294 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
April  8,  1897. 
DeNDROBIUM  NOBILE. 
There  have  appeared  in  several  papers  of  late  references  to 
some  magnificent  Dendrobiums  grown  by  Mr.  Moreby,  and  we 
now  present  our  readers  with  a  photographic  illustration  of  one 
of  these,  with  an  interesting  note  relative  to  them  from  Mr.  R. 
Scott.  Our  correspondent  says,  “  I  lately  saw  some  splendid 
Dendrobium  nobile,  grown  by  Mr.  William  Moreby,  gardener 
to  Mrs.  Knowles,  Moorhead,  Shipley,  Yorks.  There  were  four 
plants,  nearly  equal  to  the  enclosed  photograph.  This  one 
measured  5  feet  by  3,  carrying  1134  splendid  blooms,  growing  in 
a  16-inch  basket.  When  Mr.  Moreby  took  charge  of  this  place, 
about  five  years  ago,  these  plants  were  small  and  in  very  bad 
condition,  but  under  his  care  they  have  made  great  progress,  and 
are  now  fine  samples  of  good  culture.  Many  other  things  are 
well  done  in  thi*  small  but  well  kept  garden — notably  Chrys¬ 
anthemums.  In  fact  Mr.  Moreby  is  one  of  these  good  all-round 
men.” 
PRECEPT  AND  PRACTICE. 
( Continued  from  page  227.) 
Approaching  now  the  higher  phases  of  gardening,  it  may  be 
thought  that  a  very  high  jump  as  well  as  a  long  one  has  been 
made ;  yet  I  think  that  there  it  no  young  traveller  on  our  road 
who  should  not  look  down  its  long  perspective  as  far  as  possible 
and  be  prepared  accordingly  for  all  possibilities,  and  also  be  early 
and  deeply  impressed  with  the  power  it  is  his  prerogative  to  wield 
if  developed.  If  developed,  I  may  repeat,  for  it  is  scarcely 
probable  that  any  young  man  who  aspires  to  be  a  gardener  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  word  can  be  devoid  of  that  inherent  power 
which  may — which  should — place  him  upon  a  high  pedestal.  That 
he  may  be  unaware  of  it  is  another  matter,  for  until  we  are  called 
upon  to  exercise  our  strength  we  know  it  not,  nor  consequently 
our  weakness.  “But,”  some  young  critic  may  inquire,  “ are  we — 
gardeners  of  the  future — to  be  landscape  gardeners  ?  ”  Well,  you 
may  or  may  not  be  called  upon  as  an  author  in  this  direction,  but 
you  infringe  no  law  of  copyright  in  studying  and  understanding 
these  advanced  chapters  of  the  work ;  moreover,  there  are  very  good 
reasons  why  it  should  be  done,  and  done  now. 
Who,  may  I  ask,  should  be  able  to  interpret  this  great  work  of 
Nature  and  Art  if  not  the  gardener  ?  The  gardener  ;  from  hence 
I  would  that  our  homely  title  should  be  fully  invested  with  its 
comprehensive  responsibility.  That  there  are  gardeners  and 
gardeners  goes  without  saying.  We  have  on  the  one  hand  the 
“  good  all-round  man,"  which  is  to  my  mind  something  of  a 
misnomer,  being  as  it  were  a  kind  of  circular  perfection  easier  to 
find  in  theory  than  in  practice.  On  the  other,  and  relevant  to  this, 
are  those  great  masters  of  natural  harmony — those  eminent  land¬ 
scape  gardeners — to  whom  we  may  be  only  called  upon  to  play 
second  fiddle.  Can  we  do  so  intelligently  without  a  knowledge  of 
the  higher  notes  we  are  expected  to  chord  with  ?  By  whom  have 
we — gardeners — been  oftener  weighed  in  the  balance  and  found 
wanting  than  by  these  highest  exponents  of  the  art  ?  By  none, 
for  there  is  none  so  competent  to  judge,  or  so  apt  to  judge,  as 
those  who  have  made  it  a  life’s  study,  and  more  than  once  have  I 
writhed  under  their  scathing  criticism  in  print,  but  acknowledged 
its  justness. 
