452 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— September 28.1856. 
houses should keep this in mind when citing the Crystal 
Palace on other matters. The results there amount to 
demonstration clear, and on a gigantic scale. 
Climbers and Hanging Baskets. —The climbers, in 
many instances, have mounted up wonderfully, and will, 
ere long, form a grand feature in the nave and transept. 
; The idea of suspending baskets, so as to give a flaunting, 
flowing, vegetable drapery to these parts of the building 
before the climbers could do this of themselves, was a most 
| happy one. Notwithstanding the interest thus awak¬ 
ened, I have no sympathy with those who must be so 
much in the mode that they can see no beauty save in 
basketry-suspended. Many plants would be just in 
their element when hanging in great lengths over the 
sides of such baskets, and for such a place will ever be 
secured. All plants that naturally grow upright would 
be better in vases, or planted on the ground, especially jf 
at all of a shrubby character. Much as these baskets 
are admired, I would wish to see fewer of them as the 
climbers gain strength and occupy their place. I am 
prejudiced enough to own that in walking underneath 
them, though knowing the slender iron rod or chain 
was sufficient to support them, I experienced a little 
of the sensation which Damocles must have felt, had he 
seen the sword suspended by a hair over his head. Be¬ 
sides, I cannot join the general chorus in praise of the 
mode and taste displayed in filling them. The principle, 
in most cases, seems to have.been to make the opposite 
baskets somewhat alike, and to put as much variety into 
each basket as possible. Just by the same system 
with the clumps in a sweet little flower-garden, put 
as much variety as possible into each, and when you 
look for a well-balanced whole, you find you have 
secured an unmeaning, wearisome monotony of same¬ 
ness. To me there is a similar monotony in these 
suspended baskets. Every one has a right to his own 
opinion in such matters. No doubt those who thus 
filled them had a reason for it, and possibly exigencies 
more powerful than reasons. I slipped out my opinion 
on the matter to two gardeners during the day. One of 
| them told me I ought to have got out of my shell in 
July, and then I would have seen baskets; and the other 
told me, that as all the columns of the building were 
counterparts of each other, so all the baskets must 
necessarily be alike; but then they are such wags 
for humour, that I hardly know now how much or how 
little they were in earnest. I believe there are two sizes 
of baskets in the building, and each size is uniformly 
placed opposite its kindred size. This is all that is 
necessary to agree with the uniformity of the columns, 
&c. At present there is, to a great extent, a uniform 
sameness. Were each two opposite baskets planted 
alike, and the next two also alike, but as different from its 
i neighbour as possible, there would still be uniformity, 
but with all the charms of a pleasing variety. It would 
be difficult to get as many good hanging plants as 
would prevent repetitions; but these might be a 
; considerable distance from each other. With at least 
three coloured Maurandyas , several Lophospermums, 
several Passion-Flowers, different coloured Nastur¬ 
tiums, including the favourite Tropceolum pentapliylla, 
Fccremocarpus scaber, Cohcca scandens, Convolvulus of 
all colours in autumn, &c., for larger baskets; and 
such plants as Hibbertia grossularicefolia, Saxifraga 
sarmentosa, Variegated Strawberries, Ivy leaved Gera¬ 
niums, and many other things would do for the smaller 
baskets; while in summer such plants as Torenias, Thun- 
bergias, &c., would be quite at home. There would thus 
be no difficulty in producing a nice variety in unison 
with a true uniformity; and even changing these 
baskets several times in the year, provided the good 
public will place ample means for doing so within the 
manager’s reach, and then I think these much-praised 
baskets would be a pattern for imitation by all who 
delight in vegetation suspended. 
Of course many plants more tender would suit the 
tropical department; but I have been so long in-doors,I 
must get out to the terrace and grounds. It. Fish. 
SHRUBLAND PARK. 
I have just paid my second triennial visit to this 
princely garden, as I may call it, without ever having 
heard of a prince who could boast of such a place. They 
made a great fuss with their old pupil: the best pair, 
the best coachman and second coachman, with the high 
chariot of state, were waiting at the station to carry me 
over a little more than a mile of ground. On entering 
the park by the London lodge—technically termed, in 
the neighbourhood, Harry Moor’s Lodge—I saw that 
Harry was still alive, for no other Harry or Harriet on 
earth could grow such boxes of Scarlet Geraniums as 
stood about fronting the gate. From this lodge the 
carriage road ascends gently to the “ Russian Lodge,” 
situated at two-thirds of the distance to the mansion, to 
keep back the deer from molesting Harry’s Geraniums : 
this was also in a blaze of scarlet. The last third of 
the distance is a rapid ascent, and lands you on the edge 
and termination of an extensive plateau, or table-land, 
some miles in circuit. A wide sweep of gravelled “ coach 
ring,” and you are at the front entrance, which looks to 
the rising sun when the day and night are of equal 
length. All this time, if you are a total stranger, you 
will not perceive that there is a single flower or a 
flower-bed about the place—the most fortunate thing 
which can be said of any place, and more so of a place 
situated as this is, in the midst of an extensive park ; 
for, if there is one rule of greater value than the rest 
about such things, it is this—that a stranger should 
first see the beauties of the flower-gardens from the 
drawing-room windows. 
Now, a man of less enthusiasm than your humble 
servant could not well avoid speaking or writing in 
raptures about such gardens as we shall look round 
presently. Obvious reasons stand in my way, however. 
This is the university at which I took my degrees; the 
hospitable owners were my professors; they not only 
did not put obstacles in “my way to yonder gate”— 
the gate of fame—as did the professors in the Royal 
Academy at Inverness, but accelerated every step of the 
way towards it. Then, having saturated my mind with 
their own high notions of flower-gardening, 1 went on 
my way rejoicing; and when I am invited to return at 
stated periods, as on the present occasion, it is to 
compare notes and ideas. 
I went over every item of the long bill of fare, first 
with Sir William and his head gardener, and then with 
Lady Middleton and Mr. Foggo, the said head gardener. 
Some great people, or who are thought to be as great in 
mind as they are in body and estate, act very differently 
from this—would go round the picture gallery with the 
stranger, the student, or the critic alike; that is to say, 
in the absence of the head gardener or curator, who thus 
loses the benefit of panoramic lectures, discussions, 
and debates on or about The different objects as they 
are passed in review; for you will please to redollect 
that these “returns” to the “hall” of this university 
are not for the purpose of lauding and flattering, but 
for exactly the contrary thing. We “face it” out and 
out as they do in “ both houses,” and back our argu¬ 
ments with equal stress and ingenuity; but we never 
call them debates, only panoramic lectures, and it is 
from these and similar lectures that the students receive 
their first impressions, at this university, of what is 
before them in this busy world. 
You will find a condensed account of the new terraces 
