2S6 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 16, 1859. 
charm of the summer is gone before then, and grumblings and 
ill-satisfied looks take away the interest of the flower garden. If 
there are not conveniences for keeping and growing plants for a 
certain number of beds, it would be better for all parties if these 
beds were either reduced in size or some of them done away with, 
than having the whole presenting a starved, naked appearance in 
July. Some object to plant thick, because the beds get too 
massive, and one plant only injures another; but there is no 
great difficulty in disleafing and thinning in autumn to keep all 
right in this respect, and that is more pleasant than worriting and 
worrying because no methods will cause the plants to cover in 
time enough. I have long been a thick planter, but Mr. David¬ 
son outdoes me. I feel certain that through July and onwards, 
these groups at Worsley must have been and continue to be a 
picture. 
2. The out-jutting ground-plan of the first terrace permits 
of a fine octagon basin of water in front of the mansion. This 
is surrounded with elegant scroll beds, and these all filled with 
the blue Lobelia erinus. Contrasted with the light stone work, 
the effect was good—-far-better than would have resulted from a 
mere mixture or contrasting of colours. 
3. The gardens 1 and 2 in Eig. I. were very beautiful and 
nicely arranged. Mr. Davidson, I am sure, will forgive me if I 
allude to one feature I would alter. The garden No. 1, for 
instance, is bounded on the south side by a nice Holly-hedge ; 
behind that is a small border for Roses, &c. ; then a level space of 
lawn and narrow gravel walks before coming to the small sloping 
bank which bounds the panel. The space between the bank and 
the hedge may be twelve or fourteen feet. Along the side of the 
walk, on the grass, half standard Roses are planted at regular 
distances; and each of these has a little round bed some fifteen 
or eighteen inches in diameter, and filled, too, with bedding 
plants. Now, I find from experience, from having Rose trees in 
an avenue of beds, that such flowers do not combine with bedding 
plants, except for a short period in the season. Then there is 
the constant disfigurement they give to grounds when thus 
placed singly as their petals begin to fall. One of our greatest 
gardeners used to have beds of Perpetual Roses in his grouped 
flower garden, and it became a sort of standing discussion be¬ 
tween us. He has now removed the whole, as the black, un¬ 
healthy foliage in the autumn became too unbearable by the side 
of glowing Geraniums and Calceolarias. Roses, however lovely, 
are, therefore, best by themselves in general. Besides these 
considerations, the little dots of flowers at their bottom, in these 
gardens, are apt to divert the mind from the contrasted massss 
of colour in the panel garden. "With such gorgeous masses these 
dots neither combine nor contrast. Were the space all empty, 
there would be more of a relief, and a background. If mere 
clothing and contrast were wanted, then I should like to substitute 
upright pointed bushes of Juniper, Yew, Box, &c., clipped so as 
to be in keeping with the architecture of the mansion, and have 
no flowers except in the sunk panel. 
4. It will be perceived that in these terraces, which I should 
presume to be some 700 feet or more in length, there is nothing 
between the first terrace wall and the splendid flower garden 
near the lake to arrest the eye, except the row of Irish Yews on 
platform (5). The rest is all grass and gravel on the level, or 
grass hi slopes, with the exception of the ribbon borders some 
ten or twelve feet wide. I did not think of asking Mr. David¬ 
son if that were the state of things decided upon. Nor do I 
consider myself competent to pass a judgment; but, consulting 
my own feelings, I should wish for more stand points, in the way 
of artistic architectural-looking shrubs. Every person, however, 
has a right to have his own tastes gratified if he can. Some 
friends of mine, and their employers, too, are delightfully pleased 
when they can get their grouped beds in a symmetrical garden as 
nearly as possible of one uniform height. In many cases, as in a 
sunk panel, this is desirable; but carried out in all cases, this 
monotonous uniformity of level would, to my eye, be perfectly 
unbearable. I should long for relieving points in the shape of 
raised beds, standards in beds, elegant shrubs by themselves, 
vases, &c. There is variety in these grounds, merely from level 
and slope ; but still, with the exception of the Yews, the variety 
leaves you only green grass still. The ribbon borders, as generally 
planted without starers, are just a level mass of lines of colour, 
when seen from a height, I dare say I should be anything but 
right, but I certainly should like more regular-formed evergreen 
shrubs on these Bpleudid terraces. 
5. Under such circumstances, the wide gravel walk that divides 
the flower garden (7), comes in as a relief, merely from its colour. 
