. It had been the fashion in 
gardening, until the beginning of the century previous, to have nothing 
but an endless succession of parterres and geometric beds around the 
house, one such garden differing only from others in size and the number 
of such repetitions ; but when Kent, with better taste, retained some 
portions of these gardens, yet glided from them insensibly into the 
ground more naturally arranged beyond, he was followed by many imi¬ 
tators, who exceeded his examples, banished all gardening from round 
the mansion, and rendered it the “melancholy object” we have just 
deprecated. 
Foremost among the imitators of Kent was Lancelot Brown, a man 
of correct taste in some departments of garden designing, but infinitely 
inferior in most to his great predecessor. Yet he never confessed that 
any place was unfitted for landscape gardening, and he was right, if 
expense is no object. So constantly did he reply, whenever consulted, 
that there were “ great capabilities ” about the place, that he generally 
acquired the soubriquet of “ Capability Brown,” and laid himself open 
to the satire, in Village Memoirs y of being introduced as “ Mr. Layout,” 
a general undertaker of gardens, who introduced the same objects at the 
same distances in all. 
Lancelot Brown was born at Kirkharle in Northumberland, in 1715. 
His first employment was as kitchen gardener to a gentleman near Wood- 
stock, and though he moved afterwards to Stowe, and continued there 
until 1/50, Lord Cobham confined his exertions to that department. 
That nobleman, however, recommended him to the Duke of Grafton, who 
appointed him his chief gardener, at Wakefield Lodge, Northampton¬ 
shire, where his judicious formation of a lake first brought him into 
notice as a designer. Lord Cobham still continued his patron, and 
obtained for him the royal gardenership at Hampton Court and Windsor. 
He was now consulted by all the nobility and gentry; amongst other 
places he was employed at Blenheim, where by his easy completion in a 
week of one of the finest artificial lakes in the world, and other improve¬ 
ments, he rose to the acm& of popularity ; and the fashion of employing 
him continued until the period of his death, which occurred on the 6th of 
February, in 1/83. 
Whatcly, who was Brown’s contemporary, thus describes the alteration 
at Blenheim :—“ In the front of Blenheim was a deep broad valley, which 
abruptly separated the castle from the lawn and the plantations before 
it; even a direct approach could not be made without building a mon¬ 
strous bridge over this vast hollow ; but the forced communication was 
only a subject of raillery, and the scene continued broken into two 
parts, absolutely distinct from eaoh other. This valley has been lately 
flooded ; it is not filled—the bottom only is covered with water; the sides 
are still very high, but they are no longer the steeps of a chasm,—they are 
the bold shores of a noble river. The same bridge is standing without 
alteration, but no extravagance remains, the water gives it propriety. 
Above it the river first appears, winding from behind a small thick wood 
in the valley, and soon taking a determined course, it is then broad 
enough to admit an island filled with the finest trees; others correspond¬ 
ing to them in growth and disposition stand in groups on the banks, 
intermixed with younger plantations. Immediately below the bridge the 
river spreads into a large expanse ; the sides are open lawn ; on that 
furthest from the house formerly stood the palace of Henry II., cele¬ 
brated in many an ancient ditty by the name of Fair Rosamond’s Bower ; 
a little clear spring which rises there is by the country people still called 
Fair Rosamond’s Well—the spot is now marked by a single willow. Near 
it is a fine collateral stream, of a beautiful form, retaining its breadth as 
far as it is seen, and retiring at last behind a hill from the view. The 
main river, having received this accession, makes a gentle bend, then 
continues for a considerable length in one wide direct reach, and, just as 
it disappears, throws itself down a high cascade, which is the present 
termination. On one of the banks of this reach is the garden ; the 
steeps are there diversified with thickets and with glades ; but the covert 
prevails, and the top is crowned with lofty trees. On the other side is a 
noble hanging wood in the park ; it was depreciated when it sunk into a 
hollow, and was poorly lost in the bottom ; but it is now a rich appendage 
to the river, falling down an easy slope quite to the water’s edge, where, i 
without overshadowing, it is reflected on the surface. Another face of 
the same wood borders the collateral stream, with an outline more 
indented and various; while a very large irregular clump adorns the 
opposite declivity. This clump is at a considerable distance from the 
principal river, but the stream it belongs to brings it down to connect 
with the rest; and the other objects, which were before dispersed, are 
now, by the interest of each in a relation which is common to all, col¬ 
lected into one illustrious scene. The castle is itself a prodigious pile 
of building, which, with all the faults in its architecture, will never seem 
less than a truly princely habitation ; and the confined spot where it was 
placed, on the edge of an abyss, is converted into a proud situation, 
commanding a beautiful prospect of water, and open to an extensive 
lawn, adequate to the mansion, and an emblem of its domain.” 
