August 22.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
311 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
w 
D 
AUGUST 22—28, 1850. 
Weather near London 
in 1849. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef.Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
22 
T11 
Gold Spot Moth seen. 
T. 70°—57°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
58 a. 4 
8 a. 7 
rises 
© 
2 
44 
234 
23 
F hStarlings flock together. 
T, 70°—54°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
V 
6 
7 a.37 
16 
2 
28 
235 
24 
S 
St. Bartholomew. 
T. 77°— 53°. 
N.E. 
Fine. 
1 
4 
8 0 
17 
2 
13 
236 
25 
Sun 
13 Sun. aft. Trinity. Winged Ants migrate. 
T. 77 0 — 52°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
3 
1 
8 22 
18 
1 
57 
237 
26 
M 
Prince Albert born, 1819. 
T, 79°—5B°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
4 
VI 
8 44 
19 
1 
40 
238 
2- 
Tu 
Grev Plover comes. 
T. 6(i°—51°. 
N.W. 
Fine. 
6 
57 
9 7 
20 
1 
23 
239 
28 
W 
St. Augustine. The Knot arrives. 
T. 73°—58°. 
S.W. 
Rain. 
7 
55 
9 33 
21 
1 
6 
240 
It is a propensity of the unthinking to attribute to the artist faults 
which really are referable solely to his patrons. On returning from the 
Exhibition of Pictures at the Royal Academy, how usual is the outcry 
against artists for displaying so many portraits ; yet those portraits would 
not be there if the painting them were not the most encouraged depart¬ 
ment of the art. So in garden designing, it is usual to laugh at the 
tasteless gardeners of the l/th century, who never aimed at other beauties 
than those attained by mathematically arranged beds and borders on 
either side of a central walk, where 
“ each alley has its brother, 
And one half the garden just reflects the other.” 
But why was this, except that their employers had no relish for a less 
formal arrangement ? That the answer must be acquiescent seems 
inevitable, if we consider that no sooner had a taste for more natural 
beauty been called into activity—no sooner was there a demand for such 
painting in which streams, hills, trees, and flowers were the materials 
placed in the artist’s hands with which to surround the mansion with 
pleasing pictures—than that artist was found fully equal to the task. 
Addison and Pope, in the Spectator and Guardian, were the first to treat 
practically of such garden designing ; and four couplets of the poet last 
named gives the outline of the art:— 
“ Consult the genius of the place in all; 
That tells the waters where to rise or fall, 
Or helps th’ ambitious hill the heavens to scale, 
Or scoops in circling theatres the vale ; 
Calls in the country, catches op’ning glades, 
.loins willing woods, and varies shades from shades ; 
Now breaks, or now directs th’ intending lines; 
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.” 
Pope at Twickenham and Addison at Bilton exemplified the style they 
admired and advocated ; they aided to render it generally admired and 
sought for ; and then was it found that Bridgeman and Hunt were quite 
competent to realise the desires of their patrons ; nor have worthy suc¬ 
cessors ever failed us since, for we have had Wright, Brown, Holland, 
Eames, Repton, and Loudon. 
Now, although it is extraordinary, as we have remarked, that artists 
are blamed for not effecting certain achievements, so is it more extraor¬ 
dinary, that no sooner have they brought them to pass than another class 
of the public, with minds differently constituted, immediately discover 
that the success has not the merit of originality, but that some one, or 
some nation, did the same ages before ! So has it happened with Land¬ 
scape Gardening ; for that style so peculiar to us as to be known now to 
all the world besides as English Gardening was ridiculed by the French 
under the title of Le gout Anglo-Chinois , or Anglo-Chinese taste ; and 
even a man so usually accurate in judgment as Dr. Joseph Spence 
published a work to prove that the Emperor of China’s pleasure-grounds 
were laid out on principles similar to those of our landscape gardeners. 
The volume we allude to was published in 1757> and entitled, Some 
account of the Emperor of China’s Gardens , near Pekin, by Sir Harry 
Beaumont; for the doctor discreetly avoided acknowledging the author¬ 
ship. It is compounded of translations of the Jesuits’ letters, who were 
endeavouring to diffuse Christianity in the Chinese territories ; and even 
supposing all their statements to be true, yet we find nothing in the 
description of the imperial garden giving us any idea of attention being 
paid to nature, except a determined irregularity. It contained 200 gilt, 
painted, and varnished palaces, hills 60 feet high, bridges serpentine as 
the rivulets, and a mimic town, in which the eunuchs of the court imi¬ 
tated the employments of Pekin for the Emperor’s amusement. Here, 
too, adds Mr. Walpole, his Majesty plays at agriculture—there is a 
quarter set apart for that purpose; the eunuchs sow, reap, and carry in 
the harvest in the imperial presence ; and his Majesty returns to Pekin 
persuaded that he has been in the country. Dr. Spence’s practice was 
not an exemplification of English and Chinese gardening being identical, 
for we are told that the grounds about his residence at Byfleet, in Surrey, 
were models of taste—that best of taste where no more of art is seen 
than is shown by all the selections and arrangements being from nature’s 
best. Dr. Spence was a man devoted to intellectual pursuits, of refined taste 
and candid judgment; and his was indeed a pure and beautiful character, if 
that be faithful given by Mr. Ridley in his excellent “Tales of the Genii.” 
