280 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[February 0. 
For plantcs and for stoekes lay afore hand to cast: 
hut set or remoue them while twelve tide doe last. 
Set one from another full twenty fote square : 
the better and greater they yerely will hare. 
In the course of the volume he gives “ a poynte or two of huswifry ; ” 
and from thence, as well as from other authorities, it is apparent that the 
kitchen-garden was considered as specially under the care of the house¬ 
wife. He says, under this head :— 
In Marche and in Aprill, from morning to night, 
in sowing and setting good huswiucs delight. 
To have in their garden, or some other plot: 
to trim up their house, and to furnish their pot. 
Have millons at Mihelmas, parsneps in lent, 
in June buttrcd beans, saueth tish to he spent. 
With those and good pottage inough hauing than 
thou winncst the heart of thy laboring man. 
Of the tenants of the garden and orchard, Tusser enumerates of 
“ Secdes and herbes for the kychen ; herbes and rootes for sallets and 
sawse ; herbes and rootes to boyle or to butter ; strewing herbes of all 
sortes ; herbes, branches, and flowers for windowes and pots ; herbes to 
still in summer; neccssarie herbes to grow in the garden for physik, not 
reherst before,” above one hundred and fifty species. Of fruits, he men¬ 
tions many kinds of apples, apricoches, bar-berries ; bollese, black and 
white; cherries, red and black; chesnuts, cornet-plums, (Cornelian 
cherry ?), damisens, white and black; filberts, red and white; goose¬ 
berries ; grapes, white and red j grene or grass plums, hurtil-berries 
(Vaceinium vitis-idma), medlers or merles, mulberries, peaches, white, 
red, and yellow-fleshed ; pcrcs of many kinds ; peer plums, black anil 
yellow; quinces, raspes, reisons, (currants?), hazel-nuts, strawberries, 
red and white; services; wardens, white and red; walnuts, and wheat 
plums. . 
And here we must close this notice of one who may he justly termed 
the English Columella ; for, like him, he wrote practically on the culture 
of the soil, and, like him, clothed a portion of his instructions with 
verse. It has been suggested that he would have been more useful if he 
had written in prose, and so he might to the few, hut in that case he 
would not have been read and remembered by the many. His ” points,” 
like Poor Richard’s sayings, became proverbs throughout the land, and 
how popular they were is told by the fact, in those days of few readers 
and scanty literature, that in twenty-eight years—the time between the 
book’s birth and the author’s death—it had run through eight editions. 
That these tended to improve the culture of the soil of England there 
can be no doubts, for the rules they contain arc sound and practical, and 
written in verse were learned and repeated by many who had never been 
taught to read. 
Meteorology of the Week.- —At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 45.4° and 32.1°, respectively. The greatest 
heat, 65°, was on the 10th in 1831 ; and lowest cold, 3° below zero, was 
on the 11th in 1845. Rain fell on 78 days, and 90 days were fine. 
The above sketch is a faithful representation of the glass 
' pavilion, in which is to he accomplished this year the 
great reunion of the manufacturing skill and productions 
of all nations ; but faithful as is this sketch, yet it fails, 
as all pictures fail, in giving an adequate impression of 
vast extent. We had seen all the pictures of this pavi¬ 
lion, we had seen the ground marked out, we had walked 
around it whilst in progress, hut it was not until we had 
entered it when completed that we were fully and justly 
impressed with its magnitude. It is 1848 feet long, or 
1851 according to some authorities, and if so, being the 
date of the exhibition, memory is aided. The width is 
450 feet in the broadest part; the height of the principal 
centre roof is G4 feet, that of the adjacent side portions 
44 feet, of the outer sides 24 feet, and of the transept, 
with the semicircular roof, 108 feet, so as to enclose some 
of the tallest elms of the park. The ground-floor covers 
a space of 752,832 square feet (about 17^ acres), and 
the galleries provide 102,958 square feet additional. The 
total space enclosed by the building is 33,000,000 cubic 
feet. A good mode of realising any amount of space is 
by comparing it with some enclosure familiar to us; 
therefore our readers will he aided by the fact, that it is 
longer than either three St. Paul’s or Winchester Cathe¬ 
drals, with that of Carlisle added to the triplicate; and 
in width it is just twice as wide as Winchester Cathe¬ 
dral, and almost twice the width of St. Paul’s. If pur¬ 
chased, the price is ,£150,000 ; hut if pulled down and 
returned to the contractors, T79,800. 
We have noticed this striking feature of the year on 
various accounts. It is the invention of one of the best 
gardeners of the clay, and we rejoice in this for the 
honour of the craft. Mr. Paxton is an able engineer 
as well as an able horticulturist; and this union of 
acquirements suggested and enabled him to perfect his 
design, and it is another evidence of his skill and indo¬ 
mitable perseverance. From the time that he first 
attracted the Duke of Devonshire’s notice in Chiswick 
Gardens, where he was an assistant, by bringing a glow¬ 
ing cinder for his Grace’s cigar, until the present time, 
the same have been his characteristics, and the Duke 
has never swerved from the opinion he lately expressed, 
when he said, “I never knew Mr. Paxton resolve to 
undertake what he did not fully accomplish.” 