It is only in a free country like England that such a man as Brown 
could raise himself from being a kitchen gardener in his youth to being 
High Sheriff of Huntingdon and Cambridge in his old age. Yet this he 
did by the honourable exertion of his abilities and industry, leaving to 
his son, who represented Huntingdon in Parliament, a large fortune, and 
living long in the remembrance of all who knew him as a man of high 
integrity and benevolence. He never went out of England, neither did he 
ever contract to execute his plans. He employed assistants to draw his 
designs, which were applied for not only in this country but in Scotland, 
Ireland, and even Russia. Repton has given a list of his principal 
creations, of which Croome Court, in Worcestershire, and Fisherwick, in 
Warwickshire, now destroyed, were the largest. The places he only 
altered it is impossible to ascertain. Improvement was the passion of 
the day; and there was scarcely a country gentleman who did not on 
some occasion consult him. The leading outlines of his plan were easily 
copied, and imitators innumerable arose to supply the demand for designs ; 
the spade and axe were at work in every estate ; and so rapidly did the 
face of the country alter, that in 1772 Sir W. Chambers declared that if 
the mania was not checked, in a few years more three trees would not be 
found in a straight line from the Land’s End to the Tweed. 
That Brown possessed taste to comprehend that which was pleasing, 
and genius sufficient to obtain such effect in some of his designs, it is 
impossible for an unbiassed critic to deny ; but, on the other hand, his 
greatest admirers cannot pretend that he even approached in any of the 
branches of design his predecessor Kent. By his opponents, however, 
he has been too much decried, as by his followers he has been too 
lavishly extolled. His management of the water at Blenheim can never 
be surpassed ; in this material of landscape it was that he was most excel¬ 
lent. In the management of the ground and woodland he was less happy, 
inasmuch as that he seldom varied in his plan. His declivities were all 
softened into gentle slopes; plantations belted the estate, while clumps 
and single trdes were sprinkled over its area- That these were planted 
without any consideration or object, which taste pointed out as desirable, 
it is unjust to assert; in many instances still extant a happiness of effect 
is produced which he must indeed have been a fortunate man to have 
obtained by chance. The new which he procured of Cheney Church to i 
Latimers, a seat of Lord Cavendish, demonstrates that he could create 
beauties, and renders any contrary supposition gratuitous. That he was 
not always successful is most certain, and may be allowed of any man 
without compromising his claims to the possession of a genius; but of 
Brown it must also be allowed that he undertook more than he could 
perform, for one mind, however fertile its inventive powers, could never 
have furnished fresh designs for the thousands of places which he was 
required to lay out. Unfortunately, his numerous imitators were without 
even a particle of his mental endowments; the art became most mono¬ 
tonous, and, as Mr. Loudon says, the professor required no farther 
examination of the ground than to take the levels for forming a piece of 
water, which water uniformly assumed one shape and character, and 
differed no more in different situations than did the belt and the clump. 
Meteorology of the W eeic. —At Chiswick, from observations during 
the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest temperatures 
of these days are 44.3° and 33°, respectively. The greatest heat, 56°, was 
observed more than once ; and the lowest cold, 17° 5 was on the 27 th iu 
1827. During the time 86 days were fine, and on 82 days rain fell. 
In our fourth volume, page 170, we announced the 
appearance of the first number of The History of British 
Birds, by the Rev. F. 0. Morris, and we then charac¬ 
terised it as one of a class we always welcome heartily— 
namely, the useful, original, accurate, and cheap; for 
cheap, indeed, are four portraits of birds, most faithfully 
drawn and coloured, with an ample biography of each, 
for one shilling. We wish we could convey to our pages 
No. CXXr., Vol. V. 