The  chief  end  and  aim  of  life  will  often  appear,  from  a  bothy 
point  of  view,  to  be  that  of  a  successful  cultivator,  which,  of  course, 
one  must  be,  but  more  also,  to  be  a  gardener — a  gardener  as  I 
understand  it.  Goethe  said,  “  The  beautiful  is  a  manifestation  of 
the  secret  laws  of  Nature.”  It  should  be  our  constant  endeavour, 
our  high  aspiration  to  understand  these  laws,  to  wrest  the  secrets 
from  the  master  hand.  The  continual  exercise  of  our  faculties  in 
a  right  direction  must  lead  us  upwards  and  onwards  to  an  accurate 
conception  of  that  beauty  which  is  the  soul  of  inspiration — inspira 
tion  in  our  work.  The  simplest  and  perhaps  the  highest  form  of 
that  work  is  rather  to  make  manifest  such  beauty  as  we  have  than 
the  slavish  reproduction  in  fac-simile  of  scenes  and  objects  possibly 
far  removed.  Imitation  of  Nature  often,  somehow,  fails  to  catch 
the  spirit  of  the  thing  contemplated,  and  leaves  us  after  all 
our  labours  with  what  bears  indubitably  upon  its  face  the  word 
“  sham.” 
Our  first  study  in  this  direction  may  be  made  upon  strictly 
utilitarian  lines,  where  more  than  elsewhere,  if  possible,  pretence 
should  have  no  place.  Looking  back  upon  a  garden  where  two 
years  of  early  life  were  spent,  its  perfect  arrangements  stand  out  so 
clear,  that  it  may  well  serve  to  illustrate  this  part  of  the  text. 
Taking  it  all  in  all,  it  was  the  best  type  of  its  kind  for  the  purpose, 
and  the  satisfying  impression  that  it  then  afforded  was  so  indelibly 
fixed,  that  it  would  be  easy  now  to  reproduce  from  memory  alone 
an  accurate  plan  ;  easier,  perhaps,  as  it  then  afforded  me  my  first 
practice  in  scale  drawirg.  May  I  suggest  to  our  young  draughts¬ 
men  that  they  should,  as  they  flit  from  garden  to  garden,  carry 
away  with  them  neatly  executed  plans  of  their  temporary  spheres 
of  duty,  and  they  might  well  be  retained  by  interleaving  them  in 
the  diary,  which  they  would  worthily  illustrate. 
The  character  of  this  garden — and  gardens  are  possessed  of 
individuality  as  much  as  gardeners  are — might  be  summed  up  as 
being  that  of  severe  simplicity.  A  kitchen  garden  in  the  broadest 
sense — viz  ,  a  garden  for  the  supply  of  high-class  vegetables,  fruits, 
and  flowers  for  cutting — it  was  admirably  adapted  to  its  purpose, 
but  I  doubt  if  the  extensive,  well-planned,  and  well-kept  pleasure 
grounds,  from  which  it  was  isolated,  ever  afforded  more  pleasure 
to  the  critical  eye.  However,  comparison  would  be  invidious,  for 
they  are  distinct  types,  and  the  importance  of  the  latter  will  be 
considered  in  due  course.  We  will  choose  by  preference  to  begin 
nearer  home — nearer  to  the  bothy,  which  should  be  the  first  spot 
from  which  to  focus  observation.  Situated  on  a  gentle  slope  to 
the  south  the  position  had  been  utilised  to  form  a  terrace,  one-half 
of  the  garden  being  raised  some  feet  above  the  lower  division,  and 
the  wall  between  the  two  on  the  sunny  and  deeper  side  was  covered 
in  with  a  lean-to  range  of  fruit  houses,  the  principal  lean-to  range 
with  its  projecting  span-roofed  houses  occupying  a  position  near 
the  entrance  to  the  garden  in  its  lower  division.  The  manner  in 
which  the  whole  area  was  divided  by  handsome  walks,  affording 
facility  for  the  heavy  wo<k  in  its  annual  course  to  be  carried  on 
with  the  least  evidence  of  confusion,  and  from  a  general  survey  of 
all  within  the  walls  the  conclusion  might  justly  be  arrived  at  that 
it  was  an  edition  de  luxe  of  a  kitchen  garden  ;  and  it  was  not  until 
one  analysed  in  detail  its  many  parts  that  the  severe  simplicity  of 
its  lines  became  apparent.  Houses,  offices,  fruit  and  vegetable 
quarters,  flower  borders,  all  bore  that  impress,  yet  all  bespoke  the 
skill  which  had  planned  the  best  for  the  purpose  and  placed  each 
exactly  where  it  should  be.  The  chief  object  in  its  minute  details 
had  in  no  instance  been  sacrificed  to  appearance,  and  the  facility 
given  for  high-class  gardening  which  was  carried  out  formed  an 
ideal  seldom  met  with — seldom  met  with,  and  that  owing  probably 
to  circumstances  which  few  can  control  ;  but  we  must  have  ideals 
in  our  lives  to  work  up  to,  and  those  who  have  the  clearest 
conception  of  them  are  in  a  fair  way  to  attain  them. 
