350 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 4. 
The Forsyth MSS., from which we now commence 
publishing a selection, are the property of Mr. Robert 
Hogg, whose excellent work, entitled British Pomology, 
we recently noticed. In a letter with which he has also 
favoured us, he thus details their history :— 
“ Some years ago, when I was a partner with Mr. Gray, in 
the Brompton Park Nursery, I one day discovered in an 
upper room of the warehouse, among a quantity of lumber, 
a box, of which no notice appeared for many years to have 
been taken, but had been left as a sporting preserve to the 
! mice, and as a prey to insects. On examination, I found 
i this box contained, besides numerous papers, specimens of 
woods, in transverse and longitudinal sections, among which 
were pieces of the Cork oak, but all were completely riddled, 
and devoured by insects. The papers were in a better con¬ 
dition, and had suffered little from their long confinement 
and neglect. These proved to be the correspondence of 
William Forsyth, and knowing who the correspondents of 
such a man were likely to be, I lost no time in having the 
contents of the box turned out and thoroughly cleaned and 
arranged. On mentioning the circumstance to Mr. Gray, I 
learned from him that he had been executor to Mr. Forsyth, 
and that these papers came into his possession at Mr. 
Forsyth’s death. Mr. Gray taking no heed of them, further 
than treating them as waste paper, I subsequently asked 
him if he would allow me to take them into my possession, 
as I did not like to see them so treated, particularly as I 
thought there might be much of interest contained in them. 
To this he assented, and since that time I have preserved 
them from further injury and diminution.” 
These letters, some hundreds in number, are from 
many personages of Mr. Forsyth’s time, the most dis¬ 
tinguished for their position, either by rank, or by their 
scientific attainments. Such letters, without containing 
any important discoveries, are highly interesting, by 
throwing light upon many characters and transactions 
now matters of history. 
The letters have been arranged alphabetically, accord¬ 
ing to the names of the writers, and we shall not depart 
from this arrangement, although by so doing some of 
the most interesting will be deferred towards the con¬ 
clusion of our selection. 
Following this arrangement, we come very early in 
the series to the letters of MV. Henry Addington, better 
known by his subsequently-acquired title of Viscount 
Sidmouth, and of John Hiley Addington, his brother, 
and subordinate in office. These letters are creditable 
to them in no small degree, for they are evidence that 
even the affairs of the nation did not withdraw from 
their attention the welfare of their private servants. 
Mr. Addington became Prime Minister in 1801, and his 
brother acted under him in a subordinate office. Whilst 
thus employed, requiring a superior gardener for his 
establishment at Langford Court, Somersetshire, he 
applied to Mr. Forsyth to obtain an instructive employ¬ 
ment for the gardener about leaving that place, and the 
two following letters tell the result. 
MR. J. H. ADDINGTON TO MR. FORSYTH. 
Downing-street, Nov. 15th, 1802. 
Sir, I am unable adequately to express my surprise at 
finding, that after having kindly promised me to find for my 
gardener a place under you, in which he would have oppor¬ 
tunity of improving himself., which was my whole object in 
recommending him to you, you have put him to the expense 
of a journey of 130 miles, and only to make a day-labourer 
of him, at common work, for 10s. fid. per week. Besides, 
bad it not been for the encouragement you had given me, 
he would long since have been provided with a situation 
suited to his merits. I shall never cease to consider such 
conduct as very extraordinary, especially after the repeated I 
expressions of obligation to me for attention to your con¬ 
cerns. I am, Sir, your humble servant, 
J. H. Addington 
I shall get him a place elsewhere. 
Mr. Forsyth’s reply was this— 
Sir,—I am extremely concerned that any tiling should 
have occurred respecting your late gardener to give you any j 
cause of offence. I never understood that he wished to lie 
instructed in the management of the hothouse till Friday 
last, otherwise I would certainly have told you that we have 
no other houses at Kensington than a greenhouse, and a 
few houses for forcing strawberries. I, however, told him, 
that as I had no hothouses under my management, that 1 
would most readily recommend him to a place where he 
would have full practice. I by no means wished to put”him 
on the footing of a labourer, on the contrary, although I 
did not want a man at this time, I had ordered that be 
should be put in the best place in the garden ; and as to the 
wages, it is all that I can afford to give at this time of the 
year, and 13s. in summer, and the best gardener in the 
kingdom who comes to me when out of place receives no 
more. When he delivered your letter, he intimated that he 
wished to go to a place; bad he mentioned that in the 
morning, I could have recommended him to one ; and I can 
assure you, Sir, that I entertain the utmost gratitude for 
past obligations, and have that high respect for you, that 
I would with the greatest pleasure do anything in my power 
to serve you, or any one you thought proper to recommend; 
but as there appears to be some unaccountable misunder 
standing in this affair, I beg you will permit me to wait 
upon you to-morrow morning, and I am fully convinced a 
few moments only will be sufficient to set everything in 
a clear light. 
GOSSIP. 
A correspondent (Sigma) has sent us the following 
remarks, suggested by the correspondence in the January 
number of The Cottage Gardener:— 
1. Greenhouse with boards. —The best covering for such a 
structure I have found to be the “ patent felt; ” its non¬ 
conducting powers are admirably adapted for keeping the 
house dry and warm, and it has the advantage of being able 
to be used with old boards, or with thin ones. I have a house 
used now for bees, the boards of which are only half-inch 
stuff, and came from an old shed that was pulled down. 
The cost is five farthings per foot. 
2. Protecting newly-sown seed from birds. —I have found, 
this year, by far the most effectual mode, is to strain a few 
strands of old worsted tightly between little sticks about an 
inch from the soil. 
3. Bridal bouquets. — Orange blossom is considered an 
emblem of matrimony, as the orange-tree bears fruit and 
flowers at the same time. 
4. Bottling fruit. —I extract a passage from “ Mulder’s 
Chemistry of Animal and Vegetable Physiology,” page 55. 
“If but a small disturbance of chemical equilibrium has 
occurred, tliat is to be regarded as a focus or centre from 
which the action extends. In every kind of fermentation, 
or putrefaction, this disturbance arises from oxygen. This 
was ascertained by Gay Lussac. He kept the juice of grapes 
for some days over mercury; it did not ferment, but the 
introduction of one bubble of oxygen was enough to origi¬ 
nate fermentation, which then proceeded spontaneously. . . 
. . . . Upon this principle the preservation of meat, vege¬ 
tables, &c., in vessels exhausted of air (and so deprived of 
oxygen), generally by ebullition, is founded; so is the 
method introduced by Appert, of boiling vegetable saps in 
bottles well corked, for the purpose of taking away the 
oxygen in the small quantity of the air left behind, and of 
uniting it with part of the substances; and also for the pur¬ 
pose of disturbing by the ebullition part of the chemical 
forces, especially those in the dissolved albumen, which 
becomes coagulated when boiled.” 
I have thought this extract might be interesting, as giving 
the rationale of the affair. What the exact mode of Appert’s 
