304 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
April  2,  lss"* 
few  wteks  in  the  early  season,  until  all  danger  of  frost  is  past.  It 
should  be  so  arranged  as  not  to  throw  a  shade  over  the  tree« 
Thin  tiffany  or  treble  garden  nets  will  have  a  beneficial  effect  in 
warding  off  the  effec's  of  later  spring  frosts.  —  W.  West 
Chapman. 
OUR  GARDENS.* 
The  advantages  and  pleasures  of  a  garden  are  so  great  and 
manifold  that  all  classes,  from  the  philosopher  and  statesman  to 
the  mechanic  and  labourer,  generally  acknowledge  it.  That  great 
philosopher  Bacon,  the  founder  of  our  modern  science,  in  bis  essay 
“Of  Gardens”  calls  it  “  the  purest  of  human  pleasures,  and  the 
greatest  refreshment  to  the  spirit  of  man.”  Sir  Win.  Temple,  the 
wise  and  sagacious  statesman  and  skilful  gardener,  to  whom  we 
owe  some  of  our  best  Peaches,  Figs,  and  Grapes,  says,  “  The  most 
exquisite  deligh's  of  sense  are  pursued  in  the  contrivance  and 
plantation  of  gardens,  which  with  the  fruits,  flowers,  shades  and 
fountains,  and  music  of  birds  which  frequent  such  happy  places, 
seem  to  furnish  all  the  pleasures  of  the  several  senses,  and  with 
the  greatest  or  most  natural  perfection.” 
Our  garden  !  How  many  meanings  in  that  single  word  !  But 
the  garden  which  our  hearts  really  love  is  no  vast  space  of  ground, 
but  rather  that  limited  enclosure  which  retains  our  soul’s  captive, 
like  that  little  enclosure  of  a  garden  concerning  which  Virgil 
speaks — the  quiet  retreat  of  the  good  old  man,  to  whom  the 
vicissitudes  of  war  had  left  but  a  small  portion  of  his  estates,  and 
that  not  the  best ;  yet  it  contained  everything  the  agreeable  and 
the  useful — grass,  vegetables,  fruits,  flowers,  and  even  bees,  with 
some  venerable  trees,  with  their  pleasant  sjjade.  Well  may  Virgil 
writes  in  his  “  Eclogue  :  ” — 
“0  !  fortunate  old  man,  whose  farm  remains 
For  you  sufficient,  and  requites  your  pains. 
Behold  yon  sallow  fence  of  sallow  trees 
Is  fraught  with  flowers,  the  flowers  are  fraught  with  bees.” 
The  famous  Paradises  of  Persia  were  no  more  than  this.  In 
Persia  the  garden*,  even  of  the  Shahs,  are  utilised  to  the  utmost  — 
not  an  inch  of  ground  is  wasted  on  any  studied  effect  for 
grandeur  ;  no  tall  trees,  but  a  maze  of  narrow  paths  wound  here 
and  there  among  the  orchard-like  growth  of  trees  and  flowers. 
Everywhere  flowers,  and  to  this  country  we  are  indebted  for 
a  vast  number  of  the  flowers  which  adorn  our  bleaker  climate, 
as  it  is  from  Persia  Tulips,  Anemones,  Jonquils,  and  all  the 
variety  of  Ranunculi  are  drawn,  as  well  as  the  Violets,  Lilies 
of  the  Valley,  Pinks,  and  Narcissi,  which  seem  so  thoroughly 
our  own  ;  then  the  delicate  Lilao  ;  the  Peach,  with  its  shower  of 
tinted  snow  ;  and  finally,  supreme  above  all,  the  Rose,  so  dear  to 
the  heart  of  all  Englishmen.  But  these  are  the  gardens  of  silence, 
where  the  oriental  *its  and  converses  with  the  sky  overhead, 
the  abiding  place  of  the  man  who  has  nothing  else  to  secure  for 
himself. 
