THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 13. 
Class 14.—HAMBURGH. Gold or Silver-pencilled. Any age. 
160. First prize, Mr. T. Whittington, jun., Hcnley-in-Arden. 1“9* 
Second prize, Mr. T. Whittington, jun., Henley-in-Arden. 
Class 15.—HAMBURGH. Gold or Silver-spangled. Any age. 
200. First prize, Mr. Joseph Jordan, Birminghtn. 193. Second prize, 
Mr. Joseph Jordan, Birmingham. 
Class 16 .—POLANDS, with White Crests. Any age. 
204. Prize, Mr. John Westwood, Walsall. 
Class 17*—POLAND. Golden-spangled. Any age. 
205. Prize, Mr. Rawson, Walton-on-Thames. 
Class 18.—POLAND. Silver-spangled. Any age. 
209. Prize, Mr. Rawson, Walton-on-Thames. 
(The whole Class highly meritorious.) 
Class 20.—ANY OTHER VARIETY. 
219. Prize, Mr. John Dain, Hcnley-in-Arden. (Black Bantams.) 
220. Prize, Mr. Henry Herbert, Powick. (Cuckoo Fowls.) 221. Prize, 
Mr. C. Thorold, Twyning Park, Tewkesbury. (White Bantams or Dwarf 
Polands!) 
Class 21.—GEESE. Hatched in 1853. 
250. Prize, Mrs. H. Hill, Stretton Grandison. (Irish and Toulouse.) 
Class 22.—DUCKS (Aylesbury). Hatched in 1853. 
261. Prize, Mr. W. G. Breavington, Hounslow. 
Class 24.—ANY USEFUL FOWL. Hatched in 1853. 
(Confined to Worcestershire Farmers.) 
224. First prize, Mr. James Bennett, Cow ley Park. 230. Second prize, 
Miss Racstcr, Mathon Park. 
Class 25.—ANY USEFUL FOWL. More than one year old. 
(Worcestershire Farmers.) 
235. First prize, Mr. Joseph Jones, Cockshoot Farm. 237. Second 
prize, Mrs. Need, Barnard’s Green. 
COTTAGERS CLASSES. 
Class 1.—CHICKENS OF 1853. 
271. First prize, William Brewer, The Link. 270 . Second prize, 
Abigail Pitt, Mathon. 268. Third prize, Henry Pitt, West Malvern. 
Class 2 .—MORE THAN ONE YEAR OLD. 
273. First prize, Mary Cross, Valley Cottage, Malvern. 275. Second 
prize, William Brewer, The Link. 276 . Third prize, Charles Thomas, 
Mason’s Farm. 
Class 3.—GEESE. 
282. First prize, Susan Burrows, Newland. 280. Second prize, Henry 
Griffiths, Malvern Common. 281. Third prize, Eliza Tudge, Malvern 
Link. 
Class 4.—DUCKS. 
290. First prize, George Robinson, The Link. 291. Second prize, 
William Brewer, The Link. 289. Third prize, Thomas Burrows, Pool 
Brook. 
HOGG’S EDGING TILES. 
A\ hen a man or woman goes from home on a sight-seeing 
journey, neither of them ought to close their eyes, as some 
people do, who do not care to see the value of a straw on 
either side of the way, unless that straw happens to belong, 
in some way or other, to their own peculiar hobbies; no 
matter how eccentric or useless such hobbies may appear 
to the rest of the world, or to their own fellow-travellers; 
and if that be true about trifles, how much more wide-awake 
ought every one to be in the midst of facts and circum¬ 
stances pertaining to his own calling or craft. 
When I went down into Suffolk, the other day, to see the 
improvements at Shrubland Park, the ruling passion broke 
out all over me, the moment I got clear of the London 
smoke, on seeing the plague and pestilence to which the 
Essex farmers are exposed by the carelessness, or indiffer¬ 
ence, of the Managers of the Eastern Counties Railway— 
“Colchester line"—in allowing the common Ragwort to grow 
and seed along the banks of their Colchester line down to 
opposite Mr. Mechi’sfarm, when Mr. Meclii.and all othergood 
farmers, know, or ought to know, that this is the most trou¬ 
blesome and exhausting weed their lands can be infested 
with; and that the seeds from one ordinary-sized plant of 
this ragged weed are sufficient to infect fifty acres of land. 
