THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
221 
Ml W 
D D 
JULY 10 — 16 , 1851. 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
10 Th 
Wood-Vetch flowers. 
1 
30.373 — 30.335! 84—46 
N.E. — 
56 a. 3 
14 a. 8 
1 43 
11 
4 
56 
191 
IFF j 
Little Throat-Wort flowers. 
30.343 — 30.3251 84—47 
E. - 
57 
13 
2 20 
12 
5 
4 
192 
12 S 
White Lily flowers. 
30.343 — 30.2571 81—52 
N.E. — 
58 
12 
3 5 
13 
5 
12 
193 
13 Son 
4 Sunday after Trinity. 
30.213 — 30.202] 81 —4S 
E. — j 
59 
11 
rises. 
© 
6 
20 
194 
14 M 
Swallows congregate. 
30.202 — 30.129 81—52 
N.E. — 
IV 
10 
9 a 6 
15 
5 
27 
195 
15 To 
St. Switiiin. Golden-Rod flowers. 
30.136 — 30.125 75—49 
N.E. — 
2 
9 
9 37 
16 
5 
33 
196 
16 W 
Star-Thistle flowers. 
30.118 —29.990 81—51 
N. — 
3 
8 
10 2 
17 
5 
39 
197 
j Before us are two volumes just issued from the press, entitled The 
Correspondence of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, and the Rev. Wil- 
\ liarn Mason, two of the most accomplished minds of the last century— 
; both poets, both wits, and both most tasteful critics of designs in gar¬ 
dening. The familiar letters of such men could not fail to be stores of 
! amusement ; and no one can rise from the perusal of those letters with- 
i out acknowledging that their authors were most truly like fire-flies, very 
sparkling, but very very small. In our fourth volume we gave a slight 
notice of Mr. Mason, but there are much fuller particulars in these 
volumes, and we shall need no apology for placing them before our 
readers, as well as a memoir of the Earl, derived from the same, and 
other sources. 
Mr. Mason left a chronology of the chief events of his life, and we 
shall quote this, weaving among its bare threads a few fuller notes 
chiefly from his own pen. 
“1. Born Feb. 12, old style, 1724.—2. My mother died in childbed, 
the Christmas following.—3. Admitted pensioner at St. John's College, 
Cambridge, under Mr. Migley, June 30, 1743 j elected scholar of that 
College the October following.” And writing to Mr. Walpole, in 1775, 
he thus recounts some characteristics of his college career. “ Thirty 
years ago when I was turned tw'enty, I used to leave Cambridge for 
London whenever I had five guineas to spare, on what they called a 
scheme. My scheme was to dine every day at a chop-house behind St. 
Clement’s at two, in order to be in the middle of the pit at four, there to 
remain with all the impatience of expectation till the curtain drew up ; 
and this I continued to do daily while my money lasted, and with as 
much regularity as I at present go morning and afternoon to see the 
ancient maiden gentlewomen and decayed tradesmen of this famous city 
of York mumble their matins and their vespers.” “4. Nominated by 
the Fellows of Pembroke to a Fellowship in that society (a dispute 
having occurred between them and the Master concerning the right of 
election), when Middle Bachelor, 174 7 .—5. This dispute being com¬ 
promised, was admitted a Fellow by the Master, in Feb., 1749-— 6 - Ad¬ 
mitted to the degree of Master of Arts, July, 1749. Went into orders. 
Was instituted to the living of Aston, and appointed Chaplain to the 
Earl of Holdernesse, Nov., 1754 .— 7 . My father died, Aug. 26 , 1753 .— 
8. Archbishop Hutton gave me the Prebend of Holme, in the Cathedral 
of York, Dec., 1756 .—Appointed by the Duke of Devonshire Chaplain 
in ordinary to the King, July 2, 1757.— 10 . Resigned a bye Fellowship of 
Pembroke (which was given me by that society, after the foundation Fel¬ 
lowship became vacant), on institution to Aston, 1759 .—11. Appointed 
Chaplain to his present Majesty, Sept. 19, 176 1.— 12 . Dr. Fountayne, 
Dean of York, made me Canon Residentiary of that Cathedral, Jan. 7 , 
1762 .—13. Installed Precentor of the same church, on the resignation of 
Dr. Newton, Bishop of Bristol, and on that account, in his Majesty’s 
gift, Feb. 22, 1 763 .—14. Resigned the same day, to Archbishop Drum¬ 
mond, the Prebend of Holme, on having the Prebend of Driffield annexed 
to the Primateship.—15. Married the daughter of Wm. Sherman. Esq., 
of Hull, Sept. 25, 1765.—lG. She died in a consumption at Bristol, 
March 27 , 1767 . ‘Ah! amantissima, optima feemina, vale !’ *—17- John 
Hutton, Esq., Marshe, near Richmond, Yorkshire, died June 12, 1768 , by 
which death an estate in the East Riding came to me in reversion.—18. 
Mr. Gray died July 30, 1771 , and left me his Executor jointly, with Dr. 
Brown, Master of Pembroke Hall.— 19 . Resigned the Chaplaincy to the 
King, Aug. 1773.” 
