July 31. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
311 
Mr. Fish has lately written a paper on visiting 
gardens, and has made some well-timed and very 
judicious remarks on the benefits gardeners would reap 
by a more frequent visiting of gardens at a distance 
from their home. He has made a sort of a challenge 
to me, to induce me to give reports of places that I 
may visit in future, and requests me and others to give 
directions how to reach any place we may visit, so that 
others may, without loss of time, travel from some fixed 
point to see gardens where the art of gardening is 
carried on well. 
Hillingdon Hall garden is such an one, and any 
gardener wishing to see it should start from the Great 
Western Railway Station, at Paddington, by the seven 
o’clock train. He would arrive at the West Drayton 
Station in little more than half-an-hour, and would then 
have to walk rather more than two miles to Hillingdon 
Hall, and might see that place, and Hillingdon Park, 
R. Cox, Esquire’s seat, which is close to it; and then 
might, if he chose, take the rail again to Windsor, and 
see the Royal Gardens there, and return to London the 
same evening. I am sure he would be highly pleased 
with a day thus spent. 
Excepting the walls, the gardens at Hillingdon Hall 
have been entirely remodelled within the last seven 
years; that is, since Mr. Constantine undertook the 
management. Perhaps there is no place, at least in 
this neighbourhood, where so mauy new houses and 
excellent pits have been put up in so short a time. 
Indeed, on entering the garden it looks like a little 
town of glass, and the improvements are not confined 
to the garden alone. A splendid new mansion has 
been erected and is just finished, new stables are in 
progress, and the old house is being pulled down. The 
new mansion is built on a gentle eminence commanding 
extensive views. The pleasure-ground, too, hasundergone 
great alterations and improvements. Mr. Nesfield, the 
eminent flower-garden designer, has been employed, and 
has formed and laid out two very elegant flower-gardens 
in his peculiar style. One is on the east and the other 
on the south side of the house. On the west side there 
is a large sunk flower-garden, which was on the south 
front of the old house. This is very judiciously retained, 
and thus the new mansion has three flower-gardens, on 
three sides, all of a different character. On the west 
side there is to be a large conservatory, and a stove for 
exotic plants from warm latitudes. Somewhere close to 
the new house, it is difficult to say where now, there 
were, two years ago, several glass houses for the growth of 
plants, Vines, Peaches, and Nectarines; most of them 
have been removed within the garden, to clear the space 
for the new pleasure-grounds ; also the farm-yard build¬ 
ings have been removed to a greater distance for the 
same purpose; and many large trees lifted by Mr. 
Barron’s machine and planted again in proper situations. 
These will give the reader some slight idea of the ex¬ 
tensive and expensive works that have been going on at 
this place for several years. When the noble terrace 
walks are completed, the conservatories built, the park 
formed, and other alterations in progress are completed, 
there will be few places in the kingdom more attractive 
and complete. 
In the pleasure-ground there still remains a vinery 
planted with Muscats in a somewhat peculiar manner. 
Inside the house (which is a narrow one) there is a bed 
of rich earth raised, forming a pit about four feet wide. 
At each end two strong Muscat Vines, and four more in 
the centre, were planted three years ago, with the inten¬ 
tion of forcing them early. They were trained length¬ 
wise, that is, not up the rafters, in the usual way, but 
across them. They grew quickly and strongly, and 
produced a fair crop the second year, and have con¬ 
tinued to do well ever since, and so they ought to do. 
Every good point of culture was put in practice to 
obtain good early fruit. The border, and, consequently, 
the roots, was all inside and under control; no heavy rains 
or severe frosts could possibly reach and injure the roots. 
Root-action and top-action went on simultaneously. 
Hence there was no disease attacking the fruit, nor any 
check to regular progress, from the buds breaking to the 
fruit ripening. Such a narrow lean-to house is easily 
heated, and every process of vegetation completely under 
control. I am certain such a house would pay well to 
grow early Grapes for the London market. It might be 
put up and heated for twenty shillings the running foot. 
When I saw it this year the fruit was just changing 
colour and must be now nearly ripe. It will have to 
be removed as soon as the Vines can be taken up, and 
will be put up again in the same way. 
In passing through the pleasure-grounds I noticed a 
fine tree of that beautiful Pine, the Pinus nobilis , eight 
feet high, with branches spreading over a space nine feet 
in diameter, and well furnished down to the soil. This 
tree was purchased, at a great cost, from Mr. Barron, 
at Elvaston, moved from there, all that way, in the 
autumn of last year, planted on the level, in a prepared 
soil, on a dry subsoil. It stood the winter well, has not 
lost a single leaf, and is now growing freely; showing 
that the man who took it up, the man that packed it, 
the carrier that brought it, and the planter, all did their 
work carefully, properly, and well. This handsome Pine 
ought to be in every garden. It is very beautiful, keeps 
its colour all the year, is perfectly hardy, and grows 
freely. The only drawback on its general cultivation 
is its high price; a plant a foot high will cost ten 
shillings, or more, in proportion to its being furnished 
with branches and a decided leading shoot. It is a 
great pity somebody does not collect a quantity of seed 
in its native country (California), and send it over, so 
that nurserymen could afford it at a cheaper rate. The 
finest specimen of it is at Chatsworth. 
The grand treat, however, at this place, is, at present, 
the kitchen, or rather the forcing fruit-garden, for it is 
nearly covered with glass. There are three Vineries, 
four Peach-houses, eight pits (forming a square), each 
six feet wide and thirty-four feet loug, and one pit a 
hundred feet long by six feet wide, besides various pits 
for Pines, Cucumbers, Melons, and to force Violets and 
other early flowers. This account will give some idea 
of the great extent of glass in those gardens. I have 
omitted the plant-houses, for they are in the pleasure- 
ground, and are to be taken down and put to other uses. 
The Vineries are by no means small, paltry things. 
The largest is planted with Black Grapes, and is span- 
roofed, eighteen feet wide and fifty-five feet loug; the 
one adjoining it is for the Muscat Vines only, it is the 
same length but narrower (thirteen feet wide). The 
remaining vinery is for forcing early ; I saw the place 
in June, and the Grapes in this house were actually 
shrivelling with being so long ripe. There is a remark¬ 
able circumstance respecting the Vines in the latter 
house. They were planted four years ago in houses 
now removed. The Vines were then three years old, 
and had borne heavy crops of excellent fruit, which I 
had the pleasure of seeing repeatedly. They were 
strong and healthy, and the anxious query was, would 
they remove safely, and flourish well afterwards? Mr. 
Constantine determined, at all events, to try. As soon 
as the houses were removed, altered, and fitted up afresh, 
with the necessary additions of a new boiler, pipes, and 
the borders made of the best materials, the Vines were 
carefully taken up, every fibre preserved as far as 
possible, and planted. Such care was rewarded with 
complete success. Every Vine grew and made very 
decent wood, and this year they are bearing a good crop 
of excellent fruit. The roof being of the span form 
allows iron rods to be placed across the houses in a 
half-circular arched form. The Vines are trained to 
