THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Afgfst 23, 1859. 
312 
fine volume of water rolls along in a rapid stream towards Trin- 
comalee, at which place it meets the Bca. I was struck at the 
time with the magnificent timber in the forests on its banks, and 
no less surprised that with the natural facilities of transport it 
should bo neglected. Two years ago I crossed at this same spot, 
and I remarked the wonderful change which a steady demand 
had effected in this wild'country. Extensive piles of Halmileel 
logs were collected along the banks of the river, while the forests 
were strewed with felled trees in preparation for Hosting down 
tire stream. A regular demand usually ensures a regular supply, 
which could not be better exemplified than in this case. Among 
fancy woods, the Bread-fruit Tree should not be omitted. This ; 
is something similar to the Jack, but, like the Tamarind, the 
value of the produce saves the tree from destruction. This free 
does not attain a very large size ; but its growth is exceedingly 
regular, and the foliage peculiarly rich and plentiful. The fruit 
is somelliing similar in appearance to a small unripe Jack-fruit 
with an equally rough exterior. In the opinion of most who have 
tasted it, its virtues have been grossly exaggerated. To my taste 
it is perfectly uneatable, unless fried in thin slices with butter ; 
it is even then a bad imitation of fried Potatoes. The bark of 
this tree produces a strong fibre, and a kind of very adhesive 
pitch is also produced by decoction. The Cocoa-nut and Palmyra 
woods at once introduce us to the Palms of Ceylon, the most 
useful and the most elegant class in vegetation. Eor upwards of ! 
120 miles along the western and southern coasts of Ceylon, one 
continuous line of Cocoa-nut groves wave their green leaves to | 
the sea-breeze, without a single break, except where some broad 
clear river cleaves the line of verdure as it meets the sea.— 
(Baker’s Ceylon.) 
Shenstone and the Leasowes.- —Though Dr. Johnson speaks 
so contemptuously of Shenstone’s rural pursuits, he could not 
help acknowledging that when the poet began “ to point his 
prospects, to diversify his surface, to entangle his walks, and to 
wind his waters,” he did all this with such judgment and fancy 
as “ made his little domain the envy of the great and the admira¬ 
tion of the skilful; a place to be visited by travellers, and copied 
by designers.” Mason, in his “ English Garden,” a poem once 
greatly admired, but now r rarely read, and never, perhaps, with 
much delight, does justice to the taste of the Poet of the Leasowes. 
“Nor, Shenstone, thou 
Shalt pass without thy meed, thou son of peace! 
Who linew’st, perchance, to harmonise thy shades 
Still softer than thy song; yet was that song 
Nor rude nor inharmonious when attuned 
To pastoral plaint, or tale of slighted love.” 
English pleasure gardens have been much imitated by the French. 
Viscomte Girardin, at his estate of Ermenonville, dedicated an 
inscription in amusing Freneh-Eriglish to the proprietor of the 
Leasowes:— 
THIS PLAIN STONE 
TO WILLIAM SHENSTONK J 
IN BIS WRITINGS HE DISPLAYED 
A MIND NATURAL; 
AT LEASOWES HE LAID 
ARCADIAN GREENS RURAL. 
The Yiscomte, though his English composition was so quaint and 
imperfect, was ail elegant writer in his own language, and showed 
great taste and skill in laying out’ lbs grounds. He had visited 
England, and carefully studied our modem style of gardening. 
He had personally consulted Shenstone, Mason, Whateley, and 
other English authors on subjects of rural taste. He published 
an eloquent description of his own estate. His famous friend 
Rousseau wrote the preface to it. The book was translated into 
English. Rousseau spent his last days at Ermenonville, and was 
buried there in what is called the Isle of Poplars. The garden is 
now in a neglected state, but the tomb of Rousseau remains un¬ 
injured, and is frequently visited by the admirers of his genius. 
“Dr. Wharton,” says Bowles, “mentions Milton and Pope as 
the poets to whom English landscape is indebted, hut he forgot 
poor Shenstone.” A later writer, however, whose sympathy for 
genius communicates such a charm to all his anecdotes and com¬ 
ments in illustration of the literary character, has devoted a 
chapter of his “ Curiosities of Literature” to a notice of the rural 
tastes of the proprietor of the Leasowes. I must give a brief 
extract from it:—“When we consider that Shenstone, in develop¬ 
ing his fine pastoral ideas in the Leasowes, educated the nation 
into that taste for landscape-gardening which has become the 
model of all Europe, this itself constitutes a claim on the gratitude 
of posterity. Thus the private pleasures of a man of genius may 
become at length those of a whole people. The creator of this 
new taste appears to have received far less notice than lie merited. 
The name of Shenstone does not appear in the ‘Essays on Gar¬ 
dening,’ by Lord Orford: even the supercilious Gray only be¬ 
stowed a ludicrous image on these pastoral scenes, which, how¬ 
ever, his friend Mason has celebrated; and the genius of Johnson, . 
incapacitated by nature to touch on objects of rural fancy, after 
describing some of the offices of the landscape designer, adds, : 
that ‘ he will not inquire whether they demand any great powers 
of mind.’ Johnson, however, conveys to us his own feelings, 
when lie immediately expresses them under the character of ‘ n 
sullen and surly speculator.’ The anxious life of Shenstone 
would indeed have been remunerated, could he have read the 
enchanting eulogium of Whateley on the Leasowes ; ‘ which,’ said 
he, ‘ is a perfect picture of his mind — simple, elegant, and 
amiable; and will always suggest a doubt whether the spot j 
inspired his verse, or whether, in the scenes which he formed, ho 
only realised the pastoral images which abound in his songs.’ 