His reason, and we believe the true one, for resigning the royal chap¬ 
laincy, is thus told by him to Mr Walpole:—“ I hear (for I have not 
seen the paper) that it has been printed as a piece of news, that I have 
resigned my chaplainship, and a cause assigned for it, which I fear will 
| offend Lord Hertford. 1 could wish, therefore, if it came easily into con¬ 
versation, that you would assure his Lordship, that my intention of re- 
! signing (for it is at present only intention) arises merely from my reso- 
i lution of not aiming at any further ecclesiastical preferment, but to sit 
I down uti conviva satur in a parsonage, which I have built for that pur¬ 
pose. That as this parsonage is in Yorkshire, and my temporal concerns 
also in Yorkshire, a London journey at a stated time is often inconvenient, 
and will be (when I advance more in years) constantly disagreeable. On 
' this account, and on this only, I mean to relinquish the chaplainship, and 
would wish to do it at any time when his lordship thinks it most eligible, 
* In a MS. book of Mason’s he has inserted : “ Epitaph on my dearest 
wife, written at Bristol Hot Wells.” It is not generally Known that the 
three last lines of this Epitaph are the composition of Gray.—See Cor¬ 
respondence of Gray and Nicholls (ed. Aid.) 
and I should imagine, that if you would please to intimate this to him, it 
would appear to him (as it is meant to be) a more civil way of proceeding, 
than by an abrupt letter of resignation. Remember you have, once at 
least, asked for a chaplainship, be assured if you ask for leave to resign 
one, you will find full as much gratitude from the person you do this 
latter favour for, as you did from the former.” 
At page 363 of our fifth volume, we noticed Sir W. Chambers, and his 
work on Chinese Gardening, exnressing our conviction that the satire ; 
upon it contained in an Heroic Epistle, and in an Heroic Postscript, were ! 
from Mr. Mason’s quiver. The volumes before us establish this con¬ 
viction, for in various passages of the letters before us, are allusions as 
to the modes adopted for avoiding detection; this secrecy was desired be¬ 
cause the attack upon Sir Kobert was made a covert, from behind which 
to assail the court and its prevailing politics ; hut the authorsh p is no 
longer doubtful, after this passage from one of Walpole’s letters. “ Keep 
my letter and print it in the Gazette, either before or after my death, if I 
deceive you. Tell—shew here—under my hand, that I exhorted you to 
publish both the Heroic Epistle, and the Postscript.” 
We must refer our readers to our fourth volume for a comment upon 
Mason’s “ English Garden,” and for the circumstances attendant upon 
his death, and postponing our memoir of Walpole until our nextnumber ; 
we will conclude for the present with this extract from the preface to the 
two volumes, a preface which makes us regret that their editor, the Rev. 
J. Mitford, has not been more copious in his notes. 
“ It was my wish, had time been allowed me, to turn from the heat and 
dust of these controversies, in which our two correspondents have been 
so long engaged, and to have represented one of them, at least, as he 
would best have appeared, in another and higher character, of the bene¬ 
volent pastor of his affectionate flock, the faithful guardian of their temporal 
interests, and the teacher commissioned to supply their spiritual wants. 
In this character Mason would have more advantageously appeared than 
we have yet seen him. The church, which he improved and adorned, 
still attests the pious munificence which alike increased its utility and 
beauty: the children of the present generation are the successors, of 
those, for whose temporal and spiritual advantages he made that careful 
provision, which now passing into the hands of his successors, has become 
a permanent blessing ; for he thought that within the walls of the humble 
village school must the early virtues be formed and take root, which are 
hereafter to preserve their bloom and fragrance amid scenes and climates 
the most ungenial and unfavourable to them. Nor would the dwelling 
of the author of the ‘ English Garden ’ be seen without respect and 
pleasure by all whose approbation is of value, from the discriminate taste 
with which it would be given. To those who may not have had the pri¬ 
vilege which we have enjoyed, of being admitted within those kind and 
hospitable walls, it may be interesting to know that the house which 
Mason built still remains unaltered, or only in the alterations which time 
requires, improved* :—that his library still remains on the same shelves 4 
his pictures still look down from the same spots where his hand had 
placed them; his closets still retain the curious and ample stores of 
literature that he deposited in them, and which have been ever since 
guarded with the most affectionate respect and attention to his wishes: 
and if the footsteps of the poet have long deserted the groves and gar¬ 
dens which he loved, the guiding Hand that formed them may still be 
traced, as it commanded its new and improved creations to arise. Among 
those trees which he planted, and which now, matured by time, spread 
their ampler shadows on the lawn, that same taste will be recognised, 
however confined the spot, in every winding walk, in each connected 
shade, and in every opening view, which hereafter expanding over a wider 
field, was to give, even to nature herself, a more pleasing and attractive 
dress ; to refine and multiply the tastes of a whole people, and to call 
forth an art which could alike bestow its minuter beauties on the peasant’s 
cottage, or spread its rich mantle of decoration over the most extended 
domain.” 
Meteorology of the Week. — At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 75 3° and 51.5° respectively The greatest 
lieat, 90°, occurred on the 12th in 1847, and the lowest cold, 41°, on the 
15th in 1848. During the period 112 days were fine, and on 56 rain fell. 
* “ Hanc vides villam ut nunc quidem est, lautius sedificatam pastoris 
nostri studio, qui cum esset infirmll valetudine, hie fer& setatem egit! ” 1 
These words of the Roman orator, with the alteration of one, may be ap¬ 
plied to Mason’s rectory at Aston, which he built at a considerable 
expense, adorned with taste, and which in his later days he seldom left. 
Two questions are just now being agitated, of so much 
interest to the lovers of flowers in general, and to nur¬ 
serymen and florists in particular, that we notice them 
thus prominently. 
The first case is concisely stated in the following 
letter:— 
“ Mr. A. rents of Mr. B. a piece of ground, at his nur- ; 
sery, ten miles from London, and grows his roses there, j 
because he finds they will not attain any size close to ! 
town, and ho pays a man five shillings a week to look j 
after them, visiting them himself occasionally. The ! 
question raised is, whether A has a right to show blooms j 
No. CXLV., Vol. VI. 
