THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— Sembmbeb 23,1856. 463 
and all the more prominent features of the place in the 
volume for the autumn of 1853, and as you are a stranger 
to the place, I shall not tease you concerning things 
you care little about; but let me beg of you, as a favour, 
to follow me closely round the beds aud patterns, and see 
what you can learn, as you did not hear those lectures, 
which we never repeat a second time. The whole garden 
front of the mansion is one blaze, in one line, of Scarlet 
Geraniums, principally in slate boxes, painted a deeper 
blue than the Crystal Palace blue; the house is built 
with the best white Suffolk bricks, manufactured by the 
baronet himself, so to speak, and is so enriched with 
Caen stonework and stone terraces, that nothing short 
of the most brilliant scarlet flowers and that kind of 
blue boxes could stamp a harmonious contrast to so 
much white : red bricks aud red stone or marble would 
need white or light purple flowers and stone-coloured 
boxes. Tom Thumb and Punch are the kinds most used 
in these boxes. Looking over one of them from any of 
the drawing-rooms, the flower-beds on the terrace would 
be something more or less than twenty feet below the 
eye. Down the centre of the terrace garden is a broad 
walk, flanked with standard Portugal Laurels in raised 
stone boxes of rich architectural design and proportions, 
which form the letter T with another broad walk 
along the bottom; aud in the centre, where the two arms 
of the letter meet, is a pavilion-like temple dedicated to 
HSolus, the young god who ruled the winds; but he shares 
his rule here at times with Boreas, his elder brother 
from the north, with a powerful impulse on the brink of 
a precipitous hill, now cut into two parts by the grand 
flight of steps, over which you look down from the 
temple of the winds on the best picture of flower-gar¬ 
dening I ever saw; but we must first go over the beds 
! on the upper or home terrace garden. The principal of 
! them are eight in number, four on each side, in two pairs 
across from the centre walk. Each pair is connected in 
an original way, which I never saw on paper, grass, or 
gravel, by a circle touching the end of each bed in the 
I centre, and by a larger circle uniting these two, just like 
a pair of spectacles, if you make a circle of the “ bridge 
1 overtlienose.” Thetwoeyesandthecircleofthe“bridge” 
are planted with quite different plants from those in the 
beds; some pairs of eyes with Yuccas, with Humeas be¬ 
twixt; some with Hydrangeas or Agapanthus, the best 
terrace-garden plant we have after Humea elegans. One 
of the principal beds out of the eight holds more plants 
than some whole flower-gardens. Before the beds were 
altered, an outside row used to reduce my stock—250 
plants of Mangles' Variegated, and that kind we put in 
double rows for edgings—just 500 plants to edge one 
bed with, but a mere nothing in such great places. The 
beds have now broad stone edgings to answer for 
Mangles’; then a green border of grass, twenty inches or 
more wide, for contrast; then a walk, as you might call 
it, twelve inches wide, and filled with silver sand, with 
an edging of Box to the inner side next the flowers. 
This is, without exception, the very best and richest 
6tyle of making beds on a gravel terrace, the edges of 
the beds being nine or ten inches higher than the gravel. 
There are grass and sand patterns with architectural 
acceisories, and rare trees or shrubs at each end of this 
terrace, the tree which Prince Albert planted in 1851 
being one of them ( Libocedrus Chilensis) ; and there are 
long narrow beds and some long borders on the side 
next the house, but their arrangement is to suit the 
architectural lines of the terrace, and that- particular 
arrangement might never occur again; therefore we 
shall pass it. 
The grass bands round beds or gravel relieve the 
glare from so much gravel and stonework, and the white 
lines of silver sand between the grass and flowers tell 
! far better and more distinctly than outside lines of the 
i very best variegated plants; so that, in such a disposition, 
the variegated plants come in the second row round the 
bed to relieve two shades of red or scarlet. The pre¬ 
vailing practice of having the outside row in variegated 
plants is the first step in contrasting, and also the first 
in harmonious tinting; but the art of relieving, so to 
speak, with variegated plants or white flowers otherwise 
than on the outside of a bed is not yet understood by 
the many, and is only practised here and a few other 
places, such as this or Trentham. If you comprehend 
these simple rules, you will understand and appreciate 
the following way of planting beds, each of which stands 
independently on its own merits, and yet forms but the 
eighth part of a great whole or system. No. 1 is banded 
outside by a double row of Harkaway, the best of all 
the green-leaved Geraniums for an edge, the colour being 
more like Chinese than European—a peculiarly rich tint 
of orange scarlet; then about eighteen inches wide of 
Mangles' Variegated; then a great breadth of Punch; and 
the centre of Shrubland Scarlet, with the plants sized so 
as to appear no higher than in the exact proportion of a 
gentle slope from the outside to the very centre of the 
bed. No. 2, Young Toms for Harkaway, Mountain of 
Light for Mangles', with Punch and Shrubland Scarlet 
as in No. 1. No. 3, Baron Hugel first; Golden Chain, 
three rows, next; Blue Cape Aster, Cinerama amelloides, 
backed with Ageratvm; and the centre of Salvia patens, 
intermixed with Larkspur. No. 4, Baron Hugel, Golden 
Chain, Purple Petunia, Love-lies-bleeding round Prince’s 
Feather, the side of the Purple Petunia next the 
Golden Chain being trained down to meet it, and the 
back left to rise sufficiently to meet the drooping tassels 
of the Love lies-bleeding, and no more is seen of the 
Feathers than the purple spikes of bloom. This is ad¬ 
mirably managed. 
Now, double these for the other side, and let me hear 
if you can manage any of the designs next year. No¬ 
thing is more easy than the planting; the great art is in 
the training, the cutting and carving, which must be 
constantly looked to through the season, to keep every 
shoot, leaf, and flower as if the whole was just turned 
out of a band-box, or as the ladies’-maids look after the 
hair, the dress, and the fal-dals of their profession. 
Without a constant lady’s-maiding, a flower-garden 
would soon look as rough as Polly Hopkins. 
Under the Albert Tower, the south extremity of this 
front, is a very different pattern, the ground-work being 
iu purple and white, the FmmaYe rbena, with a lighter 
one; and in the scroll, between the masses, four small 
diamond beds meet, and there are three sets of them 
in a straight line, all planted with Musk —a very great 
mistake. This pattern is dead level and lying on silver 
sand, with a profusion of white stone or bricks in every 
direction: green, and not yellow, is, therefore, the relief 
agent. This was missed in our rounds, else I should 
not mention it. I saw it from the top of the tower. 
The three sets of four diamond beds were planted, in 
1851, with that unique seedling of mine now called the 
Bridal Ring, and I recollect perfectly well how Prince 
Albert admired them, although every flower was picked 
off them that very morning with my own hands. The 
flowers add no beauty to the Bridal Ring, or to the 
Golden Chain and Baron Hugel; yet who would not 
rather part with their jewels than be without either of 
the three in such a place as this? 
Under the south angle of the tower is Sir William’s 
study, and a flower-bed in front of it is all he used to 
claim for himself. It is about sixteen or eighteen feet 
long, and eight or nine wide, on gravel. Here is where 
we used to flower the Crassulas, alias Kabsanthus, 
bordered by the deep blue Lobelia ramosa, alias hetero- 
phylla, one of the best of our annuals. Both would 
come off together, and pot-plants which were in training 
for the situation would supply the places for the rest of 
the season. The arrangement is very good and peculiar 
