August 21. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
371 
into sandy leaf-mould, inearth pits, formed as you would 
make a wide Celery trench, and protects them with 
common hurdles thatched with straw. 
Beautiful as this flower-garden is—and valid, no 
doubt, as were the reasons for keeping it out of sight 
of the mansion—I have always felt a little disappoint¬ 
ment about it, just because it is not in the position in 
which I thought it should be placed. I recollect one 
evening, after visiting Luton Hoo, shortly after the 
improvements were commenced,—I hardly know whether 
I was really asleep, or only in a dreamy, imaginative 
mood ; but I was standing on the wide terrace on the 
south front of the mansion, and looking down upon a 
beautiful Italian garden ; the flower-beds glowing in the 
sunshine, divided from each other by green carpets of 
grass and walks of bright gravel; space and elevation 
given by standard Orange-trees and Portugal Laurels 
trained to match, and ornamented with statues and 
vases, and mellowed and softened down by the jets and 
cool trickle of fountains of water, supplied by the water 
seen at the cascade of the river below. As a man may 
become a great owner of castles in the air without in¬ 
fringing upon any man’s ground, so I may revel, at 
times, in this imaginative scene, without calling in ques¬ 
tion the reasons that dictated a different course. One 
comfort remains, that this fairy vision may, after all, 
some day be realised, as nothing that has been done 
would at all interfere with its being carried out, if the 
tastes and resources of the proprietor should at any time, 
however remote, so determine. 
At present, the chief access to the kitchen-garden from 
the house is along the carriage-road, past the stables, 
which brings you in on the north side of the garden, 
facing the sheds, &c., at the back of the hothouses. All 
well enough for common visitors; but unsuitable for 
house company, who ought to have the best scene of 
the garden as they enter. This is secured by the walk 
through the wood, which terminates on the east side of 
the kitchen-garden, and another finishing at the middle 
of the south side. These walks are terminated on the 
east side by the New Mill end approach, and separated 
from the pleasure-ground by the rising ground on the 
west of the pleasure-ground valley. Any amount of that 
brae, and the level ground between the pleasure-ground 
and the wildemess-wood, might be taken in as orna¬ 
mental-ground with propriety. It would be a great 
improvement to take in as much at the north side as 
would connect the wood and pleasure-ground together, 
and thus, as it were, form a connecting link between the 
mansion and the kitchen-garden. Such a walk might 
be thoroughly private, with the exception of crossing 
the approach. Even this could be avoided by driving a 
tunnel underneath it, which might be made very orna¬ 
mental, if desirable; while the entrance on each side 
would furnish rare homes for Alpines, Ferns, and such 
trailing plants as the lesser Vincas and Ilelianstemons. 
This would connect, without any obtrusive or unwelcome 
break, the mansion, pleasure-grounds, and kitchen- 
garden ; all the more necessary for securing privacy and 
seclusion, when, as in this instance, the ladies must go 
to the kitchen-garden to see all the finer hothouse and 
greenhouse-plants: 
I have unwittingly lengthened these remarks, and 
have little room for other matters I intended mentioning. 
I have some hopes they may be interesting to many 
who have visited these gardens, and may afford a theme 
for thought aud disoussion to those young gardeners 
that intend going. Whether any of the ideas thrown 
out should ever be carried out is altogether another 
affair, and the mere printing of them can do no harm. 
I shall now confine myself to a few points. 
The kitchen-garden is bounded by walls, as far as I 
recollect, in the shape of an octagon, comprising, out¬ 
side and inside, about seven acres; the new range of 
houses being placed on the north-west side. The vast 
quantity of lime-rubbish and broken bricks that had to 
be removed from the mansion furnished Mr. Fraser 
with a rare opportunity of draining and improving the 
soil; and splendid crops are now produced, in what a 
few years ago was an exhausted garden. The shape of 
the garden furnishes many aspects, outside and inside, 
for fruit-trees, all of which are doing well. The garden 
is divided by a wall across the centre; the south side 
appropriated to Peaches, and the north to Cherries; and, 
though planted only a few years, already the wall has 
been raised several feet, and furnished with a slate 
coping, to give the trees more head-room; the coping 
acting so far as a protector. Sueh a wall of beautiful 
symmetrical trees is not often met with. Various modes 
of training standard trees and pyramids round the 
borders have been resorted to, and all seemingly 
successful. A new mode (to me) of forming a table-trellis, 
chiefly of Cherries, is here resorted to. The branches 
of one tree are all trained one way, about two-and-a-half 
feet, or two feet, from the ground. The table will be 
complete when the branches of one tree extend to the 
bole of the next. The great advantage of this system will 
be the ease with which the fruit can be gathered, and 
protected from birds by throwing a close net over the 
table of fruit. The Gooseberry-trees are also trained 
with great nicety. Most of them have a clean stem, 
rather more than a foot in height, and from that point 
they rise and spread outwards, leaving the centre en¬ 
tirely open, and looking as elegant as a narrow based, 
wide, turned-over mouth of a fine vase. For effecting 
this object, Mr. Fraser uses a stout ring of wire, some¬ 
thing in the Gardnerian style, the branches supporting 
the ring, and the ring the branches. The bushes were 
loaded with fine fruit. I also noticed what was to me a 
NEW MODE OF GRAFTING TREES AGAINST A 
WALL. 
The object is to secure strength to the scions, and 
leave the bulk of the tree untouched until the scions 
had made vigorous growth to take the place of the 
branches to be removed. Those operated upon were 
Pears, and the system answered well. The trees had 
chiefly been trained in the fan method. The centre 
shoot was generally selected, deprived of all side-shoots 
and spurs; and then, at the proper time in spring, when 
the bark parts from the wood, slits were made in the 
bark on each side of this shoot, and bound up in the 
usual way. The shoots formed were trained horizontally. 
By-and-by the lower shoots were grafted in the usual 
way, and the rest of the fan-trained shoots being re¬ 
moved, a new tree was formed at once, without ever 
losing a crop. Mr. Fraser has also a peculiar mode of 
MAKING TALL DAHLIAS DWARFS 
by layeriug them down. Last year, the finest white bed 
of Dahlias I ever saw was so formed of Antagonist, 
and though a mass of flowers, was not above eighteen 
inches in height. Between the eastern boundary of the 
garden and the wilderness wood, are two long borders 
filled with Dahlias. The rows next the walks are chiefly 
Zelincla, and two others behind chiefly Fancies laid 
down, backed by some rows of the best Dahlias. The 
place is rather too shady for them, and yet there were 
many fine flowers open on the 10th. Mr. Fraser’s plan 
consists in growing the Dahlias pretty strong, and then 
taking the stem in his hand and twisting it so as to 
crack it a little, but not break it near the bottom. He 
has hardly ever had a stem snap. After this you can 
lay it down and move it about just as you like. 
Dwarf Dahlias are now getting much into fashion. 
Few of them as yet satisfy a florist. For a combination 
of dwarf, compact masses of colour, with fine quality of 