In  the  Moorish  garden  we  have  an  abundance  of  inanimate  life, 
paintings  and  enamels  of  flowers.  Internally  mosaics  and 
colonnades,  all  leading  to  the  inner  garden  or  patio,  filled  with 
heavy  odorous  flowers  and  intoxicating  perfumes  ;  and  in  the  centre 
of  all  a  miniature  fountain,  rising  and  falling  with  monotonous 
sound,  hushes  one  to  sleep,  enervating  and  debilitating  the  physical 
and  mental  man — these  are  the  characteristic  gardens  of  Spain, 
Brazil,  Chili,  Peru.  In  Italy  we  have  what  we  may  term  the 
marble  gardens,  in  which  we  have  architectural  features,  devised  by 
the  skill  of  man  at  the  cost  and  sacrifice  of  tbe  natural  decoration 
which  vegetation  affords.  We  here  have  active  life  represented 
by  statues  in  marble  of  animals  in  apparent  motion  crowding  the 
flights  of  steps  and  balustrades,  and  here  we  find  vegetation  seem 
to  carry  out  this  ideal  of  marble,  as  the  tall  Box  looks  dry  and 
austere,  the  Laurel  glitters  with  its  glittering  metallic  foliage,  has 
built  up  solid  hedges  ;  in  fact  the  trees  harmonise  with  the 
architecture  of  the  country,  thus  showing  that  Art  has  dominated 
Nature  to  the  great  loss  of  the  gardens  themselves. 
In  France  we  here  find  gardening  in  its  restricted  sense  of 
growing  Vines  and  flowers  for  commercial  purposes  developed  to  a 
high  degree  of  excellence,  but  in  the  sense  of  a  general  interest  in 
vegetation  and  a  hai  monious  blending  of  the  beautiful  with  the 
useful  she  is  wofully  deficient.  Except  in  her  larger  cities,  such  as 
Paris  and  Lyons,  gardening  as  an  art  is  not  cultivated,  and  even 
in  such  favoured  spots  the  laws  of  Nature  are  ignored,  as  here  we 
find  that  we  have  still  the  objectionable  features  of  the  marble 
gardens  of  Italy,  its  statuary  of  marble,  toned  down,  no"  doubt,  by 
the  artificial  jets  and  fountains  of  water  spouting  forth  from 
marble  mermaids,  dragons,  and  such-like  mythical  marble  representa¬ 
tions  of  life,  sharing  only  in  a  half-hearted  and  ungenerous  manner 
with  the  true  laws  of  Art  taught  by  Nature.  Then,  again,  in 
*  Abridged  from  an  Essay  given  by  Dr.  Campbell  at  a  meeting  of  tbe 
Walkley  Amateur  Floral  and  Horticultural  Society,  Sheffield. 
Germany  we  have  here  that  very  mathematical  precision  of  outline 
so  characteristic  of  the  German  temperament.  Here  we  have  a 
curious  labyrinth  of  dark  trim  avenues,  into  whose  recesses 
sunshine  rarely  enters,  thus  adding  shade  upon  shade,  with  the 
shadows  of  marble  statues  counterfeiting  the  plague  of  life,  the 
comedy  of  life,  adding  funereal  gloom  to  the  scene  which  makes 
one  instinctively  fly  from  its  presence.  From  tbe  foregoing  you 
will  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  our  Continental  friends  are 
far  and  away  behind  England  in  their  love  for  country  life  and 
sports,  by  their  ignoring  all  the  natural  laws  of  laying  out  a 
garden.  . 
Nowhere  do  we  find  that  love  for  country  life,  and  gardening 
in  particular,  more  manifest  than  in  England,  as,  no  matter  wheie 
we  may  wander,  the  eye  is  continually  struck  with  cottages 
embowered  amoDg  fruit  trees,  shrubs,  and  flowers,  so  pleasing  to 
our  artistic  sense,  and  in  addition  we  have  similarly  situated  those 
cultivated  patches  of  toothsome  vegetables  which  supplies  so  much 
of  the  food  for  the  inmates. 
Englishmen  have  always  loved  nature  and  solitude,  and  have 
adapted  their  ideals  of  a  garden  to  their  murky  skies  and  the 
variableness  of  its  climate  as  their  guides,  and  from  this  has 
evolved  the  undulating  lines  and  the  blending  in  the  true  artistic 
spirit  of  Nature  herself.  The  practical  and  the  ornamental  lines 
of  our  gardens,  which  never  jar  on  our  higher  susceptibilities,  but 
provide  that  repose  and  shade  for  exhausted  nature  which  we, 
as  inhabitants  of  this  great  city,  so  greatly  need,  and  as  frequently 
crave  for  as  a  comfort  and  solace  for  our  exhausted  energies. 