Important  and  useful  as  are  good  general  ideas  of  the  above 
utilitarian  part  of  our  subject,  it  is  outside  the  garden  proper  a 
wide  field  stretches  for  investigation,  and  here  too  are  sub-subjects, 
over  which  grave  errors  may  arise,  from  false  notions  of  what 
constitutes  lines  of  beauty.  Examples  may  be  met  with  in  which 
the  one  aim  appears  to  have  been  a  predominating  anxiety  to 
obliterate  all  natural  landmarks,  and  replace  them  by  an  unstinted 
expenditure  with  artificiality.  This  does  not  arise  from  mediocrity 
or  a  paucity  of  idea*,  but  rather  from  a  superfluity,  which  swamp* 
simplicity  and  purity  of  design.  It  is  as  if  our  harmony  could 
only  be  executed  by  the  introduction  of  numerous  arpeggios  and 
stumbling  staccato  passages.  As  a  rule  gardeners  are  seldom 
called  upon  to  bear  the  burden,  or  the  sins  if  such  obtain,  of 
designing  in  contiguity  to  the  castle  or  mansion.  It  is  a  kind  of 
sanctified  ground,  upon  which  the  architect  and  landscape  gardener 
meet  to  blend  their  several  ideas,  in  order  to  suitably  frame  what 
may  range  from  stately  magnificence  to  the  simply  pretty  picture 
— from  a  Trentham  or  a  Chatsworth  to  a  modern  villa. 
What !  Expect  our  lads  of  the  bothy  to  understand  the*e  things 
upin  the  larger  scale?  Certainly;  grasp  the  meaning  now,  that 
you  may  hereafter  be  competent  to  judge  of  the  fitness  of  things 
to  their  purpose,  and  eventually  qualified  to  form,  and  to  give  if 
necessary,  a  correct  opinion.  All  such  works  of  art  are  of  course, 
or  should  be,  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  building,  that  being  here  the 
chief  object ;  but  stretching  away  from  this  we  must  keep  in  sight 
the  near  or  distant  relationship  of  the  multitudinous  parts  which 
go  to  form  the  beau  ideal  from  whatever  standpoint  we  view  it. 
Carriage  roads,  drives,  avenues,  and  paths  are  very  visible  lines 
in  the  geography  of  most  domains  or  localities.  Possibly  we  may 
here  learn  more  from  noticing  errors,  and  very  probably  too  our 
young  men  mav  sooner  or  later  be  called  upon,  when  taking  up  a 
responsible  position,  to  rectify  tome  of  them.  Such  occasions  are 
nearly  certain  to  arise ;  the  trained  eye  will  look  for  them — 
welcome  them.  Outlines  on  this  subject  will  occupy  our  next 
paper  with  the  hope  that  they  may  eventually  help  some  to  “  Take 
occasion  by  the  hand,  and  make  the  bounds  of  freedom  wider  yet.” 
— An  Old  Boy. 
(To  be  continued.) 
