204 
THE COTTAGE GAUD KNEE. 
January 5. 
stage when the thinning process should he commenced. 
The brauches are beginning to interlace, and a drawing 
up will take place if they are neglected even two years 
longer. 
As I drew nearer the mansion, I observed to tlie 
right a long length of new lofty brick walls; these I 
found were the boundary of a large new kitchen and 
fruit gardens, on the south side of which is a large con¬ 
gregation of glass houses, nearly all in an unfinished 
state. Long ranges of pits are in front, and these were 
filled with the healthiest bedding-out plants I have seen 
this many a year. In one large pit there were some 
good healthy Pines, and in another some good Straw- j 
berry plants preparing for forcing. All, however, is in | 
au unfinished state, but progressing surely though i 
slowly. Erom this kitchen garden we, that is, the 
gardener, Mr. Aiton, a descendant of one of the royal 
gardeners of that ilk, and myself, wended our way up a 
rising ground to the plant-houses or conservatories. ' 
These were well filled with good, healthy plants, but 
they are too small and too fanciful for the place. They j 
are to be taken down, and a much more extensive and 
noble range put up. I saw the stakes put down for the 
foundations. 
The pleasure grounds are very extensive, occupying a 
rising ground to the north of the house. They were 
formed about five years ago, and it is remarkable how 
the Rhododendrons thrive in the soil—a kind of red 
clay. To look at it, I should have thought they would 
not have existed a single summer, but they have grown 
well, aud are of a deep green, and well set with buds. As 
this pleasure ground is so extensive, advantage has been 1 
taken of that circumstance to plant a considerable 
number of the choicest Coniferae. I noticed the follow¬ 
ing: Picea nobilis, 9 feet, a handsome specimen; P. 
Webbiana, well-formed and uninjured; Pinna palula, a 
little injured; P. macrocarpa, a splendid specimen, 
35 feet high, with a stem three feet round ; P. excelsa, 
a dark green, densely branched variety ; P. ayacahnite , 
0 feet, uninjured; Taxodium distichum, a fine tree, 45 
feet high, and 4 feet round the stem; Abies Brononii, quite 
hardy here, uninjured for four years; Abies Douglasii, 
growing rapidly ; Citpressus turulosa, quite hardy; C. thu- 
rifera, much injured; Cedrus Deodara, many plants, 
growing rapidly. The Deciduous trees here are very 
remarkable. I do not suppose there are any such in the 
kingdom. They have been planted in groups of seven 
or nine, and the branches have spread along and over 
the ground to a very great extent. I think I speak 
within bounds when I say the branches cover a space 
100 yards in diameter. Of course, they were out of leaf 
when I saw them; but when in full foliage they must 
make a grand appearance. In the pleasure grounds there 
are an upper and a lower lake of water. Jets are being 
put in, and will be very effective, no doubt, when 
finished. 
Such is my very brief account of a nobleman’s seat 
that is in a state of improvement. Visitors need not go 
through the dismal country. I did to appreciate its 
beauty by contrast; for there is now a railway opened 
from Oxford, and from that point I would advise any 
inhabitant of the south, desirous of seeing a fine place, 
to start from. Oxford, of course, can be reached easily 
enough from any part of the kingdom. The station for 
Enville is Stourbridge. In three or four years, if it goes 
on prosperously, this will be quite a lion in gardening. 
T. Appleby. 
ON KEEPING ICE. 
The arrival of winter brings with it duties peculiarly 
its own, and some of which, if not performed at the 
identical time they ought to be done, cannot be done at 
all during the season. Amongst such duties, that of 
filling au ice-house, or storing the ice away elsewhere, is 
one important job which must never be delayed when 
au opportunity offers, for, the old and trite saying of 
“make hay while the sun shines,” is not more wise than 
“store ice while it freezes;” for, as every one knows, 
good and suitable ice for storing away does not present 
itself every year in the south of England, especially in 
localities near the coast; consequently the first chance 
must not be lost. 
There are various opinions afloat regarding the keep¬ 
ing of ice, some insisting that it ought to be excluded 
from the air as much as it is possible to make it, by a 
close fitting apartment, and covering of litter to an ex¬ 
travagant extent; while others would seem almost to inti¬ 
mate that a free ventilation, if not almost open exposure, 
was more necessary. Now, the wide difference between 
these two opinions leaves room for many intermediate 
plans or ideas, and it is amongst them that I take my 
stand, without impugning the veracity of those who 
think that ice keeps as well in an out door heap as in a 
well, or house properly prepared for it. I have tried 
both plans, aud must say that my efforts at keeping ice 
in an out-door heap has been, on the whole, unsatisfac¬ 
tory; and though others may have been more successful, 
might I not ask if their good fortune in keeping it did 
not arise from the great bulk they had stored away? 
It is well known that the detached masses of ice which 
float southward from the Arctic Sea, often reach a tem¬ 
perate latitude before they are entirely melted ; but it is 
only fair to conclude, that when they do so, they must 
have been of huge dimensions at the starting point; 
subject to the same rule, therefore, must be the ice-heaps 
which we have stored up in dry sheltered corners. 
They, too, must have been tolerably bulky to furnish 
the requisite quantity a family of rank often requires at 
the end of summer and beginning of autumn; for, be it 
remembered, that under whatever circumstances ice be 
kept, the quantity left for use in September here rarely 
amounts to more than one-fourth of what was stored 
away in winter, so wasteful a material it is to deal with, 
in spite of all the preservative means taken to save it. 
Where, therefore, an ice-house exists, I would, by all 
means, advocate its being filled with the best and 
cleanest ice that can be got, as soon as the weather and 
other things admit its being so. Afterwards, I would 
advise au ice-heap formed somewhere, in order to test 
the value of the two modes. This plan I have, with 
one or two exceptions, adopted for many years, and the 
result was in favour of the ice-house. True, the outside 
heap was of some service, because any that was wanted 
during its continuance was had from there; but it 
always took a very large heap to last until the middle 
of June; and sometimes it was gone much sooner. 
The plan I adopted with this heap was this:—A con¬ 
venient spot, where the water would drain away, was 
selected near the pond the ice was taken from, and a 
square, or polygon, was formed by hurdles being made 
firm in their places. Sometimes the ice was stacked on 
the ground, aud sometimes faggots, or brush-wood, was 
placed at bottom, but at all times, straw was placed at 
the sides against the hurdles, and the ice was then 
introduced, well broken beforehand, and rammed tight 
in its place, the same as in the ice-house; aud when 
the top of the hurdles was attained, stakes by the 
side of them were driven in, or some other con¬ 
trivance adopted, in order to keep up the ice, and 
allow the heap to be made as lofty as possible; but 
it is a bad thing to build ; and I never saw any 
workman that could carry it up so as to appear 
anything like a “ steep roof.” Such as it was, it was 
covered over with litter, and if the place was exposed to 
winds, care was taken to secure the straw against being 
removed; nevertheless, I always had the mortification 
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