THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 28 
58 
The above represents a Poultry Brisket or Pen, in¬ 
vented by Jonathan Gray, Esq., of Bathwick, near 
Bath, and intended by that gentleman as a model 
which might be adopted were the double purpose 
desirable to be combined of a basket in which the 
birds might travel to a show, and a pen in which they 
might be there exhibited. No. 1 represents it closed as 
when fowls are within it. No. 2 js the same open, but 
the three other sides fold down, so that if the birds are 
sold it may be shut up in a flat form, occupying little 
space, convenient for conveyance home, and for storing 
J when it there arrives. No. 3 is one of the rods 
for passing through the wicker staples that tit into 
the square holes shown in No. 2, and thus unite the 
sides. No. 4 represents one of the wooden bolts, b, 
which similarly fasten down the top and front to the 
sides and bottom, by passing through wicker staples, c, 
attached to them, a, a, are the wicker eyes, which keep 
the bolt in its place. This basket is 3 feet long, 2i feet 
wide, and feet deep, and when we say that it is made 
by the inmates of.*the Asylum for the Blind, at Clifton, 
we give a sufficient indication who ought to be em¬ 
ployed by any one desiring to possess one. 
COVENT GARDEN. 
We promised, a long time ago, we are ashamed to say 
how long, to give an account of how bouquets are made 
up in Govent Garden ; but so many other matters press¬ 
ing on us at once, w r c have never been able to give 
attention to the subject till now. All who have visited, 
or are acquainted with, London, must have observed the 
exceeding beauty and taste with which these bouquets 
are arranged, and the art which must be employed in 
forming them; and it has been an object of curiosity to 
many how such an arrangement is obtained Until | 
we set all our faculties of observation to work, we were j 
equally as ignorant of the subject as any of our readers ! 
at the Land’s End could be, but, after a little perse¬ 
verance, we at last arrived at it. The process is as 
follows :—Procure a quantity of the finest copper wire, 
such wire as is used in the artificial flowers which 
decorate the interior of ladies’ bonnets. It is with this 
that all the bouquets are tied; there is no string or 
matting made use of. Let a portion of this wire be 
kept in a coil, for tying, but let a portion of it also be 
cut into lengths of about six inches. Having decided 
what the device of the bouquet is to be and the flowers 
of which it is to be composed, let one of these flowers 
form a centre-piece, or “ foundation,” as the ladies say, 
when they begin knitting a purse. This centre-piece 
forms, as it were, the centre of the circle, and all the 
other flowers are to be arranged in concentric circles 
round it. One end of the coil of wire is fixed to the 
stalk of the centre flower, and every single flower which 
is added is secured by a twist of the wire, much in the 
way we have seen boys tying a whip on the end of a 
stick. These bouquets are not formed of large bunches 
of flowers, such as a great truss of a Scarlet Geranium, 
or a spike of a Hyacinth, but single flowers, or florets, 
or bells, only are used. To supply the want of a long 
stalk, in such cases, to bend them by, the six-inch 
lengths of wire are twisted round the short stalk's of 
the florets or bells, and these serve in place of stalks. 
Camellias also are furnished with these artificial stalks, 
when the natural one is too short; and when the bouquet j 
is completed, the stalks of the flowers are, in fact, a 
bundle of w'ires. It is thus that so much device is ob- I 
tained, which could not be had by using large bunches 
or trusses of any particular flowers. 
I 
