85 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 8, 1859. 
finishing touch to pretty vases in the dining and other rooms. 
Admiration, however, seemed to give place to enthusiasm, chiefly 
in the case of plants minute in size, and distinct and beautiful, 
and sometimes grotesque in form. Many of these are never at 
home unless they get a stone to cling to. Were the rockery far 
off, the little things might not be seen for days or weeks. Here 
they might be visited and noticed any time. The whole affair is 
not only the design of the baronet, but almost every stone, large 
as many of them are, was put in its place with his own hands. 
Many little beauties, whose names I had forgotten, many that I 
never knew, were, as respects their scientific and popular names, 
localities, properties, and whence obtained, as familiar to the 
owner “ as household words.” 
A list of all the plants in that rockery would exhibit many 
rarities. I cannot pretend to give an outline. Variegated gold 
and silver Ivy in little patches, here and there, and a beautiful 
white variegated Bramble helped to give a little drapery to the 
scene. Scolopendriums were flourishing in the recesses, and 
rarer Eerns in suitable spots. The Polypodium vulgare Cam- 
bricum enlivened one corner with its numerous fresh green 
fronds. A pretty little Cotoneaster was trailing over stones, as 
also Thymes, and several of the rock Roses, Saxifrages, Sedums, 
and Sempervirens, in great variety ; and among many more the 
following, as very suitable to such a place: — Widdringlonia 
ericoides, Thuja dumosa, Librocedrus Chilensis, Juniperus echino- 
formis, Juniperus Hibernia pygmcea, Rubus arcticus , three inches 
high; Salix herbacea, three inches high ; Salix reticulata, Vero¬ 
nica alpina, Polygonum vaccinifolium, Car dims off a; a new and 
beautiful white-spotted Thistle, Arenaria Balearica, Vaccinium 
vitis ideea, and Fragaria Indica, which fruits from July to 
November. I may just add, that all the low beds, &c., were next 
the house, and that all the little paths instead of being kept neat 
and trim were allowed to grow wildish, just leaving enough room 
for the feet. Trim, straight lines would have been out of place. 
2. The second singularity is the long, sloping grass bank that 
separates the pleasure-ground from the park. It looks well 
seen from a distance, and is more pleasant to the eye than an 
upright, perpendicular fence of any kind. Until I got on the 
top of the mound I thought that the soil in the park might be 
greatly above the soil in the pleasure-ground ; but it is not so. 
The advantages of these banks are, forming a pleasant boundary, 
and making the inside and the outside of the fence quite distinct. 
The disadvantage is, that you lose sight, when walking in the 
pleasure-grounds, of the fine base of the trees in the park, which 
would have been obtained by means either of a ha ha, or an open 
iron fence. In these latter cases, the privacy now secured would 
have been sacrificed. 
3. A third singularity is the mode of managing the kitchen-gar¬ 
den walls on the pleasure-ground side. This is much the same as 
already mentioned for the rockery wall. Variegated Ivy, chiefly 
the silver kind, clings closely to the walls ; and outside the Ivy, 
by means of studs and wires, at irregular distances, and trained 
thinly, so as to relieve but not hurt the Ivy, are placed Tea and 
other Roses, Honeysuckles, Ceanotlius, Clematis, &c. 
4. A fourth and last distinction is securing abundance of bloom, 
and yet, under the circumstances, great breadth of lawn—partly 
by making the sides of the walks in the kitchen garden orna¬ 
mental. If there is nothing singular in this so far as most places 
are concerned, it will ere long be singular in some others, where 
a bed must be daubed down in every opening. We will just now 
glance at the grouping and ribboning, commencing with the 
flower garden in front of the house. This lias a fountain in the 
centre some fifteen feet in diameter, surmounted by an elegant 
shell of four feet. Round this, in a line nearly with the extremity 
of beds, are placed eight vases—three on each 6ide and one at 
each end. There are twelve beds. Take a line across the two 
vases and fountain as seen from the house, and there will be two 
beds on each side filled with Golden Chain , edged with Lobelia 
speciosa; four end beds filled with Flower of the Pay, edged with 
Lobelia ; and four corner beds between the Chain and Flower of 
the Pay, filled as follows :—1st. Heliotrope (centre), Verbena 
(scarlet), and edged with variegated Alyssum. 2nd. Brilliant 
Geranium, Pink Verbena, and Alyssum. 3rd. Shrubland Rose 
Petunia, Red Verbena, and Alyssum. 4th. Trentham Rose 
Geranium, Purple King Verbena, and Alyssum. Come now to 
the rockwork border, and in front of the wall, and we have a mass 
of mixed Verbenas, edged with a broad band of Portulaccas, 
mixed with Gazania rigens. 
