356 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September 8 , 1807. 
former wilderness are such groups of evergreen Oaks 
and single specimens of fine Hollies and Cedars of 
Lebanon as happened to stand in the right positions 
for heightening the landscape character of the surround¬ 
ing parts. He then converted the surface into a velvety, 
undulating lawn, from which distant views to the south 
and south-west are now obtained, which “views” must 
have been opened through the plantings of the park 
when the Stud House was first planned. 
Any landed proprietor who knew the place before this 
“ mucking of Geordy’s byre” may learn a useful lesson 
in improving the immediate neighbourhood of a country 
residence. The first thing he has to do is to get hold 
of a competent practical man to conduct his operations, 
a man in whom he can put implicit confidence, allow 
him a good round sum of money, and then leave that 
man to his own devices. It is not in flesh and blood to 
stand by quietly and see hosts of full-grown trees being 
pulled down close to one’s own house and castle without 
let or hinderance; therefore to be far away from the 
scene of these operations is the wisest course to adopt 
for one who really desires improvements on an old 
established place. 
Sir Joseph Paxton or Sir Charles Barry, or any other 
great artist in that line, could tell that the love of trees 
is so deeply rooted in the country mind that it is next 
to impossible to improve an old country seat if the 
owner has a finger in the pie; and great artists do not 
like to have their names associated with half-and-quarter 
measures. Far better, therefore, not to employ them at 
all if they are not allowed to do things according to the 
rules of their art. But, in addition to all that, there is 
this to be added—when the work of improvement is in¬ 
side the pleasure ground, and flower gardening is to 
form part of the improvements, there is not one land¬ 
scape gardener out of fifty who is able to plan a flower 
garden which will suit the modern style of planting 
them. They can trace you all styles of fancy patterns 
with the ease of ready writers; but, as far as I know, 
the whole art of planning flower gardens suitable for 
the present styles of bedding-out plants is in the hands 
of a few practical gardeners, and only a few of them. 
Mr. Kidd is one of the number, and he has planned, 
made, and planted a very neat and very suitable flower 
garden here since I last called. All his beds were brim¬ 
ful, without a single failure at the first start—a rare 
thing in flower gardening. His bed of Petunia Countess 
of Ellesmere was very good, but the deep purple is too 
heavy, and the eye is not large enough or white enough 
to give the full characters of a Shrubland Rose Petunia 
bed; but it is a better indoor plant than the parent. 
A bed of Jacksons Variegated Nosegay Geranium shows 
that kind to be the freest grower of all the variegated 
sorts, and the new bed was, if anything, too rich for it; 
yet it is a most useful tint, a reddish pink, and makes a 
fine bed. Another bed was of a kind of small-leaf 
Geranium, in the way of Shrubland Pet, which I never 
saw before. All the rest are of the well-known kinds. 
In front of the lawn, but hid from it by a swell made 
in the ground, runs a long border by the boundary fence, 
and, passing an “ arbour” archway, it goes on the whole 
length of the kitchen garden, which is five acres in 
extent. The whole length is as straight as an arrow, 
and nearly on a level, and I know not how many 
hundred yards long; but the whole border is planted 
ribbon fashion, that is, in straight rows, and one or two 
kinds of plants in a row, the back and tallest row 
being the only one which has more than one plant; but 
I did not make notes this time. A row of Calceolaria 
corymbosa, the scarcest of the good old yellow ones, was 
particularly showy, as was Flower of the Day; but the 
old Scarlet Variegated, the shot-silk bedding kind, shows 
itself here to be by far the most effective of that class 
(the variegated class) for a ribbon line. 
I never told the secret of the shot-silk bed; but the j 
Marchioness of Breadalbane found it out here with this j 
row, and gave special instructions as to how that kind 
and Lucidum, which is here also, are to be used for the , 
purpose of relieving the monotony of the globe-headed 
common Geraniums. 
The secret is in the loose or Nosegay shape of these 
kinds, giving light and shade in the sun and wind, shot- 
silk fashion. We should not be far wrong, therefore, 
if we were to assign the reason for the present run for 
Nosegays, and the origin of a new taste in flower bed¬ 
ding, to the “ shot-silk bed” itself. 
There is a strong scarlet Geranium here as old, 
perhaps, as George III., and I am now quite sure this 
kind was the mother of the Shrubland Scarlet, alias 
Smith’s Emperor. I fashed my brains long enough 
to little purpose trying to guess which could be the 
father or mother of that celebrated scarlet, and here it 
is at last. It beds, pots, and rows as well as any of the 
race, and Mr. Kidd has so much of it and of Tom Thumbs 
that he is not going to make a single cutting of the race 
this autumn. The marquis and his family being in 
the Highlands, Mr. Kidd can take up his old plants long 
before the frost, dry them very gradually, if not ripen 
them, in the lofts and stables, not cut an inch off them 
till the spring, merely stripping the leaves off, and he 
will store them in the stalls of the once royal stud. 
Here he has sufficient storage room for all the Gera¬ 
niums at Hampton Court, Kew, and the Crystal Palace. 
He says if you harden them off’ in time and do not 
crowd them they will keep in the dark among hay full 
four months, and that cutting them in the spring for 
cuttings does no harm if the okl stools are not excited 
till the wounds dry “of themselves.” Mr. Ferguson, of 
Stowe, warned us of the danger of cutting store Gera¬ 
niums in the spring, and I can say “ truth is here ” to 
his story. 
The two conservatories were gay with the usual sum¬ 
mer flowers, and a great number of Azaleas, Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, Camellias, Epacrises, and all the best spring 
and early summer flowers were basking in the sun here 
and there out of doors; and Fuchsias, for which Mr. 
Kidd has been long celebrated, promise to “come out” 
next year. They are good as they are, but nothing 
extra this first season ; but the wonder is how they 
could have any pot plants so soon. 
The five acres of kitchen garden form a grand model, 
a perfect pattern for the London market gardeners, and 
a new school for nineteen out of twenty of the very best 
of them. If any one should doubt my words let him 
go down and see. Give my compliments to Mr. Kidd, 
and tell him to show his Tomatoes to begin with; ask 
him how he can grow them in the open borders south 
and west, without a wall behind, better than the French 
ones in Covent Garden, and full ripe the first week in 
August; then ask him how many waggon loads he 
grows of them in the twelve months; ask, also, if it is 
l ight and proper, or at all possible, to cut them fresh 
and fresh every day in the year like Cucumbers; ask, 
also, to be shown the wall trees not eighteen months 
from the nursery in full bearing; ask if it be right to 
cut down maiden Peach trees; and, if you doubt him, 
go to Chiswick, and ask the “ spirit of the age” whether 
I am romancing or merely reporting. D. Beaton. 
ADDENDA TO GLEANINGS FROM BASING 
PARK. 
{Continued, from page 277.) 
The very title of gleanings, with the reasons assigned 
for not giving a general description, and the almost 
purely practical character of the deductions, together 
with the fact that I took no notes to assist my memory, 
