469 
1821.] Memoirs of Mr. Salmon of Woburn. 
over a workman from France, to introduce at 
Woburn the practice of pix building, of whose 
uncouth apparatus and imperfect proceedings, 
Mr. H. published an account. To a man of 
Mr. Salmon's penetration and ingenuity, the 
sight of this man’s proceedings, in construct¬ 
ing of compressed earth found on the spot, 
a small temporary lodge, by way of ^cperi- 
ment, was sufficient to enable him to con¬ 
trive other and more efficient apparatus and 
means for providing an effective substitute for 
good stone, in situations where this is want¬ 
ing, as at Woburn. Of this apparatus and 
process, Mr. Salmon presented an account to 
the Society of Arts, who published the same 
in their 27th volume, and Mr. Salmon re¬ 
ceived from his Grace directions to d«dgn 
and construct for himself a house and offices, 
near to the Park Farm, which he accordingly 
erected, and lived and lately died in the 
same, entirely composed of pix, and without 
any outside stucco, besides some hot lime 
whiting, brushed over the surface of the 
newly-constructed walls, and well rubbed 
into the surface of the same, by means of a 
flat piece of wood. 
His Grace, having by this time abandoned 
the pursuits of the turf and the chace, and 
bent almost his whole attention to rural and 
political improvements, became struck with 
the imperfect system pointed out to him by 
his land steward, then lately engaged, on 
which the repairs of the farm houses and 
buildings of his extensive estate had hitherto 
been conducted ; where, as elsewhere had 
long been and yet is common, the steward, 
practically unacquainted with building de¬ 
tails, was in the habit, at his half-yearly 
visits to the distant farms, to give permission 
for certain repairs or improvements necessary 
to be done at the landlord’s expence; which 
were quickly after set about, by the kind of 
hereditary carpenter,bricklayer, blacksmith, 
glazier, thatcher, cfee. resident on the estate , 
each acting without due concert or controul 
and intent only, in too many instances, on 
swelling out their bills; by which, great 
waste of money and materials, and unsub¬ 
stantial and inconvenient reparation or erec¬ 
tions very commonly resulted, the defects in, 
or the overcharges on, which works, it was 
impossible for the land-steward fully to de¬ 
tect or to remedy. 
Instead of continuing this plan, Mr. Salmon 
received directions, on all his Grace’s Bed¬ 
fordshire estates, to prepare, under the 
steward’s directions, plans and estimates of 
all works necessary to be done at each farm, 
taken in succession, as circumstances might 
require, and submit them to him for approba¬ 
tion ; and that thenj each job of such works 
should be let by measure or bargain ; the 
execution to be superintended, and the bills 
for the same afterwards made up and signed 
by Mr. S.; and in this way ever atterwards, 
in the most cordial manner, the steward and 
Mr. Salmon continued to conduct this im¬ 
portant department of his Grace’s business, 
to his great satisfaction, until the day of his 
lamented death, on the 2d ol March, 1802. 
Why, on the retirement of Mr. Farcy, the 
steward alluded to, this system, so obviously 
beneficial, was not continued, instead of the 
hereditary tradesmen again taking their own 
course, under his successor, is to the writer 
unknown ; but it behoves him to say, that it 
could not be through want of confidence re¬ 
posed in his departed friend, by the present 
Duke; who, on the contrary, continued Mr. 
S. iD the direction of all the building and 
mechanical matters of his mansion, park, 
and farms in hand, on an increased salary, 
and placed under his direction all his exten¬ 
sive plantations and woods, which the late 
steward had managed, and the carrying on 
of the judicious system of pruning and thin¬ 
ning the same, which under the late Duke 
had several years belore been begun, on the 
advice of Mr. Poutey ; the care of the roads, 
and some other parochial duties in Woburn 
and its adjacent villages, to which usually the 
steward had attended, were also entrusted to 
him. Besides which, the present Duke con¬ 
ferred on him the stewardship of his Chenies 
estate ; with a view principally of carrying 
into effect the improvement which he had 
suggested to his Grace, whereby highly pro¬ 
fitable oak woods may be raised and conti¬ 
nued, in place of the almost worthless beech 
spires and groves, which on the Chilteru Hills 
spring up, as weeds, through neglect, and 
choke every other kind ol tree. 
Connected with this department of Mr. 
Salmon’s useful labours, he paid a long-con¬ 
tinued attention to the sawing-up of timber 
and plantation trees, in order to ascertain and 
demonstrate, by a series of well-selected 
specimens of knots in such sawn trees, the 
evil efTects of neglecting to prune, or of per¬ 
forming the same improperly, compared with 
the almost incalculable advantages (nationally 
considered) of the judicious and persevering 
pruning of forest trees ; these specimens of 
knots, Mr. Salmon deposited in the collec¬ 
tion of the Society of Arts, who have pub¬ 
lished engravings from them, to illustrate Mr. 
S.’s Memoir. 
Numerous experiments were made a few 
years ago by Mr. Salmon, towards ascertain¬ 
ing the best modes of seasoning timber, par¬ 
ticularly young fir, so as io add to its dura¬ 
bility ; it is not publicly known what were 
his results. 
For detecting depredators in gardens and 
other inclosed grounds, Mr. Salmon contrived 
an humane man-trap ; calculated to secure 
and detain a trespasser, without serious injury 
to his limbs : these traps have had an exten¬ 
sive sale by different ironmongers. 
Mr. Salmon, as an architect, made designs 
for, and executed several minor parts of the 
improvements of Woburn Abbey and its 
offices, when Mr. Holland retired therefrom ; 
he designed, under the late Duke’s direction, 
and built the Park Farm at Woburn, and ail 
its machinery (Cartwright’s engine excepted); 
