THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 3. 
24; 
other largo iron gates and tall palisading, flanking a quad¬ 
rangle of the College. I thus allowed the whole coup d'ccil 
of the prospect to burst upon my view. Two extensive 
parallel grass lawns flank the central road ; that on tho right 
hand traversed at right angles by a gravel walk, and a 
border planted with annuals, herbaceous shrubs, and Yew- 
trees, Anally protected by a wall covered with Ivy; that 
on the left hand is flanked by a row of aged Yews ; then a 
broad gravel walk, canopied over by two rows of trimmed 
Limes; and on the other side of them a lawn, with large 
oval beds tilled with shrubs; a serpentine gravel walk also 
insinuates itself here, flanked by a broad border containing 
shrubs, some very fine old Elms, Horse-chesnuts, Oaks, 
Acacias, &c., and then the wall. Here, embowered amongst 
the trees, was to be found the refreshment tent. 
The lawn on the left of the entrance was occupied by two 
marquees, par excellence, and the Coldstreams’ Band. That 
on the right hand with three smaller exhibition tents, and 
two tents for the ladies, with the Thame Brass Band in the 
corner. Seen from the spot where I stood, the whole had a 
substantial and right pleasing effect; the College forming a 
back ground for the picture, with a medley of periods of 
architectural pretensions, parts of its time-honoured brow 
appearing dark and sombre, compared with the fresh and 
luxuriant tints of summer displayed by the full and varied 
foliage of the noble trees around. 
After enjoying the prospect for a short time, I made a 
quick passage through the tents, and from tho confined 
space (quite room enough, however, and to spare, to contain 
the productions sent), I am warned to make my notes; for 
in a short time to be able to do so would become next to an 
impossibility. 
It would be an invidious task in me to enter upon a com¬ 
parative criticism, or to insist upon my law as to how those 
productions should or ought to have appeared; I leave these 
nicer points to older practicals. What few remarks I may 
indulge in, will be made with a perfect good feeling, though, 
as a mere observer in passing, I will say, that were I to 
become an exhibitor at what might and ought to be one 
of the leading Horticultural Shows in the kingdom, I would 
endeavour to produce something worthy of it, and arrange 
my productions so that they could bo seen to the best advan¬ 
tage ; although I do not pretend to severe technical know¬ 
ledge, so termed, still, I would contrive to get good ortho¬ 
graphy, and the names of the plants legibly written, as short¬ 
comings were to be observed here to-day in these respects, 
more especially to those who would wish to treat the exhi¬ 
bition in a scientific point of view. Mr. Beaton’s report on 
the Crystal l’alace Fete is a study to begin with towards a 
proper arrangement of plants and fruit, their colours, &c. ; 
and his enthusiasm, as he wrote, even led him to say how 
they ought to be disposed at dessert. 
As we cottage gardeners do not profess to keep our 
thoughts under a bushel, but to circulate them freely, I will 
ask Mr. B., as a man of taste and judgment, if he approves 
of the mode of the dessert remaining upon the table during 
the time of dinner. I disapprove of it entirely; there is 
something so decidedly to be preferred by its fresh and 
refreshing appearance after tho more substantial viands are 
dispensed with. Fruit can never be so highly appreciated 
when it remains exposed to view during dinner, as a stale 
idea to be discussed afterwards. Now that the larger and 
coarser joints are served from the side table, rare and 
beautiful plants would properly be allowed to occupy their 
original sites; and these certainly would be food for the 
mind and conversation, without prematurely tantalising the 
appetite, and where no animal idea could become mixed. 
Flowers and plants could be so arranged, cross-corners, 
shades of colours, and so on, so that when the dessert made 
its appearance after the mutton, it could be so situated, in 
cross corners and colours corresponding to the flowers, 
shewing a new phase for effect at the proper moment, and 
enhancing the value of both. Likewise with the artistes of 
the kitchen ; their sides, flanks, removes, &c., could be con¬ 
cocted, according to their kind and colour, to correspond 
with the particular class of flowers intended for decoration 
that day, or any day, as long as the company stay, to the 
“ er, d of the chapter." Considering the subject after this 
manner, the minds of the gardener, the cook, and the 
butler, would become more connected, than, so far as my 
observation allows me to judge, has been the custom up to 
the present day; and I have seen dinners served in a great 
many of the first establishments in the country; and even 
from the lowest description of lodging house in the Mint, 
up to Royalty itself. 