Our readers may be surprised to find that “ the Dervise of the Groves,” 
Phesoi Ecneps (his names reversed), was intended as a portraiture of 
Dr. Spence. It is not within our province to dwell upon the literary works 
by which he is best remembered—“An Essay on Pope’s Odyssey,” his 
“Polymetis,” and his “Anecdotes of Literary Characters.” His taste 
aided that of Shenstone in adorning the Lcasowes ; and the “ Dervise of 
the Groves ” appears to have been especially happy in the construction 
of garden seats and alcoves. “These seats,” says Phesoi Ecneps, 
“ which first I raised to rest my wearied limbs, reflection dedicated to 
the memory of my virtuous friends, whose loved images alternately 
strike my fancy as I walk.” Shenstone therefore appropriately com- 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
Aug. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
— 
1849- 
22 
B. 
(■29.874 
29.929 
29.640 
29727 
30.207 
30.055 
29.763 
29.643 
30.1*83 
129.300 
29.913 
29.477 
29.69s 
30.184 
29.994 
29.666 
29.577 
30.126 
R. 
0.58 
— 
0.32 
— 
— 
— 
0.09 
0.06 
— 
23 
B. 
r 29.884 
29.888 
29.619 
29.726 
30.139 
30.123 
30.060 
29 797 
30.132 
129.797 
29.869 
29.412 
29.673 
30.004 
30.082 
29.886 
29.527 
30.125 
R. 
0.01 
— 
0.95 
— 
0.07 
— 
0.01 
0.U4 
— 
24 
B. 
t 30.094 
29.840 
29-787 
29.746 
29.979 
30.210 
30.124 
30.020 
30.132 
\ 30.048 
29.725 
29.599 
29.659 
29.975 
30.138 
30.075 
29.887 
30.115 
It. 
0.13 
0.22 
— 
— 
— 
— 
_ 
0.03 
— 
25 
B. 
f 30.079 
29725 
29.889 
29.976 
30.004 
30.210 
30.113 
30.034 
30.112 
\ 30.059 
29702 
29-835 
29.902 
29.824 
30.194 
30.071 
30.005 
30.097 
B. 
0.07 
0.28 
— 
— 
0.04 
— 
_ 
0.01 
— 
26 
B. 
f 30.225 
29.916 
30.068 
30.052 
30.020 
30.148 
30.227 
29.837 
30.100 
\ 30.181 
29.818 
29.929 
30.007 
29-850 
30.051 
30.146 
29.815 
29-985 
It. 
— 
— 
0.01 
— 
— 
— 
_ 
0.04 
— 
27 
B. 
/ 30.244 
29.940 
30.139 
30.082 
30.182 
29.998 
30.297 
29-839 
29-983 1 
1 30.142 
29.933 
30.080 
30.078 
30.080 
29.950 
30.254 
29.816 
29.959 . 
R. 
— 
0.20 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
0.01 
— 
I 28 
B. 
r 30.189 
29.977 
29.994 
30.137 
30.296 
29.936 
30.305 
29.956 
29-975 | 
130.125 
29.976 
29.916 
30.110 
30.217 
29.921 
30.197 
29.821 
29.927 1 
R. 
0.14 
0.05 
“ 
0.02 
0.06 
0.10 
0.01 
memorated his friend by inscribing 
on a seat within a clump of beech 
trees — 
Josepiio Spence, 
Eximio nostro critoni ; 
Cui DICARI VELLET 
Musarum omnium et 
Gratiarum chorus 
Dicat amicitia.* 
He was born in 1698, and was 
accidentally drowned in his garden 
on the 20th of August, 1768. 
Meteorology of the Week. 
From observations at Chiswick 
during twenty - three years, the 
average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 71.6° 
and 50.1°, respectively ; 95 of the 
days were fine, and on 66 days rain 
fell. 
* To our unequalled critic 
Joseph Spence ; 
To whom Friendship dedicates 
What a chorus of all the 
Muses and Graces 
Would wish to be dedicated. 
Insects. —Having described the Working Bee (page 283), we will now 
proceed to similar particulars relative to the Queen Bee. Her body is 
much longer than that of either the Drone or Worker; head, like that of 
the latter, but tongue more slender and shorter ; under jaws (maxillre), 
straighter; upper jaws (mandibles), forficate, reddish pitch colour, termi¬ 
nating in two teeth, of which the exterior is acute, and the interior 
blunt; upper lip, tawny; and antenna;, reddish black. The scales 
defending the base of the wings, red-black ; urings reach only to tip of 
third abdominal segment; shanks and feet, reddish tawny; hind shanks, 
flat above, with short hairs, but no marginal fringe of hairs (corbicula) 
for carrying pollen, nor pecten , and the plantw have no hairs in strife, 
nor the auricle at the base. The abdomen, much longer than the head 
and trunk together, lengthened conical, and sharp-pointed; its dorsal 
segments tawny at the top, with short pale hairs ; ventral segments , 
tawny, with longer hairs ; anal segment, black ; the sting (properly, 
vagina of the spicula) curved. However numerous the queens produced in 
a hive, all but one are destroyed; the old queen always leaves the hive 
with the first swarm. The queen is the mother of all the bees produced; 
she begins laying eggs which produce workers, and continues to lay them 
solely for eleven months, and produces from 70 to 100, 
100 to 200 daily. In the spring she lays about 2,000 
drones. 
000—laying from 
eggs, to produce 
No. XCIX., Vo l. IV. 