“ Thinks I to myself," if it is too costly to root out this pest 
from the banks, surely they might get boys, or some aged 
grandmammas, to cut off the flowering heads with old hooks, 
and burn them, for nothing short of burning will prevent 
the ripening of the seeds, when once the flowers open on 
the plant. After these weeds, whole fields of turnips, sown 
broadcast on the level, increased my uneasiness, and my 
reflections on special remedies for such wastries, as they say 
in Scotland. And thus I went on all through the journey, 
29 
like a man on a voyage of discovery, who met, at every turn, 
with things as they ought not to be, and resolving, in his 
own mind, how they ought, and should be, and would hr, if 
he had the ordering about their management. As soon, 
however, as I saw the effect produced, by Sir Charles Barry, 
with his massive stone curbs or edgings to the flower-beds 
in the balcony garden, at Shrubland Park, I altered my tune, 
and “Says I to myself," our Box edgings are not the real 
thing after all; the clinging to them is an inborn prejudice 
among us gardeners ; no edgings are, or can hardly be, more 
expensive than those of Box; and without great care they 
soon get ragged, and out of joint, and look anything but 
creditable to a garden. 
The next thought was, where is the money to come from 
for buying stone edgings, if I made up my mind to recom¬ 
mend none other in the Cottage Gardener ? for, I must 
confess, that very little persuasion would induce me, then 
and there, to proclaim war and warfare against Box edgings 
all over the face of the country; or if they could be tole¬ 
rated in dressed grounds, they must needs be no less than 
four inches high above the gravel, square on the top, and 
not narrower than six inches, and for every two inches more 
in breadth, the rise ought to be one quarter-of-an-incli, and 
no more. So, that in the long run, stone edgings would be 
cheaper oven than Box ones on this plan ; and even dearer 
in the vicinity of large towns, where Box is always of more 
value than it is far away in the country. It is also more 
liable to go off near towns, and consequently is more trou¬ 
blesome to keep in proper repair in suburban gardens; 
hence the turn to slate edgings of late years round London, 
and other largo towns; but ordinary slate edgings are ob¬ 
jected to on two grounds : the want of cheering colour, and 
the want of anything like massiveness in the lines formed 
by it; not that one garden in five hundred would need such 
massive artificial edgings as are so much in character at 
Shrubland Park. What we really want is a good, cheap 
article, in imitation of stone, for garden edgings, in this 
country where stone itself is so dear; just as we have bricks 
for building our houses, and stucco to cover them in imita¬ 
tion of stone; while in Scotland they build all their best 
houses with the very best kind of stone, as being cheaper 
than bricks; indeed, I never saw a brick-built house till I 
landed in London ; and when I saw them plastering cement 
over the bricks to make believe they were stones, I thought 
the Englishers got to the end of their tether in cheating the 
senses ; but that was only prejudice in favour of stone, like 
our old prejudice in favour of Box edgings, and both must 
give way to a better and more economical state of things. 
Among the subjects that were recommended to gardeners 
to try their luck with at the Crystal Palace, in 1851, was, 
“another material that would prove highly useful, would be 
a cheap earthernware edging to flower-beds and walks ; what 
we now have is too dear and too ill made,” so that the new 
edgings, or the desire for improved edgings, did not originate 
with me ; I was only smitten with the desire when I saw the 
effect produced by Sir Charles Barry at Shrubland Park, 
and from that moment I set my wits to work to find out the 
best substitute for stone edgings. I recollected, the Horti¬ 
cultural Society had given a representation of a new edging 
tile by Mr. Hogg, in their “ Journal ” of last year; that they 
said it was the best that ever ivas seen; and, moreover, that 
their Vice-Secretary added to the bargain, that this “kind of 
edging appears to possess much merit. It is hard, good- 
looking, a good colour, cheap, and enables the walks to be 
relieved of water.” I say, notwithstanding all this, I have 
known this society, and other societies as well as they, put 
forth statements to which country gardeners could not 
altogether assent to without more enquiry, and being still 
on my rounds, I called at Holland House, and Bedford 
Lodge, near Kensington, where I saw, for the first time, 
two of the most beautiful flower-gardens, in two different 
styles, that can be seen within many miles of London ; and 
then I learned that Mr. Hogg’s place, at Brompton, was not 
far out of my way, and nothing would do but I must go over 
and see his edging tiles as managed by himself. 
Now, after seeing them laid down in his own garden, and 
judging for myself, I must certainly say that the Hor¬ 
ticultural Society’s estimate of their merits is rather below 
than above the mark. They are of a warm stone-colour, 
and of a shape that any labourer can lay down so as to be 
