Fibbuary 15, 1913. 
THE GARDENERS’ MAGAZINE. 
117 
Throughout the broad county of Glou¬ 
cester the name of Gordon-Canning is a 
household word, and, while it is safe to 
say that the West Country possesses no 
sportsman more keen than the squire of 
Hartpury, it is equally true of Mrs. Gor- 
(lon-C’anning that no lady in the district 
is fonder of her garden. This does not 
imply that the squire has no interest in 
the garden, for, on the other hand, he 
has but his tastes have a utilitarian bent, 
as lie is keen on fruit, whereas his wife 
finds her pleasure mostly in flowers, of 
agricultural habitation, which over a cen¬ 
tury ago was known as the Three Andies 
farm. The outlook from Hartpury House, 
however, is different to what it used to 
be, and the only relic of the old farmstead 
that remains is an antiquated feeding crib 
for cattle which has been thatched to pre¬ 
serve it, and it stands in the stable yard 
as a connecting link with other days. The 
story goes that,in the days before Hartpury 
House was built, nearly the whole of the 
village was under the plough, and grew 
corn, but so much have methods of farm- 
the autumn; while even in the winter 
there is much that is interesting to any 
lover of ornamental trees and shrubs. Up 
to within five or six years ago the garden 
stopped abruptly in front of the house, 
and was divided by a fence from the pas¬ 
ture land beyond, but the happy idea was 
conceived of making a garden here in Old 
English style, and looking at it now one 
fails po realise that it is really a modern 
addition, so delightfully does it seem to 
be blended in with the whole surroundings. 
It is not everybody, by the way, who con¬ 
ceives the idea of making a new garden in 
order to provide work for the unemployed, 
but this was Mr. and Mrs. Gordon-Can- 
ning’s way of looking at it, and, what is 
more, many of the men, not being quite of 
navvy build in point of physique, were re¬ 
galed with Bovril to stimulate their efforts, 
and to this day the memory of the Bovril 
ANCIENT TREES AT HARTPURY HOUSE. 
With glimpse of Mansion and Flower Garden beyond. 
Os in «W-fa«hioned 
’i perhaps lav 
'“'•ers^of not b^n given 
class of flow^ers, i 
» to put 
®odwn so ancient i 
^ other. **‘0 interming 
Blit u . 
«»« I he 
IfOtt the niiles 
p»thedral ®and 
‘owlandrof P>|“ntly situate 
P/'T has little^+**if Severn Valley 
tho red-brick bnn t of historic! 
"""‘>ng, occupies the eit 
ing changed that most of the land is grass, 
and from the mansion one looks out over 
verdant pastures studded here and there 
with fine timber trees. In the style of 
its farming Hartpury has merely changed, 
but in another particular it has gone back, 
for tie residents of the parish can no 
longer boast of the orchards, for which at 
one time it was famous. Like every other 
parish in the Vale of Severn. Hartpury, of 
course, has its orchards, but the glory of 
many of them has departed, and a few old 
relics of trees here and there that have 
defied the ravages of time maik different 
sites ‘‘ where once an orchard smiled.” 
Credit belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Gordon- 
Canning for many improvements that have 
been made in the gardens at Hartpury, 
and I hesitate to say whether it is the most 
attractive in the spring, the summer or 
at Hartpury is not forgotten. Mr. H. 
Prentice, the head gardener, who is always 
busy, by the way, was particularly active 
when the new garden was being formed, 
and probably his staff of unskilled labour 
gave him some trouble, but it is to his 
credit to say that from the time the work 
was completed in October, the lawns were 
sown down and the planting finished by 
April. 
Flower and Rose Gardens. 
Referring still to this feature, you ap¬ 
proach the new garden by a flight of steps 
from the terrace, and the old-world appear¬ 
ance of the whole is enhanced by the 
flagged walks and the quaint little plants 
that grow in the crevices between the 
stones. Any suspicion of monotony is re¬ 
lieved by beds of dwarf azaleas, andromedas 
in variety, kalmias, Berber is Wilscjnje, 
