THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— September 30, X8SC. 407 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Day of 
Month. 
O A* 
>» <y 
SEPT. 30—OCT. 6, 1856. 
Weather near London in 
1855. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Itain in 
Inches. 
30 
Tu 
The slender treble lmr Moth. 
29.505 — 29.423 
6S —47 
S.E. 
.10 
1 a 6 
39 a 5 
5 a 57 
1 
10 
8 
274 
1 
w 
The dealh’s-head Moth. 
sp.52y—29.41)6 
64—40 
S.W. 
.02 
4 
36 
6 9 
2 
10 
27 
275 
2 
Til 
The connecting umber Moth. 
29.611 —-'9.561 
66—40 
w. 
.12 
5 
34 
G 23 
3 
10 
46 
276 
3 
F 
29-707—29.017 
t)2—50 
s. 
.36 
6 
6 42 
4 
11 
5 
2-7 
4 
S 
The streak Moth. 
29.369—29.28U 
68—47 
S.W. 
•70 
8 
29 
7 9 
5 
11 
23 
27s 
5 
Sun 
20 Sunday after Trinity. 
29.35l-2y.331 
66—50 
S.W. 
.82 
0 
V 
7 49 
6 
11 
40 
279 
0 
M 
The common plume Moth. 
29 351—29-282 
65—51 
s. 
.n 
11 
25 
8 44 
7 
)l 
58 
280 
Meteorology or the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 02.8°, and 42.8°, respectively. The ‘.greatest heat, 80°, occurred on the 5th, in 1831; and the lowest cold, 27°, on 
the 2nd, in 1853. During the period 90 days were fine, and on 106 rain fell. 
CRYSTAL PALACE.— September 11th. 
(Continued from pnyc 452.) 
There are few things requiring more careful con¬ 
sideration, prudent forethought, and a clearer perception 
of ultimate results, aud the grouping and blending of 
these with surrounding circumstances, than the fixing 
on sites for gardens, mansions, and ornamental build¬ 
ings. For want of a thorough appreciation even of the 
minutiae of detail the greatest artists have sometimes 
committed great errors, so great that the humblest man, 
without a hundredth part of their genius aud intelli¬ 
gence, cannot hut perceive them. Hence we find 
gardens that cannot he supplied with water but at an 
expense that sets adrift all the maxims of a severe 
economy; and others, again, from which early pro¬ 
ductions are expected, inclining to the north, aud in a 
position where they are sure to be visited by early 
autumn and late spring frosts. Hence, agaiu, we find 
mansions at times from which the fiuest views of the 
surrounding scenery arc excluded, as if on purpose they 
should merely he seen from some sequestered corner of 
the demesne ; or we find a beautiful lake formed at 
great expense, but holding such a relative position to 
the mansion that the residents there must ascend pretty 
well to the roof before they are cheered with the expanse 
of its calm or rippling waters. I know little or nothing 
of the history, aud very likely the difficulties attending 
the choosing of such a position at Sydenham lor the 
glorious Crystal Palace; but the first view from its 
garden-frout over that splendid landscape in the garden 
of England, with its valleys, undulations, and rising 
grounds in the distance, and just so richly clothed with 
fine timber as to bring into suggestive relief the cottages, 
villages, mansions, aud churches, on which the eye of 
the poet, the painter, and the moralist would love to 
linger — that first view would demonstrate that the 
choosers of that site had a fine taste for the picturesque 
and the beautiful, aud were benevolently resolved that 
thousands upon thousands should share it with them. 
That splendid landscape in the distance, the sight of 
the pre-Adamite animals, as seen from the railway, 
sunning themselves by the lake at the lowest part ot the 
ground, now that they are there , aud over which position, 
when standing at the Palace, the eye passes to the land¬ 
scape beyond, and the unique grandeur of the Palace 
itself, furnish as it were the key-notes for three separate 
kinds of gardening, not harshly defined, but blending 
into each other, and yet producing variety by their united 
distinctness. These distinct styles will at once be seen 
to be the artistic gardenesque in the immediate neigh¬ 
bourhood of the Palace; the simply gardenesque beyoud, 
melting as it were into the dressed picturesque; aud that 
distinct from, owing to the materials used, but still 
harmonising with, the surrounding landscape, and that 
dressed picturesque blending into the rough, wild 
romantic, as, iu some measure, in unison with the 
animal life of a previous system, and concealing the 
specimens until the visitor is brought upon them 
suddenly. 
These ideas seem to have been the groundwork of the 
designer of these gigantic operations. These, as a 
whole, are not sufficiently matured to invite criticism. 
There is yet but little done at the lowest part of the 
ground, which should he a specimen of the wild aud 
natural style of gardening, as opposed to the dressed 
and the artificial, though the attempt must not be made 
to hide the fact that the art of man, and not Nature, has 
produced the romantic spot; and this idea seems to be 
carried out so far as the works have progressed. It 
would he vain in our climate to attempt to place these 
monsters amid the vegetation iu which, most likely, 
they had basked and wandered, though the Eerus and 
other plants of our coal-fields might supply materials 
for grouping them in pictures in the building itself. 
On this account many would object altogether to these 
ancient animals being where they are ; but none can 
object to that part of the grounds being devoted to the 
romantic and the wild in scenery, and thus forming a 
striking contrast, when examined, to the dressed pic¬ 
turesque of the chief part of the grounds, and the 
natural picturesque of the surrounding landscape. To 
carry out this idea, as well as for the general manage¬ 
ment of such a vast establishment, great sums of money 
must be requisite—more, very likely, than the funds at 
present would bear; but, instead of wishing with many 
that the Palace was made a national or government 
concern, I would trust that there is yet enough of 
public spirit and the felt responsibilities of gratitude 
for benefits received, even in the higher style of refine¬ 
ment in gardening produced, and the impetus given to 
artistic design by this noble institution, to induce thou¬ 
sands upon thousands of our country gentry and rich 
manufacturers and merchants to become life holders of 
annual aud season tickets. 
There is an old proverb, that “ children and fools 
should never see half-finished work,” and another to the 
eifect that a person who could do nothing of the kind 
himself might yet ho able to detect a flaw or an error in 
a great man's work. Comparatively few gardeners would 
have had grasp of miud enough to know what to do 
with such a gigantic uudertakiug; but many, like my¬ 
self, might have nerve enough to examine and pass an 
unbiassed opinion upon points of detail. Having mis¬ 
laid what few notes I took for my own peculiar benefit, 
my recollection seems to present three ideas of the mid¬ 
dle or picturesque-dressed grounds. 
The first was, that the planting of the ornamental 
trees and shrubs could not yet be finished; the second 
was, that the attempts made to combine existing parts of 
the park, when taken possession of with the dressed pic¬ 
turesque, were so well done as to leave nothing to he 
desired ; and the third was, that in this dressed pic¬ 
turesque, part of the grounds there was too much of a 
dotting and scattering here and there of flower-beds to 
secure a unity of expression, though, for anything I 
know, the practical designer might here be forced to 
yield the promptings of his belter judgment to the 
cravings of the Londoners to have beds aud rings of 
No. OCCCXVILI. Vop. XVI 
