April 18.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
29 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
w 
D 
D 
_ 
18 
_ 
Th 
19 
F 
20 
S 
21 
Son 
22 
M 
23 
Tu 
24 
W 
APRIL 18—24, 1850. 
Alphege. Swallows first seen. 
Sun’s declin., 11° 29' n. Song Thrush hatches. 
3 Sunday after Easter. 
Jelly Nostoc on lawns. 
20 iu St. George. Squirrel builds. 
24 W ' Winch at firs t heard. _ 
| 
Weather near London 
in 1849. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef.Sun. 
Day of 
Y ear. 
T. 50°—32°. 
W. 
Rain. 
59 a. 4 
59 a. 6 
0 
40 
6 
0 
40 
108 
T. 39°—32°. 
N.E. 
Rain. 
67 
VII 
1 
34 
]*) 
0 
54 
109 
T. 4/°—26°. 
N. 
Rain. 
66 
2 
2 
20 
8 
1 
7 
110 
T. 48°—27°. 
W. 
Fine. 
54 
4 
2 
55 
9 
l 
20 
111 
T. 48°—39°. 
s.w. 
Rain. 
52 
5 
3 
27 
10 
1 
32 
112 
T. f,0°—38°. 
s.w. 
Rain. 
50 
7 
3 
55 
11 
1 
44 
113 
T. 56°—43°. 
N. 
Fine. 1 
48 
8 
4 
21 
12 
i 
56 
114 
On the 7th of April, 1797, died the Rev. William Mason, author of 
The English Garden , a poem written to aid that better taste in the 
arrangement of extensive grounds, which, as noticed last week, Mr. Gilpin 
was at the same time advocating and advancing with prose and pencil. 
The first book, or canto, of this poem appeared in 1772, and the other 
three books between that year and 1782 . The harmonious weakness of 
its blank verse we need not here exemplify, nor would it be criticism 
justly placed to shew causes for condemning the long episode of Nerina 
in the concluding book. We may more appropriately observe upon the 
id that the foundation on which 
gardening taste exhibited in the poem ; anc.-.- . 
he wrought is good mav be judged from his definition of landscape gar- i lawyer are Coke’s Institutes m verse. 
, . . ,, ! TY » 1 _ ,L a n In > 1 11* to 1 
denmg in three of its lines :— 
“ The Art, which, varying forms and blending hues, 
Gives that harmonious force of shade and light 
Which makes the landscape perfect,” 
His condemnation of the old, formal style— 
“ When, borrowing aid 
From geometric skill, they vainly strove, 
By line, by plummet, and unfeeling 9liears, 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
i April 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849- 
| 
ry f 29.975 
30.201 
30.140 
30.224 
30.157 
30.003 
29.876 
29.695 
29.921 
18 
a, \ 29.924 
30.091 
29.980 
30.124 
30.101 
29.893 
29790 
29.308 
29.861 
R. 0.14 
_ 
_ 
ft.01 
— 
0.02 
— 
0.31 
0.28 
A f 29-895 
30.199 
29 959 
30.351 
30.081 
30.127 
29.813 
29.334 
29.484 
19 
M 29.881 
30.154 
29.766 
30.307 
30.032 
30.019 
29.712 
29.292 
29.204 
R. — 
_ 
_ 
_ 
— 
— 
— 
0.45 
« / 29 803 
30.150 
29778 
30.274 
30.139 
30.108 
29-884 
29.389 
29.806 
20 
M 29.682 
30.093 
29.690 
30.108 
30.078 
30.072 
29.742 
29-304 
29.564 
R. — 
_ 
_ 
— 
— 
0.03 
— 
0.39 
0.01 
r» r 29 904 
30.140 
29-849 
30.197 
30.103 
30.049 
30.027 
29.507 
20.926 
21 
\ 29 .~ 8 lO 
30.047 
29.833 
30.118 
30.014 
29.955 
29.962 
29.442 
29 .864 
R. — 
_ 
0.05 
— 
— 
— 
0.09 
-“ 
1 
n f 29.866 
29.994 
29-989 
30.233 
29-932 
29.873 
30.064 
29.563 
29.930 
22 
n -{29.734 
29.899 
29.815 
30.124 
29-924 
29.851 
29.950 
29.447 
29.762 
R. — 
0.03 
— 
— 
—— 
0.02 
0.22 
„ r 29.645 
29.901 
30.043 
30.234 
29.851 
29-815 
30.024 
29 679 
29.633 
23 
M 29.450 
29-878 
30.025 
30.090 
29.727 
29.773 
29.974 
29.652 
29.561 
R. 0.84 
— 
— 
0.27 
— 
0.03 
0.21 
n r 29 677 
29-948 
30.012 
30.178 
29.747 
29.865 
29.937 
29.823 
29.894 
24 
a ‘ 129-528 
29 921 
29 990 
30.070 
29.707 
29746 
29.962 
29.619 
29.704 
| 
R. 0.15 
0.01 
“* 
0.05 
0.08 
To form with verdure what the builder formed 
With stone ”— 
his pleading for adapting the plantations to the boldness or gentle slopes 
of the surface—for simplicity and a due regard to utility in all the deco- 
rations—are unexceptionablv excellent. Indeed, the whole poem may be 
