November 6. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
81 
miniature. 4 These new houses won’t hear dancing in,’ said 
Mr. Gunter’s man. 
“ The next day I sent for the builder, and showed him 
what had taken place. ‘ Dear me ! I am very sorry; hut 
you had too many people over head; that’s very clear.’ 
‘Very clear! why, we had a hall,’ I said. ‘No wonder, 
then,’ observed the builder. ‘ What, then, are we to give 
no balls,’ I asked. ‘ Why, you see, Sir, we don’t build pri¬ 
vate houses now-a-days as ball-rooms; we could not, Sir, 
the price of timber is so ruinous, and the additional strength 
would never pay us.’ ‘Mr. Builder, I expect you to make 
the ceiling good.’ ‘ Much obliged for the preference; I will 
! do it as reasonable as any one,’replied he, bowing; ‘I will 
send in the men directly.’ At the end of a month I had to 
pay a bill, more than the ball and supper cost. 
“ Shortly afterwards I thought I would have paintings 
hung; so I sent for the carpenter. I pointed out a place to 
j the man on the steps; ‘ but,’ answered he, tapping with his 
hammer, ‘ can’t find wood, Sir ! No, Sir, there is nothing to 
; nail to; but there never is no wood in these new houses.’ 
j Confound your new houses, thought I. ‘ What’s the house 
I built of then ? ’ said I. ‘ Lath and plaster,’ said the man, 
tapping right and left. 
“ The next annoyance was a bad smell from the drains. 
The bricklayer was sent for; he came, and pronounced them 
choked, and added, * they make the drains in these new 
houses so small, sir! ’ Well, the whole of the basement was 
taken up, and TAG expense incurred before the nuisance was 
abated. 
“ I hoped now all was right; but I heard a conversation 
between my wife and eldest daughter which gave me some 
satisfaction,— 4 It is really very awkward, one don’t know 
where to put anything; there is not a cupboard or stow-hole 
in the whole house.’ Well, then came some gales of wind 
and heavy showers of rain ; slates blew off, and rattled up 
and down all night; complaints came from the attics ; one 
had the bed wetted quite through, from the water dripping 
through the ceiling; another had put a bason to catch the 
leak ;—all declared the roof a sieve. I sent again for the 
builder, who told me I must expect the slates would move a 
little after such heavy gales, as they were so light, and the 
wind got under them. 4 You know, sir,’ continued the 
: builder, 4 we can’t put a heavy roof on brick-and-a-half walls.’ 
4 Brick and-a-half walls,’ said I, 4 why that is not surely safe, 
| sir! ’ 4 Not quite, sir, if this was a single house ; but then 
in a row one supports the other.’ Thank heaven, [ took it 
but for three years, and six months are gone. I thought of 
my old house I had left, to meet the fashionable wishes of 
my wife, and sighed to become its inmate once more.” 
GARDENING GOSSIP. 
The Hollyhock is now taking a lead among the per¬ 
manent embellishments of the shrubbery, and the large 
borders of many lengthy approaches. The distance 
from which they can he seen, and the decided character 
! ing up among evergreens, while the vast improvement 
made in their colours gives them a fine effect. Mr. 
Chater, of Saffron Walden, has taken the lead, as not 
only a raiser of fine varieties, hut the purchaser of the 
best wherever he can find them. Mr. Parsons,.who has 
been exceedingly fortunate this year, has disposed of 
his novelties to Mr. Chater. A few hints as to the best 
in cultivation will assist the beginner. Some of the 
j late Mr. Baron’s still hold their ground, his Magnum 
j Bonum and Rosea grandiflora have not yet been sur¬ 
passed ; Chater’s Walden Gem, Comet, Mr. C. Baron, 
Spectabilis, Rosy Queen, Enchantress, and Obscura stand 
forth boldly among the best; Rivers’s Sulphured per- 
fector, Donnie, and Laird’s Mr. David Wedderburn, and 
Watford Surprise, alias Elegans, alias Model of Perfec¬ 
tion, for the same flower bears three names, make up a 
dozen of the best formed flowers we have. Among Mr. 
Parsons's new ones, Triumphant, Saffranot, Joan of 
Arc, and Pillar of Beauty, are the best. Bircham’s 
Mitior, Yellow Model, Poupre de Tyre, and Penelope, 
are new and good. Black’s Charles Turner, and Chater’s 
new one, Lady Braybrook, are worthy of a place. 
Bragg’s King of Roses is his best, and The Duke of 
Wellington, raised in Scotland, and rather frowned upon, 
should be added to the collection, although it will not 
be so easy to obtain. 
With regard to the culture of the hollyhock for orna¬ 
mental purposes, nothing more is required than good 
strong soil. Wherever a rose will grow well the holly¬ 
hock will flourish. If the size of the individual flowers 
be an object, the buds must be thinned out; and if 
spikes of half-a-dozen blooms are required for exhibition, 
the spike must be shortened. Liquid manure, at the 
time the bloom is advancing, will be found to assist the 
size, hut thinning out the buds is indispensable. The 
hollyhock should be dry in winter, and if a plantation 
be depended on as a feature, the plants should be parted 
and potted in the autumn and planted out in the spring. 
In ordinary shrubberies and borders, where they are to 
rear their graceful spikes above the foliage of shrubs, 
see that they have plenty of moisture, for in plantations 
of trees and shrubs they have not even the rain to 
depend on. 
A nurseryman who, perhaps, restricts his sale by the 
announcement, ventures to advertise about half a dozen 
Dahlias, which he calls first-class flowers—not his own, 
but selected from all that are announced ; so that, if he 
implies anything, it is that there are no more first-class 
flowers coming. He mentions The Scarlet King, Sir 
Frederick Tliessiger, Dr. Frampton, Sir Richard Whit¬ 
tington, and among fancies, Triumphant and Laura 
Lavington. We bear witness to the quality of all these 
flowers, and will concede that they will not be beaten 
this season, but we hope to see more, or it will be a poor 
season. 
The principal drawback as regards the Dahlia is its 
uncertainty. The Queen of the West was shown last year 
a splendid white, half-a-dozen blooms at a time, yet few, 
if any, of the growers would cut a single flower to show. 
Our plant did not come into bloom until the shows were 
over, and then there were indications of good quality; 
so that next year we shall try to be early. It is diffi¬ 
cult to believe that six unexceptionable flowers can be 
shown of a really worthless variety, so that we have 
some hope that we shall be more fortunate next 
season ; at present nobody likes it, because nobody 
would show it. There are two whites this year — 
Ariel (Turner’s), and Una (Keyne’s), but although they 
have both been shown well, yet whites have deceived us 
so often, that we want faith in them. Nevertheless, 
growers are not sufficiently indulgent the first year. The 
Dahlia is an uncertain flower—our best models are the 
most so. If we plant out a single plant of the Duke of 
Wellington, we feel disappointed if we do not cut a 
flower all the season, but do we throw it away ? No, 
