37 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— October 21.1856. 
Architectural Conservatory .—There is nothing of the 
artistic attempted in the glass structures in these gardens; 
but in a vale, surrounded by a nice furnished lawn, is a 
pretty pavilioned sort of a temple, called a conservatory. 
I recollect admiring it hugely when 1 called at Dalkeith 
in my apprentice days. It is beautiful now as an archi¬ 
tectural structure. As a residence for plants it is.good 
for preparing them for hospital treatment. For the 
expense such a building must have cost I have no' 
doubt that Mr. Thompson could erect a miniature 
Crystal Palace; but in those days it had been the 
custom, even as it is too much the case now, to take the 
opinion of everybody on plant-houses except those 
who had made it a life study to know what was wanted 
in the way of fitness and appropriateness. 
Flower gardening .—Considering the number of plants 
grown in pots, the extent of the gardens, and the 
grandeur of the demesne, the flower-gardening, for all 
that is of it, may be said yet to be commenced. On the 
south side of the kitchen garden, I think, is a large 
space devoted to a systematic arrangement of herbaceous 
plants, bounded by a Laurel fence to the south, and by 
a walk on the north separating it from the border in 
front of the wall. That border Mr. Thompson has laid 
out in small beds, with Box edgings and gravel, 
seemingly for low bedding-plants. The plan may be 
said to have been dividing the length of the border into 
oblong squares of equal size, and then each square into 
five by a circle in the middle, and four figures at the 
four angles. There would thus be a row of circles in 
the centre of the border. I should like to know how it 
was planted. Ribboning such a border would have had a 
fine effect without laying it out. I rather think con¬ 
trasting one square of five figures with the next square 
would be best; but I am not at all certain. However 
done, T have no doubt it would be gay, and, if the whole 
of the herbaceous ground was thrown into a parterre, 
it would have a grand effect from the background of 
Laurels. 
Considering, however, that herbaceous plants are so 
little attended to in these grouping days, it would be a 
pity to disturb them, for their turn to be in the fashion 
will be sure to come ere long, and we should be more 
inclined to let them alone, because, on the east side of 
the garden, is a large space of rough glass with nothing 
on it, with a deep incline, just as if it was placed there 
on purpose for a series of terraces. A walk goes round, 
leaving a border next the wall as on the south side; 
between that walk and the top of the grass brae is a 
level space, on which is placed a beautiful-patterned 
Box garden ; but, as being neither sunk in a panel nor 
shut in by a fence of any kind, looking as if it had dropped 
there promiscuously, having no connection or blending 
with anything whatever in its neighbourhood. I think 
I must have had a three minutes’ doze in the ’bus to 
Edinburgh; but I either saw, or thought I saw, that Mr. 
Thompson had made the east wall more ornamental, 
and graced it with fine plants; had laid out the east 
border in the same style as he had done the south one; 
had widened the walk; had removed the Box pattern, 
and placed it on a narrow terrace of turf sunk in a 
panel, and bounded and filled with all sorts of pretty- 
coloured sands and little shells; and farther down the 
brae had another wider terrace or two for the hardiest 
bedding-plants, while vases and statues lent their 
charms to the scene.' 
Had I not exceeded my space, I would have taken 
the reader with me, eastwards from the gardens, along 
a beautiful walk on the top of a deep, well-planted dell, 
called the Haugh, with the north Esk rolling its waters 
at the bottom; onwards and southwards to a noble 
bridge, from which, looking westward, the massive 
castle palace stands before you on an elevated plateau, 
a spire on the north side, and another on the south side 
from the Dalkeith churches, breaking the sky outline; 
while the massy walls of the palace are relieved by 
creeping Ivy, and the foreground brightened by fine 
specimens of Holly and Portugal Laurel, and great 
masses of layered and cut Laurel on steep banks 
shelving down to the river. Or, standing still on that 
bridge, we might have discussed how terraced gardeus 
would have looked on the steep banks of the Haugh 
opposite the mansion, recalling something of the lesser 
beauties of valley-field in its palmy days, and the greater 
grandeur of the enchanted vale at Alton Towers. Or, 
if fond of fine timber, we might have traversed the deer j 
park, the extensive drives, and some of the forty miles 
of walks; but, at present, 1 will conclude with two 
facts, feeling certain they will speak for themselves. 
Going from the bridge to the palace you come on a 
spacious lawn in front of it. To that lawn and a 
great portion of the demesne the population of the 
neighbourhood have access at all times, and, without 
the ceremony of solicitation, may come and walk, and 
golf and cricket to their heart’s content. Need we | 
wonder that between such proprietors and their humbler 
neighbours such a kind, sympathetic, trusting clanship 
should exist to the benefit of all concerned ? 
Observing a beautiful edition of the works of Dr. 
Chalmers on Mr. Thompson’s parlour table, I was 
permitted to read a written paper, stating that these 
volumes were presented by the working men at Wrotham 
Park, as a small token of their great respect for him, 
and their deep regret at his leaving them. The address 
was written and read by one of themselves, and, in its ! 
clear, forcible, graphic language, and its enunciation of | 
sterling principles, gave evidence that working men 
could rightly estimate the advantage of being super¬ 
intended by a man who combined courtesy and kind¬ 
ness with firmness to them, yet with a strict atten¬ 
tion to, and inflexible integrity towards, the interests 
of his employer. While thanking him and his family 
for their attention to their temporal comforts; for his 
seeing they received a due remuneration for their labour; 
for his anxieties and efforts to elevate them as rational j 
and moral beings; they seemed to me as if they could 
not thank him enough for teaching them the value of i 
self-dependence, and wdrat they themselves could ac- ! 
complish in securing comfort and happiness by means 
of temperance and self-denial. Such an intelligent 
document it has rarely been my privilege to see coming 
from working men. I fear few gardeners possess such a , 
document. I fear still more that few of us act so as 1 
to deserve it. My apology for mentioning it is the hope 
that many of us may be encouraged to commence and j 
persevere in doing likewise. R. Fish. 
FIGS, REMARKS CONCERNING THEM. 
We have received the following inquiries from a De¬ 
vonian, whose letter is subscribed “ Salterton ; ” and 1 
feel assured that they will be perused with much interest 
by the readers of The Cottage Gardener:— 
“ I take the liberty of asking your opinion respecting the 1 
expediency of rubbing off the second crop of Figs. I have 
two fine standard trees of a large, luscious, white Fig, 
which bear a scanty crop of the early fruit, but a most 
abundant one of tbe second, and though these often stand 
the winter, they do but rarely ripen. A close neighbour of 
mine has a tree now covered with such Figs as I have rarely 
met either in Italy or the south of France, the fruit nearly 
resembling that of my trees ; but this tree never bears but 
one crop, which appears before the leaf. My friend raised 
his tree from seed, and I almost doubt its being equalled in 
any part of England. I remember having had all the young 
Figs from my trees rubbed off one year, and that the crop 
was more abundant the next. 