Otherwise I am not one of those who hold that the wider a 
gravel w r alk is, the more noble and splendid it is. In general, 
apart from all purposes of utility, the greater the width the 
greater the waste and ugliness. I know I can have no sympathy 
with those, who, in a limited space, prefer to look upon brown or 
red gravel instead of the green grass. The grass staircases at 
present seemed in unison with the massive simplicity of the 
slopes. 
6. The flower garden, the plan of half of which is given at 
page 400, Yol. XXI., is beautifully planted, so as to command 
efficiency, simplicity, and novelty. Mr. Davidson, I presume, 
changes his planting every year. He kindly helped me to note 
down what the beds were tilled with, but my book got drenched 
in a thunder-shower, and rendered the most of the marks un¬ 
readable. By looking at the plan, however, I shall be able to in¬ 
dicate the chief differences. Eor instance : 1 and 3 on each side 
of the basin of water are Brilliant Scarlet Geranium ; 2 and 4 
Trentham Rose ditto ; 15 and 16 are blue Larkspur, edged with 
Mangle's Geranium. The two scroll beds to the right and left 
of these, not numbered, on each side, are yellow Calceolarias. 
The hand group at each end are planted similarly, as 12 and 7, 
Spothea California (?) or something like that, very like the old 
annual Cladanthus Arabians, an orange syngenesian plant; 6, 
8, 11, 13, rose Verbenas; 5, 9, 10, 14, purple Verbenas. The 
box chain pattern had the triangles planted with variegated 
Alyssum, and the small pathways between filled in with fine 
blunt red earth. The four raised beds, 17, 25, 29, and 37, were 
planted with three rings each. Centre, Compaction Geranium; 
second, Caie’s yellow Calceolaria; and widest near the base 
Flower of the Lay Geranium. The round flat beds at the 
corners were also ringed with dark Calceolaria, Aurea floribunda 
(yellow), and Tom Thumb. 
We have previously seen.and practised ringing in circles, and 
also dotting in oblong beds ; but I never before saw the system 
so systematically carried out of having, as it were, a ground 
colour for a short ribbon, and splashing that ground colour 
with other distinct colours at regular distances, and standing 
boldly above the ground colour, as *vas exemplified hi the 
whole of the oblong beds on grass on the outside of the figure. 
As I said, my notes fail me; but suppose you begin at 18, and 
keep in mind that the opposite bed, 35, will be planted in the 
same manner, the following description will give a clear out¬ 
line of the whole, even though my recollection should not be 
correct:—Make four circles in 18, so that the circumference of 
each shall be two or more feet from the other, and at least a foot 
from the outside of the bed. Plant these circles as follows:— 
1, yellow Calceolaria, Kayi i; 2, blue Larkspur; 3, Frogmore 
Scarlet; 4, Prince of Orange Calceolaria. Then fill in your 
ground colour all over with Purple King Verbena, pegged close 
down. Take the second bed, put in your four circles, with Com¬ 
paction Geranium, Kay's Calceolaria, Cerise Unique Geranium, 
and blue Larkspur, and till in the ground colour with variegated 
Alyssum. Take the third bed and have four circles, Calceolaria, 
Prince of Orange; Tom Thumb Geranium; blue Larkspur; and 
Phoebe Calceolaria, a dark bronzy brown ; with a ground-colour 
of QZnothera prostrata , and so on through all the figures. These 
circles rising considerably above the ground colour, even though 
not kept excessively trim, will present a great deal more varietv 
in the same space; and when once introduced, we shall find many 
low-growing plants extremely useful for ground colour, and that 
will scarcely require any pegging. Mr. Davidson uses Lobelia 
erinus freely. The striped Verbena Manetti, or Imperatrice 
Josephine , would also be very usefid for this purpose. 
7. The above mode of planting comes in as an addition to^the 
large artistic basin of water; the four l r ews (b), the four large 
vases on raised pedestals at (a), and the four large raised circles 
already mentioned, give a great degree of variety and points of 
attraction to each half of this beautiful garden. Could w'e wish 
for an alteration, it would be with these four raised beds.. Their 
base is on the same level as the rest of the beds, the diameter at 
base about fourteen feet, the height to the culminating point 
about six feet. The thus raising them to give variety and banish 
tameness was a happy idea. In such a garden, such simply raised 
beds are not artistic enough. If the sides were raised to the 
height of two feet or more with stone, or such composition as 
Mr-. Seeley showed at Chiswick last year, these beds would then 
be in unison with the four large vases and the elegant stone 
reservoir. 
I must stop, however, picking up more crumbs for the present, 
either here or in the well-managed kitchen garden, by merely 