To  whom  do  we  owe  this  peculiarity  of  our  English  garden  ? 
I  am  sure  you  will  all  be  delighted  to  hear  that  it  was  due  to  a 
Yorkshireman.  William  Kent,  born  in  1685,  was  the  pioneer 
of  our  modern  landscape  gardening,  which  he  made  more  natural, 
graceful  and  pleasing  by  breaking  up  the  old  stiffness  and  uniformity 
by  throwing  wood,  water,  and  ground  into  the  beautiful  lines 
presented  by  Nature,  in  the  charm  of  running  water,  the  freshness 
of  the  sward,  the  beauty  of  the  flowers,  and  the  grouping  of  their 
woods,  where  the  deer  are  at  home,  and  aquatic  birds  find  a  resting 
place,  thus  giving  it  that  animation  and  life  so  absent  from  the 
gardens  of  other  countries. 
The  poet  Pope  is  said  to  have  greatly  influenced  Kent  in  his 
ideas  on  landscape  gardening,  and  undoubtedly  in  his  garden  at 
Twickenham,  near  London,  where  he  resided,  he  consecrated  his 
garden  as  a  monument  of  affection  to  hi3  mother,  to  whom  he 
was  passionately  attached,  as  well  as  a  retreat  for  his  own  solitude 
in  communing  with  Nature.  The  dense  shadows  of  the  long 
Cypress  avenues  which  lead  to  his  mother’s  tomb  proved  too  dull 
and  melancholy  for  his  temperament,  so  he  longed  for  a  living 
symbol  of  a  gentler  sorrow  for  his  grief,  so  he  introduced  into  his 
garden  at  Twickenham,  from  the  East  the  Weeping  Willow,  which 
since  the  Psalms  of  Jewish  captivity  has  associated  itself  with  our 
human  griefs  and  sorrows.  And  this  solitary  tree  has  been  the 
ancestor  of  all  our  western  Willows.  We  have  Pope’s  ideal  of  a 
garden  well  word-painted  in  the  following  lines  from  his  Moral 
Essay  Poem  : — 
“  Consult  the  genius  of  the  place  in  all 
That  tells  the  watera  to  rise  or  fall, 
Or  helps  the  ambitious  hill  the  heavens  to  scale, 
Or  scoops  in  circling  theatres  the  vale  ; 
Calls  in  the  country,  catches  opening  glades, 
Joins  circling  woods,  and  severs  shades  from  shades ; 
Now  breaks,  or  now  directs  the  intending  lines, 
Paints  as  you  plant,  and  as  you  work  designs.” 
Such  is  Pope’3  ideal  of  a  garden  where,  under  an  uncertain  sky, 
the  invisible  mist  makes  every  outline  undulating  and  vague,  thus 
showing  that  the  landscape  must  accommodate  itself  to  the  surround¬ 
ing  scenery,  as  not  being  blessed  with  an  excessive  light  such  as 
Italy  and  France  enjoy,  we  are  justified  in  admitting  it  into  brokd 
open  spaces,  and  by  undulating  curves  giving  full  play  to  all  their 
sweet  variety  and  beneficial  effects.  Such  is  the  English  garden 
fashioned  by  the  only  great  artist,  Nature,  in  its  gaiety  so  yonDg 
and  changeful,  and  so  full  of  happy  surprises. 
What  are  the  advantages  which  the  individual  gains  from  the 
pursuit  of  gardening  as  a  pastime  ?  Such  a  question  you  may  ask 
me  to  define,  and  I  will  briefly  state  a  few  of  its  prominent 
advantages. 
1,  Training  of  the  intellectual  faculties. 
(a)  Cultivation  of  the  several  senses. 
(5)  The  necessity  of  accuracy  of  mind. 
(c)  The  power  to  systematise  and  classify. 
2,  The  greater  restorative  power  of  mind  and  body  by  exercise 
in  the  open  air  ;  in  other  words,  “  Health.” 
[The  Doctor  spoke  at  considerable  length  on  the  advantages 
referred  to  under  the  headings  on  this  page.  It  is  an  admirable 
essay  in  its  entirety,  the  portion  that  we  could  not  insert,  as  referring 
to  field  sports  and  outdoor  life  generally,  containing  words  of 
wisdom,  the  result  of  cloie  observation  by  a  thoughtful  man  ] 