read with pleasure, and without any suggestion being detected incon¬ 
sistent with good taste. This is saying that it achieves all that could be 
expected from it, and all that it could attempt; for practical directions 
written in poetry would be as little regarded by the gardener as by the 
He who was the advocate for taking nature as a model in gardening 
may be readily believed to be the author of that spirited satire, “An 
Heroic Epistle to Sir. W. Chambers,” who had laboured to render at- 
tractive the puerilities of Chinese gardening. There is also some reason 
for believing that he was the author of “ A Sketch from ‘The Landscape,’ 
a Poem, by R. P. Knight.” This concludes the short catalogue of his 
works relating to gardening, but others were among his manuscripts. 
These were unfinished at the time of his unexpected decease; for he is 
one of the many instances that death may flv to us on a feather as surely 
as on a bowman’s shaft. He wounded his shin when stepping from his 
carriage, and within two days the trifling wound had proved fatal. He 
was in his seventy-third year, and 
died—where he had lived the chief 
part of half a century—at his rec¬ 
tory of Aston, in Yorkshire. 
Meteorology of tiie Week. 
The average highest and lowest 
temperatures of the above days, at 
Chiswick, during the last twenty- 
three years, have been 58.6° and 
38.3°, respectively. During the 
same period, 97 of the days were 
fine, and on 64 rain occurred. 
Natural Phenomena Indi¬ 
cative of Weather. — When 
the surface of the sea is rough, and 
the waves, or “ swell,” rise with¬ 
out any wind sufficient to create 
them, a gale will shortly occur, and 
from the quarter whence the swell 
moves. We remember when voy¬ 
aging to and from India, the com¬ 
manders frequently and correctly 
foretold the occurrence of blowing 
weather from this indication. Mock 
moons (Paruselene) and mock suns 
(Parhelia) arc usually followed by 
much rain and high winds. 
The first English author who notices The Auricula is 
! old John Gerard. It is described and figured by him in 
I his “Herbal,” which appeared in 1597, and is there 
I called the Bear's Ear, or Mountain Cowslip . He says 
! there were then many sorts ; giving drawings of eight:— 
the yellow, the purple, the scarlet, the blush-coloured, 
and several reds. Gerard gives it the specific bo¬ 
tanical name of Auricula Ursi (Bear’s Ear); hut by 
Matthiolus and others it was named Sanicula alpina, 
from its supposed healing virtues and mountain birth¬ 
place. It was often called by ladies the French Cow¬ 
slip.’i 1 Parkinson says it obviously belonged to the cow- 
* It is very certain that auriculas were thus early much cultivated by 
French florists, for there is a poem in their praise, in a curious work pub¬ 
lished at Douay, in 1616 , entitled “Jardin d’Hyver;” and with the 
verses are numerous drawings of the Auriculas, or “ d’Oreilles d’Ours,” 
as they are there called. 
slip family, but Lugdwig was the first to arrange it there 
under the generic name of Primula. 
Gerard says that the eight kinds he enumerates were 
then commonly grown in the gardens about Loudon, but 
it is evident they were not much esteemed; nor is any 
notice taken of raising varieties from seed. 
This neglect soon passed away, for Johnson, in his 
edition of Gerard, published in 1683, says that there 
were then a very great many varieties of these flowers 
growing in the gardens of Hr. Tradescant and Mr. 
Tuggie. Tradescant’s garden was at Lambeth ; and he, j 
at the time Johnson wrote, was gardeucr to Charles I. 
Tradescant was a Dutchman ; and there is little room 
for doubting, that, bringing with him that knowledge of 
floriculture for which liis countrymen were even then 
justly famed, lie applied it to the improvement of the 
Auricula, which in Holland had been neglected. At ell 
No. LXXXL, Vol IV. 