Step a little farther to the front of the greenhouse, and look 
aloDg each side of the walk in front of the wall A. Next the wall 
is a ribbon border thus planted in rows, beginning near the wall: 
1, Salvia patens; 2, Pahlia Zelinda ; 3, Amplexicaulis Calceo¬ 
laria; 4, Scarlet Verbena; 5, Mangles' Variegated; 6, Pink 
Ivy-leaf Geranium ; 7, White Variegated Alyssum, edged with 
blue Lobelia. We may form different opinions of the blue and 
purple being next each other, and perhaps it was as well that the 
Verbenas and Geraniums were rather mixed; but the whole 
border was very nice, and the two outside rows very beautiful. 
On the lawn side of this walk, opposite the ribbon border, is a 
line of beds—four circles and three oblong beds alternating with 
each other: the circles being six feet in diameter, and the oblongs 
being nine feet by six feet. A circle was the first bed opposite 
the end of the greenhouse; and after seeing it through the glass 
I had no eyes for the Camellias. As managed by Mr. Burns, it 
was the neatest thing I had seen for the season. The circles 
were raised in the centre, so as to be well rounded ; two diameters 
were then taken across it at right angles with each other, and 
each about eight inches wide, leaving a part of four small quad¬ 
rants. The intersecting diameters were planted with Perilla 
Nankinensis; the quadrants with Flower of the Pay, and a nice 
edging of blue Lobelia all round. Two beds were thus filled:— 
the alternating circles had Golden Chain instead of Flower of the 
Pay; but owing to the weather the foliage did not fill the space 
so well, though I should think that a month earlier the colour 
would have been more telling. The oblong beds were centered 
with Lady Mary Fox Geranium and Verbena venosa, and edged 
with variegateu Alyssum. With the exception of this row of 
beds there is nothing on the lawn between the walks 8 and 8 1 
except a romantic-looking Acacia tree about its centre. The 
other end of the lawn is bounded by a mass of Rhododendrons in 
front of the Ivy-wall 6. 
Reaching the second walk 8 1 we find a series of ten beds, 
oblong in shape, placed on its farther side, so that one comes 
opposite the walk in front of wall A. These are mostly planted 
with three colours, and edged alternately with white and blue. 
Thus: 1st, Lady Poivne's Geranium, Boule de Niege ditto, 
Brilliant ditto, edged with blue Lobelia ; 2nd, dark Calceolaria, 
red Verbena, white Alyssum ; 3rd, Tom Thumb in the centre, 
purple Perilla round it, Cineraria maritima round that, and 
Lobelia speciosa as an edging. This was our favourite, though 
all the rest were varied as to centering, &c. But we omit these 
to notice that between each of these beds was a specimen of Arbor 
Vitse ; and opposite these, on the mansion-side of the walk, were 
specimens of Irish Yew and Junipers, except at the end next the 
Ivy-wall 6, where vases were substituted. These specimens and 
vases, distinct and separate from the beds, relieved them of 
tameness ; and in going along the walk prevented the eye taking 
in too many of the beds at a time, as each w’as intended to be 
tested on its own merits. On the principle of uniformity, though 
it would increase Mr. Burns’s cares, we woidd have no objection 
to have beds on each side of the walk, and then plant them in 
pairs. 
Erom that walk 8 1, right to the grass-bank 7, there are no 
more beds, but the lawm is graced with fine masses of Box, some 
Pines, Pampas Grass, &c. 
The ribbon-border along the front of wall B is thus planted, 
beginning near the wall:—1st, Crimson King Calceolaria; 2nd, 
White Verbena; 3rd, Cerise Unique Geranium; 4th, Purple 
King Verbena ; 5tli, Pink Ivy-leaf Geranium, edged with white 
Alyssum. This was very pretty ; perhaps a dash of yellow would 
not have been amiss, but as it is it presents a better contrast to 
the border. 
C. Thus planted :—1st. Commander-in- Chief Geranium ; 2nd, 
Yellow Calceolaria ; 3rd, Purple Perilla ; 4th, Flower of the Pay 
Geranium, edged with blue Lobelia. 
The border in front of P is narrower than the others men¬ 
tioned. A line of Hollyhocks was trained to wires against the 
wall. In front of them is a row of scarlet Geraniums, and then 
a row' of Cineraria, rather thin to let each plant show itself, and 
an edging of blue Lobelia speciosa. The opposite side of the 
walk is a continuation in some degree of the grass bank; but, 
instead of grass, it is densely covered, as far as the garden wall 
extends, with Cotoneaster microphylla; and the walk extending 
more than a hundred yards beyond that to a summer-house, has 
the sides covered with Berberis aquifolium as under wood, and 
studded with specimens of Irish Yews, Deodars, and many other 
nice trees. 
Now, to see that the kitchen-garden walks are also ornamental, 
and to save time, we open a doorway in the wall P, communicat¬ 
ing with a walk that takes us back in front of the houses at the 
