252 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July .10. 
I think it necessary to mention this, to prevent any 
person who should visit Stowe first being disappointed as 
to the distance. When Mr. Eerguson was setting all 
established rules at defiance by his penny plants, a 
friend of our’s, wishing to see how his young women 
gardeners worked, and to judge of the commercial un¬ 
dertaking, paid a visit to Stowe, and was sent, by Mr. 
Eerguson, to Whittlebury, just as if it had been a hop, 
step and jump, far less than the “ mile and the bittock," 
and returned to Stowe thoroughly exhausted. Mr. 
Eerguson, being one of the finest pedestrians 1 have met 
with, thinking nothing of a score of miles before break¬ 
fast, is naturally apt to judge of the capabilities of other 
people’s legs by his own. 
The difficulty of making a two days’ tour, with Whit¬ 
tlebury as a central point, or, at least, a principal item 
in the journey, arises from the fewness of large places 
in its immediate neighbourhood, and the difficulty of 
getting at them. 
I lately gave an account of Altliorpe, hut the nearest 
point to that is Weedon, and that, I presume, is some 
seven miles distant. I have already mentioned Courteen 
Hall ; and close to Northampton is Delapre, several 
times mentioned in this work; and there is Lord Over- 
stone's splendid place, about five miles from North¬ 
ampton, where much new work is being done, and some 
fine ranges of pits erected. Coming back to North¬ 
ampton again, and taking the rail to Castle Ashby, will 
bring you within a short distance of the Marquis of 
Northampton s, a fine old place. 
The nearest places to Whittlebury, that I am aware 
of, are close to Towcester. One of these is the demesne 
of the Earl of Pomfret. It is worth visiting by a young 
man, just foreseeing how a departure from a first prin¬ 
ciple renders many other efforts unsatisfactory. A flower- 
garden is close to the front of the noble mansion, and it 
bore traces of having been several times altered, to suit 
varying tastes, and very likely always with more or less 
of improvement. As it is, however, it will never be 
satisfactory, because the starting point is wrong. The 
noble mansion presents a straight-lined front, and that 
line requires a similar straight line in the lawn that 
bounds the gravel in front, iustead of the fanciful curves 
it lately possessed. This would necessitate the re-mo- 
delliug of the beds; and if they were all removed from 
the front of such a pile, and transferred to the right, it 
would be a great improvement. There is a nice mixture 
of the Arboretum and Pinetum thrown up into mounds, 
with deep glades between, and these, we were informed, 
were intended to he filled with water—but that has been 
departed from—and now, single specimens are dotting 
the glades, which may ultimately mar the effect. 1 
understood that the primary design was given and so 
far worked out by Mr. Eerguson. 
Another place, close to Towcester, is also well worth 
visiting. Elm Lodge is a new place, the property of 
— llidgway, Esq., a wealthy London merchant. The 
house is finished, and the main works in the grounds 
are in the course of completion. The house stands 
rather near the road, hut otherwise in a beautiful posi¬ 
tion. There will bo a splendid terrace on the garden- 
front, over-looking a sloping lawn, fringed with an 
irregular lake of water, with meadows, &c., in the dis¬ 
tance. Mr. Eerguson, of Stowe, has had the laying out 
of the place, and has displayed great good taste in the 
forming of the lake—breaking it up into islands, form¬ 
ing romantic grottoes and picturesque mounds, as well 
as taking the utmost advantage of all specimens and 
groups of trees that were in the fields, before the place 
was appropriated to its present use. The forcing-houses 
and greenhouses arc on the same plateau as the mansion ; 
and Mr. Booth, the gardener, lias already shown that 
there will bo no want of good cultivation. 1 noticed 
here, what is not ofteu to bo seen in now places, and 
which is worthy of adoption, though there may be 
something of the professionally selfish in mentioning 
it, namely, that the proprietor has showed something 
like true economy in finishing his gardener's house before 
hardly anything else was completed. 
I fear that this information will little suit the wants 
of our correspondent. Provided two days are all which 
can be commanded, much would be gained by being 
able to start the night before, say by the 5.4.5 i\m„ 
from Euston Station, which would leave you at Blis- 
worth by 8'30 p.m., or, after taking you to Bletchley, would 
take youbytrain toBuekingham a little later. This would 
enable the tourist to start fair the following morning, after 
a night’s rest, and to make inquiries as to conveyances, 
, &c., if any could be got. I should then propose two routes, 
; taking in Whittlebury ; first, start with Stowe, then Whit¬ 
tlebury, Elm Lodge, Earl Pomfret’s, and find the way to 
j Roade, or Blisworth, calling at Courteen Plall, if the 
i former. If I intended to visit Earl Spencer’s, at 
| Althorpe Hall, I would stop at Weedon at night, and 
start in the morning. If I gave that up, owing to the 
distance, I would stay at Northampton at night, get 
j out to Overstone in the morning, get back again to 
Northampton, call at Delapre, and then rail to Castle 
Ashby, and get back to London by a late train. Sup¬ 
pose I went to Blisworth ; I would go to Whittlebury, 
calling at Lord Pomfret’s, and Elm Lodge, and either go 
on to Stowe, and thence to Buckingham, or return to 
Blisworth or Roade, leaving out Stowe, and calling at 
Courteen Hall, if possible. I would prefer taking Stowe 
on the route, and getting from Buckingham to Winslow 
junction, and thence on the Oxford line, .either to 
Bicester or Oxford. If I staid at Bicester, I would 
start early in the morning for Middleton, the seat of 
the Earl of Jersey, four miles from Bicester; get back 
: again—on to Oxford—see the Botanic Gardens—and 
thence by rail to Abingdon-road, and up to Nunham; 
thence back to Oxford, and by a late train to London. 
By dropping Middleton, and getting to Oxford the over¬ 
night, it would be possible to see the Botanic Garden, 
Nunham, thence get to Oxford, and take rail for 
Woodstock and Blenheim. No time, however, could be 
lost, in fact, to get home comfortably. Towcester, 
Whittlebury, and Stowe, would be sufficient for the 
first day, and Oxford Botanic and Nunham for the 
second, provided you wished to get to London in good 
hours. 
There is no end to the variations, even on the same 
route. Suppose you take Whittlebury and others the 
first day, you could go to Woburn Abbey on a part of the 
second, by taking the branch line at Bletchley; and that, 
like Stowe and Nunham, is a place well worthy of some 
hours’ inspection, while Mr. Forbes is well known' for 
his civility to his brother gardeners. Along the same 
North-Western line is the magnificent new place of 
Baron Rothschild, between Leighton and Berkhamp- 
stead; there are the very interesting nurseries of the 
Messrs. Lane, at Berkhampstead ; the splendid demesne 
; of Ashridge Ferric, about four miles from the same 
; place; the fine gardens of the Earl of Clarendon, near 
| Watford; and the tastefully-laid-out gardens of Lady 
• Rolceby, several times so ably described by Mr. Appleby. 
Without at all depreciating any of these places, and 
if it would be possible to leave the night before, say 
about 5.15, I would decidedly recommend a tour to 
Chalsworth and Trentham. It would hardly be possible 
to manage both easily and comfortably if you left 
London on Friday morning, at least, nothing else could 
be seen. By the first train in the morning you would 
get to Derby, by Rugby and Leicester, a little past nine. 
By going the night previously to Derby, you could em- 
I ploy the morning in seeing the splendid collection of 
| Coniferae, &c., at the Earl of Ilarrinyton’s, close to the 
town. Then take the rail to Ambcrgate, branch rail 
