| FEBRUARY. , 47 
drear and reedy, are now planted with Rhododendrons, which re- 
flect their glories in the admirimg waters, when the time of flowering 
comes, and are always beautiful in their glossy sheen; a few trees 
were felled, and from all the front rooms you can see through the 
Opening our village church in the distance, most striking upon a 
summer’s eye, when its fine old western window blazes and bickers in 
the setting sun; here is a statue of ‘‘ Contemplation” admirably 
posed, with some dark Yews, high and dense, for a background, and 
giving you at once the idea of a place “ where ever musing Melan- 
choly dwells ;”’ there, passing through an arched stone doorway, you 
find yourself suddenly in Switzerland, where you may spend a day in 
admiring those charming little Alpine plants, nestling in the crevices 
and crannies of the rockwork, and may taste the Alpine Strawberries, if 
you please, though I warn you that this Arbutus is ‘‘ Unedo,” and 
that you will not desire to repeat the experiment; and, in brief, you 
will find, wherever you go, some pleasant proof of a refined taste and an 
untiring industry. 
I must mention just one more instance, perhaps the most decided, of 
his improvements,—the transformation which he achieved in “ the 
stove.” It was an awful place, that stove, in the reign of king Wood- 
head ; and Mr. Chiswick pretended, when in merry mood, that, on his 
first visit, ‘‘a mealy bug, of gigantic stature and ferocious dimensions, 
had lashed out at him like a horse.” Certainly there was more to in- 
terest the entomologist than the florist in this remarkable collection. 
I suppose that the Orchids must have flowered at night, for I never saw 
them emerge by day from their residences of rotten wood and moss, 
where they seemed to exercise unbounded hospitality, and to keep open 
house for the lower orders of vermin. There were creepers which 
declined to creep; sticks trained to enormous globes, but showing no 
inclination to start upon their travels round them; and plants, on the 
other hand, which grew like the fairy’s bean-stalk, Allamandas, for 
instance, stretching their arms all over the place, but of flowers 
‘* divil a taste ;” there were tall thorny Euphorbias about as full of 
bloom as a hedgehog; there were Begonias with great cracks in their 
giant ‘“ ears,” and places which looked as though bitten out by “ ele- 
phants ;” there were Hoyas and Stephanotis, whose every leaf called 
out, in dying pain, for ‘‘ Gishurst ;” and all the time these helpless, 
hopeless invalids were insulted and mocked by dirty little “tallies,” who 
persisted with bitter irony in calling them “ Bellas,” and ‘ Splendi- 
dissimas,” ‘‘ Magnificas,” ‘‘ Grandifloras,” and ‘“ Elegantissimas.” 
When I see the place now, I cannot recall its former appearance. 
The Orchids bloom, the Allamandas, the Ipomeas, the Dipladenias, 
the Gloxinas bloom, in all their delicate loveliness; the Hibiscus and 
Passifloras flower as they rise in profusion ; and the plants of variegated 
foliage, the Caladium, the Cissus, the Croton, the Begonia, are models, 
both in the healthfulness of their growth, and in the symmetrical 
arrangement thereof. Here let us leave Mr. Chiswick, happily 
admiring a beautiful Caladium argyrites, and pass on to another 
member of our brotherhood. 
Ah, mine old acquaintance, the terror of my childhood, the enemy of 
