THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 9, 1857. 
I have included the cost of heating these houses, hut 
several boilers are now exchanged lor one of Thomson s 
triple retorts, which answers very well, and is a great 
saving of fuel, though from circumstances the boiler did 
not seem set to the best advantage. One of these cir¬ 
cumstances was the impossibility of getting down on 
! account of water, a fact which I could scarcely have 
believed unless I had seen it. The water in the stock- 
liole was standing almost up to the fire-bars of the 
furnace, and during winter and spring water may be 
procured anywhere in the nursery at little more than 
two feet from the surface. At that depth water was 
found standing in pools in the nursery, and also on the 
common, close to the scene that witnessed the thick of 
the fight at the battle of Barnet. The soil seems a 
sandy loam on a bed of gravel. The surprising thing is 
that this ground is amongst the highest cultivated soil 
in England, and whilst the water is so near the surface 
at this eminence, in the valley in the vicinity, some 
hundreds of feet lower, the well-diggers must descend 
several hundred feet more, through a clay substratum, 
before they can get water. Nay, in the town itself, on 
one side of Union Street, water can be procured close to 
the surface, while on the other side it can scarcely be got 
at any depth. In the one case it is likely that the rain 
that falls during the season cannot get away, owing to a 
pan of unctuous clay at a short distance beneath; in 
the other a descent must be made until gravel or sand is 
reached. Perhaps some geological friend will solve the 
seeming mystery. Mr. Cutbusli’s well is only about nine 
feet deep, and has never been dried. He proposes in the 
case of his furnace, as soon as the water sinks a little in 
the middle of summer, to sink his furnace, and lay the 
bottom and build the sides strongly and securely in 
cement to prevent the water rising, as the raising of the 
boiler would necessitate the raising and altering the 
whole piping for hot water in the establishment. 
One word more as to heating. Most o.f the pipes in 
the newest houses, after passing a short distance from 
the furnace, are joined together with Portland cement, 
and they have never cracked nor leaked. The pipes are 
first placed, then kept in their proper position at the 
joints by means of some little wooden pegs, so as to have 
an equal space all round. A little tow or stout brown 
paper is used to abut against the shoulder, and the 
cement, somewhat thick, is rammed in. This is a very 
expeditious mode of fixing, and when necessary the 
pipes are easily taken apart again. 
With such a soil and such moisture beneath* it would 
be desirable to see how many of the bulbs we import 
might succeed. Most things seemed to be at home in 
it. I noticed some fine Yew hedges more than 150 
years old. There were fine quarters of Sweet Bay that 
seemed capable of being moved and removed any day; 
large groups of hybrid Rhododendrons in the natural 
soil, that moved with such large balls as never to feel 
the lifting; and, not to enlarge by going into detail, I 
would merely chronicle that the pre-eminent out-door 
feature of this nursery is Holly, which seems to be per¬ 
fectly at home. The plants are grown just with room 
to develope their beauties in heights from twelve feet to 
twelve inches, and embracing every possible variety of 
smooth and curled, spotted and variegated. Of the latter 
kinds some thousands, I was informed, were grafted 
every year. I was given to understand that the trade 
J were large purchasers. There can be no doubt as to the 
j trees moving, for at the farthest each plant is replanted 
every two years. September and May are the times 
chosen for the operation. When, as in the present case, 
May becomes a dry and warm month, then the operation 
is delayed until September, so as to avoid the necessity 
of watering. The latter month would, therefore, seem to 
| be the most suitable for purchasers if it suits Mr. Cut- 
bush so well. These Hollies arc worthy a journey to 
see, and are fn themselves a little sunk fortune at the 
price at which good specimens are generally sold. I 
have not attempted to mention many fine specimen 
greenhouse plants now coming on, as most likely they 
will be heard of during the season. For one thing, in 
these days of overcrowding, so as to meet the require¬ 
ments of the fashionable bedding system, I would wish 
the employers of gardeners to visit this nursery, where 
they would see that fine specimen plants can only be 
obtained by giving them ample room, and that full beds 
and fine specimens should Ido provided for by separate 
and distinct accommodation. R. Eish. 
THE CHISWICK FLOWER SHOYV.— June 3. 
The “ glories of Chiswick” have been as completely 
turned upside down as the trenching of a flower-bed for 
Tulips Excessive legislation to prevent fools from 
cutting off their own heads, to keep the cuckoo and all 
the sparrows from seeing the flowers, to prevent people 
from smiling and from shaking bands for fear of con- 
! spiracies, and to make all the gifts and “ glories” of 
j nature more in one prescribed circle, like a florist’s 
j Pansy, has been buried ; that is, this kind of legislation 
I has been buried in the bottom of the trenches at the 
' off-side of the “ American ground.” And thus ended 
the first Horticultural Society in the world. There was 
nothing in the world of flowers, however, which was 
more perfectly in gear than the arrangements of the old 
Chiswick Shows; the “ Park,” the “ Palace,” and the 
new Chiswick lack some of the springs which made those 
arrangements so elastic that dire adversity itself could 
not snap even the most minute turn in the mechanism. 
Your humble servant was the last guard on the old 
coach, and the oldest of them on the staff; and, in sub¬ 
mitting to the “ powers that be,” it is but plain justice 
to say thus publicly, that as far as I was personally 
concerned and connected in the old Society I do not 
recollect having ever had to complain of the Society or 
any one of its officers, from the highest to the lowest. 
The change in the appearance of the garden on the 
shortest notice shows the difference between a tea-garden 
in the neighbourhood of London and “ the gardens” 
at an old English residence in the country, as much as 
the other changes showed the difference between a 
Society attempting to do things which could have been 
better and cheaper done by private enterprise, and 
another Society which aimed only at stimulating the 
exertions of the gardening world. O ye “ Northern 
Athenians” of Auld Reekie!” ye people of “ Enbro’,” 
the admirers of Christopher North and the Etrick Shep¬ 
herd ! how do you now estimate your new tea-garden 
after rejecting the proof-spirit of the age in the plans of 
the “ wee bit laddie?” as my Lady Ruthven called him 
the other day, when telling us, with the pride of a 
Scottish matron, of “ those who hae wi’ Wallace bled;” 
that Mr. McEwen was brought into the gardening 
world at Ruthven, opposite “ the hill of Moncrief,” 
where the finest landscape views in Her Majesty’s do¬ 
minions may be seen ; from whence, also, the proud 
Roman first experienced the awful realities of the 
Grampian range—the second Alps, the barrier to his 
northern sway. Landscapes such as these could not 
fail to make a lasting impression on an ardent “ spirit of 
the age,” “ the wee bit laddie,” the head gardener of, 
now, the first Horticultural Society in the world; and 
that he has already turned the “ glories of Chiswick” 
to such account is easily to be derived from the hill of 
Moncrief. 
The garden, besides the new improvements, was 
furnished. For the first time all manner and styles of 
artificial accessories which are met with from our ducal 
to our tavern gardens were well represented, and as well 