Yes ! Shenstone had been delighted could he have heard that! 
Montesquieu, on his return home, adorned his ‘ chateau Qothique, i 
mats orne de lots charmans, dont j’ai pris I’idee en Angleterre ' 
and Shenstone, even with his modest and timid nature, had been , 
proud to have witnessed a noble foreigner, amidst memorials 
dedicated to Theocritus and Virgil, to Thomson and Gesner, 
raising in his grounds an inscription, in bad English, but in pure 
taste, to Shenstone himself, for having displayed in his Writings 
‘a mind natural,’ and in his Leasowes ‘laid Arcadian greens 
ruraland recently Pindemonte has traced the taste of English 
gardening to Shenstone. A man of genius sometimes receives 
from foreigners, who are placed out of the prejudices of his 
compatriots, the tribute of posterity!”—“The Leasowes,” says • 
William Ilowitt, “ now belong to the Atwood family ; and a 
Miss Atwood resides there occasionally. But the whole place , 
hears the impress of desertion and neglect. The house has a dull 
look ; the same heavy spirit broods over the lawns and glades : - 
and it is only when you survey it from a distance, as when ap¬ 
proaching Hales-Owen from Hagley, that the whole presents an 
aspect of unusual beauty.”— (Richardson's Floivers and Flower 
Gardens). 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
\Tnery (A Subscriber from the Commencement). —There is no doubt that , 
all your arrangements will answer well. If we made a suggestion, it 
would be to use but little rotten leaves in such a border; the bones will 
secure both richness and openness. The fine soil on the surface we would 
reduce to a couple of inches or so ; the border will all get fine enough ere 
long. It would be as well that the lower row of flags, &c., were made ] 
root and waterproof. The open rubble above them would take all extra 
water to the deep drain in front. If the house is to be forced early, a 
means of heating the border from below, would be worthy attention. In 
moderate early forcing, protecting the surface early will do. The slope of 
the bolder will give it a good command of the sun’s rays. If early forcing 
is attempted, without heating or covering the border, the inside roots : 
must he chiefly depended on for early work. 
Greenhouse Lining ((?. Mart). —We believe the lining of the inside of 
a greenhouse, If that is what you mean, to he a matter of no moment, but 
depending entirely on the taste and means of the proprietor. A good \ 
hack wall lime-whitewashed to any colour—say a dark stone, looks well, 
and may be renewed once or twice a-year. Sulphur may be used with the 
lime, and thus keep many insects at hay. If the wall were very white, the 
reflection of heat might he too powerful for plants near it. We have done 
common walls as above, and then given them a good coat with anti¬ 
corrosion. Ton cannot, however, wash anti-corrosion as you can a wall 
well painted. We had a wall done with zinc paint some six or seven years 
ago, and it is as good as the day it was finished. 
Tritoma uvaria [Lincoln). —What Mr. Beaton says to-day you will find 
has anticipated your question. 
Grapes Spotted by Gishurst Compound—Red SriDER, &c. (S. 1 1' -, 
Guernsey). — We have no idea that the Gishurst Compound contains 
arsenic; and if it does not, then, after your Grapes have been so long 
exposed, we do not suppose you need he afraid of eating the fruit; hut it , 
is of little use applying such solutions when the fruit is so near being ripe, j 
The best plan is to consume the fruit, and then clear the house of insects. 
Did we attempt otherwise, we would have sponged the foliage, instead of 
spattering all the fruit from a syringe. People who never tried it have no 
idea how a man or hoy with active hands can quickly sponge a whole 
house, if needful. The whitening of the glass would be of little use in 
extirpating the spider, farther than helping to keep the house cool whilst 
you plied the syringe. If you have a back wall to the orchard-house, 
painting that with sulphur will do good when the sun shines upon it. 
You may use the Gishurst Compound as you propose with advantage, hut 
rather weaker than otherwise. We would just as soon prefer sulphur 
water, made as often stated, and towards evening at a temperature of 
100 9 . Dryness at the roots is a fertile source of mildew in all trees under 
glass. _ Dryness at the roots, and a dry atmosphere combined, are the very 
conditions most suitable for the health and strength of the red spider. A 
damp atmosphere is their abomination. If once they have fairly fixed- 
their habitation, no one or two applications of Gishurst Compound, or any 
other composition, will effectually remove them, as myriads of young and 
eggs resist all your efforts; and, therefore, in a few days you will get a 
fresh supply, even though you destroyed every perceptible insect to-ilay. 
Prevention here, as in most cases, is better than cure. There is no arsenic 
in sulphur vivum. We prefer, in all cases, using flowers of sulphur. We 
think your Geranium is likely to be useful; hut you should send some 