Of a dinner in the Mint (one of the lowest neighbourhoods 
in the Borough of London) though, under the circum¬ 
stances I there encountered it, either for friend of mine, or 
any other person whatever, may the interposition of Provi¬ 
dence for ever save us from the partaking! I feel now I 
have mentioned so much, I may as well explain myself, and 
recount, in an episode for this paper, how and why I came 
to witness it. 
A fine young man (my cousin), through distress of 
mind, entered upon a career of dissipation, and he had 
been lost to his family for some time. By one of 
those mysterious clues which bring us intelligence, or a 
man, just when wanted, I was made acquainted with his 
whereabouts, when I at once set about his discovery. I 
found him—like a poor, wounded bird, as it conceals itself 
from sight when it is about to die—at a haven for the 
respectable fallen ; in fact, it was a hovel for the speculation 
of death ; poor creatures—men and women—allowed a 
miserable shelter and subsistence for the mere chance, it 
appeared to me, of divulging their names or their friends, 
whon a decent interment, and a reimbursement to their 
protector, generally followed; when they die, and make no 
sign—the workhouse (there was a workhouse in the Mint 
at the time 1 speak of) over the way, from which they 
shrank when alive, sent their undertaker, and the unfor¬ 
tunate was buried, with his, more generally her, sad secret, 
which, of course, proved a losing affair to the speculator. 
Well, I found out this place, and inquired of a fat, dingy, 
red-faced woman, if a young man of the name of W. H. 
was there; and I was answered in the affirmative by the now 
obsequious woman. I requested to see him, and was 
ushered into a little room, garnished with dirty, tawdry 
finery, and evidently got up for this sort of thing. Some 
satisfactory conversation passed, and the fat woman opened 
and made her exit through another door, quickly followed 
by myself; but this was a mistake, she requested me to stay 
where I was, and W. H. should come to me ; but I saw, at a 
glance, quite enough of that apartment; I shall never forget 
it, or the effluvia that issued therefrom. The poor suffering 
creatures, men and women indiscriminately, were lying on 
filthy bedding, upon the floor, around the room ; and on a 
table in the centre were basons containing, what appeared 
to me to be, broth and gruel for such as could eat,—and 
this constituted a dinner in the Mint! After some time tho 
young man appeared, supported between two women of 
sinister aspects; they placed him on the dingy sofa; and 
my readers must imagine a person in the last stage of con¬ 
sumption, with but a day, a week, or a month to live. Poor 
fellow 1 with great difficulty he poured out his heart to me, 
but I was too late to bo of any worldly service to him—and 
he died. A young woman, to whom he was sincerely 
attached, and with whom, for a long time, he had contem¬ 
plated marriage, was over ruled by her parents to marry an 
older and a richer man. From that day my relative was 
doomed. He had lived some years with a wholesale tobac¬ 
conist in the Borough; and had not the man with the money 
offered, or could \V. H. have proved true to himself, he 
might now, in all probability, have been a flourishing trades¬ 
man, for, at the time of his fall, his employer had it in con¬ 
templation to make him his junior partner. A year or two 
after this I was walking, in the evening, with my brother 
through the I laymarket, and I saw a fashionably dressed 
woman, who made me exclaim with astonishment, “Look 
there ! ” “ Yes,” said my brother, “ she did not live long 
with her husband, and now she is gay—very gay ! ” 
J. 
(To he continued.) 
COCKROACHES, OR BLACK BEETLES. 
Some of your readers may be glad to hear of an effectual 
poison for these disagreeable pests. I have succeeded in 
completely clearing my house of them by the use of Chase’s 
Beetle Preparation (14, Holborn). I recommend those 
