100 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— June 3, 1650. 
the plants, grow very rapidly, hut without the smallest 
symptoms of being “ drawn.” 
The water in the crystal fountain was alive with the 
Water Lilies ( Nympheas ), and the crimson hybrid one 
was particularly striking. All along, near the sides, are 
pots full of the smallest plants (among the crystalworts 
(It icciacea) , namely, Hie via nutans, which is merely big 
enough to make a green surface to the mould in the 
pots. There are now four crystal, vase like fountains, a 
yard high, playing round the large crystal fountain. 
There is a fine specimen of the Norfolk Island Pine at 
each corner of the basin ; and there are four Dielytra 
spectabilis, four feet by four feet, one at each of the four 
angles of circular enlargement at the centre of the basin. 
The circular marble beds, and the vases which surmount 
them round the water, were brimful with “ furnishing 
plants” mossed. The whole is as rich as anything you 
can conceive in gardening. 
Out-ofdoors the fountains played in the afternoon 
most merrily, but not all of them in the lower lakes. 
The “ first display of Graud Fountains and Cascades ” is 
fixed for the 18th of June (Waterloo Day), when all the 
world and water nymphs will be there to see the grand 
sight. 
The bedding-out was about three parts finished ; the 
chain patterns were full of Tulips in bloom—a fine sight, 
but not so much so as last year, because the “ roots ” are 
now mixed ; last season each kind was planted by itself. 
If you were to ask me what is effect? the best answer 
I could give you would be—the difference between a bed 
of mixed Tulips and another bed where each kind of 
Tulip is planted separately. But here they burnt their 
fingers with the Tulip. 
The only real fault I could see, inside or out, is, that 
at the very bottom of the first flight of steps opposite 
the great transept, the second bed on the right hand 
side drowns the effect of every other bed right and 
left of it, and of all the beds iu the centre of the gardeu. 
It would hardly be worth while to notice this bed, were 
it not to explain a principle on which The Cottage 
Gardener insists implicitly in all plantings of flower¬ 
beds ; that principle is, to avoid placing the strongest 
colours in the centre of groups of colours. But, you 
say, the bed at the Crystal Palace is not in the centre, 
but on one side. How, then, does it apply to your 
objection? That is exactly what 1 want to tell you. 
The garden being here strictly on the Geometric plan, 
there is not a bed, or a rose, or a fountain, or a statue, 
or a tree, or a shrub, or of any other thing, to he seen, 
or found, on the right-hand side, without its match on 
the left. The particular bed on the right, which 
destroys all effect in that part of the garden, has its 
match on the left. The mistake mush therefore, be in 
the planting of it; and so it is. The bed is full of 
Double Yellow Tulips, making a very strong mass of 
yellow. The eye will go to, and rest on, that bed, from 
any part you are at. One consequence of the eye 
resting on the very centre of a group is to diminish, 
apparently, the size of that group; and one consequence 
of the eye resting on one side of a regular, or geometric, 
group or figure, is to make it apparently irregular—what 
artists call “ a pig with one ear.” If the match-bed on 
the left was equally strong in yellow, the eye could not 
“rest” on either of them exclusively; the sight or view 
would be balanced; and it is on the principle of 
balancing the sight that the charms of geometric gar¬ 
dening are founded, and none other. 
There is a vast improvement in the plan of planting 
the centre part of the terrace this year. Last year, all the 
oblong beds at the bottom were planted with 'Tom I’httmb, 
with a lino of blue Larkspurs iu the middle of each; 
and the circular beds were ail of Scarlet Verbenas , and 
therefore “ lost," as far as effect is concerned. I have 
every plant iu all these beds, and every distance from 
plant to plant, in my book; and, looking at them now 
on my table, I must say I never saw anything better 
done than that planting. D. Beaton. 
RANDOM GLEANINGS DURING A FEW DAYS 
IN SCOTLAND. 
{Continued from page 14C.) 
DUNKELD HOUSE, OR COTTAGE. 
This is the unpreteuding residence of the Duke of 
Athol. It is close to the town of Duukeld, once the 
capital of Caledonia. It is about fourteen miles from 
Perth. A brauch-line goes from Stauley, on the Perth 
and Aberdeen line, to Birnam station, close to the 
town, at the base of the mountain so celebrated in the 
drama of Macbeth. A train from Perth to Duukeld, 
and back again, is advertised for Saturday afternoons, 
during the summer, at Is. for third-class fare. What a 
privilege to the cooped-up artisan, in connection with 
the afternoon holiday movement! Thousands have 
visited Dunkeld—these will now be increased a hun¬ 
dred-fold. Seen from the passes to the north, the town, 
with its bridge over the silver Tay.the ruined cathedral, 
and the surrounding scenery, present a magnificent 
appearance. Going from Perth, you drop upon it quite 
suddenly. The first idea that suggested itself to my mind 
being one of veneration for the prudential wisdom of 
those who selected such a warm, verdant, sheltered spot 
for this Highland clachan, surrounded by an amphi¬ 
theatre of hills, once rugged and sterile enough, but 
now like the lofty Craig-y-Barns to the north, covered, 
unless on the perpendicular rocks, with luxuriant forest 
timber; these rocks peeping out at times, lending a 
romantic grandeur to the scene. The great planter 
Duke not only thus laid the foundation for a large 
annual revenue, as several saw-mills are continually 
employed in cutting up the timber from these alpine 
heights ; not only gave an impulse to planting poor and 
elevated mountain-land, which has been worthily fol¬ 
lowed by many Scottish proprietors; but imparted to 
wild and barren scenery such a clothed and picturesque 
appearance, that men of the olden times could scarcely 
be able to recognise their old familiar haunts again. 
Even iu the early days of May, these hills of the Duke, 
and his neighbour, Sir Wm. Stewart, were looking beauti- : 
ful in the gleaming spots exposed to the light of a clear 
sun—and in the deep, sombre shade of glades and recesses; 
iu the vast variety of tints in the opened and opening 
buds; and, again, in the regularity with which they were 
mingled together iu one place ; while, in another place, 
these separate tints or colours would be massed separately 
in irregular groups—Larch fringing into masses of Scotch 
Fir, and these again into Beech, &c. I could not help 
thinking that these hills might give us a hint in the 
planting and management of pleasure-grounds and 
flower gardens. What the peculiar lesson is which 
such planting might teach us, I will not venture to infer, 
further than to say, that something might be gained, 
were we convinced that no stereotyped, fashionable mode 
of grouping colours contains within itself all the 
essential elements of beauty and refined satisfaction, and 
that the man who delights in the mixed shrubbery and 
the mixed flower border, though not following the, at 
present, popular “ doxy," may yet be thoroughly ortho¬ 
dox iu his tastes and aspirations. The diversity of 
systems, even in one place, would lend a charm from 
variety and contrast. 
The large, fertile kitchen-garden is situated a little to 
the north of the mansion, separated from it by a lawn, 
and mostly concealed by groups of evergreens. Placed 
on a brae, or bank, facing the south, it catches every ray 
of sunshine. What surprised us most was, that Leas, 
