540 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
June  11,  1886. 
GARDENS  ABOUT  LONDON. 
Syon  House. 
It  must  ever  be  a  moot  point  which  aspect  should  be  taken  in  giving 
a  few  notes  of  Syon  House,  whether  its  history  ought  to  be  accorded  the 
position  of  paramount  importance,  placing  the  gardens  and  gardening 
in  the  secondary  place,  or  vice  versa.  That  the  vicissitudes  through 
which  this  house  has  passed  have  been  stirring  and  varied  cannot  be 
doubted  for  a  moment  when  the  fortunes  of  the  Northumberland  family 
are  glanced  over  in  the  mind.  Prior  to  their  having  possession  the 
estate  belonged  to  the  Protector  Somerset,  and  was  either  then  or  just 
after  utilised  as  a  haven  of  refuge  for  nuns.  For  upwards  of  three 
centuries  the  mansion  and  the  surrounding  estate  have  been  connected 
with  the  Dukes  of  Northumberland,  and  it  is  sincerely  to  be  hoped  that 
this  family — which  has  embraced  and  embraces  some  of  the  most 
illustrious  men  and  women  of  our  country,  may  continue  there  in  the 
home  of  its  forefathers,  and  be  as  honoured  as  of  yore  far  away  into 
the  dull,  grey  mists  of  time.  Worthily  have  the  family  traditions  been 
upheld  in  the  past,  and  none  could  think  they  would  be  less  so  in  the 
future. 
However,  it  is  not  proposed  to  ileal  here  with  the  history  of  Syon, 
but  rather  with  its  gardens,  though  in  doing  even  this  it  is  necessary  to 
look  back  for  a  long  period  of  years.  So  well  is  the  mansion  known  that 
Fig.  89.— ME.  GEORGE  WYTHES. 
it  is  almost  unnecessary  to  make  any  mention  of  it ;  but  perhaps  some 
do  not  know  it,  so  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  a  massive  pile  of  grey  stone 
built  in  the  form  of  a  square  with  a  hollow  centre.  An  explanation  of 
the  adoption  of  this  style  of  architecture  may  be  found  in  the  use  to 
which  it  was  put — namely,  as  a  refuge  for  nuns.  Here  they  found  pro¬ 
tection  behind  its  substantial  walls,  the  centre  square  before  mentioned 
bsing  utilised  for  exercise  and  recreation  for  those  immured.  Three 
hundred  and  more  years  has  this  great  house  been  erected  ;  to-day  it 
stands  almost  as  perfect  as  it  could  have  been  in  its  youth,  and  certainly 
its  attitude  and  surroundings  are  infinitely  more  peaceful.  Travellers 
by  the  thousand,  on  the  river  and  walking  in  Kew  Gardens,  have 
regarded  with  interest  the  immense  pile  of  masonry  arising  a  few 
hundred  yards  back  on  the  Middlesex  side  of  the  River  Thames,  and 
have  known  by  the  lion  standing  on  the  housetop  over  the  river  entrance 
that  this  is  the  home,  or  rather  one  of  the  homes,  of  the  Northumber- 
lands.  Let  those  who  have  not  yet  seen  the  house  look  well  at  it  when 
next  on  the  river  or  at  Kew,  and  in  its  substantiality  they  may  read  the 
power  of  the  family  in  the  past,  when  its  head  was  almost  equal  to 
England’s  ruler. 
In  this  stretch  of  verdure  from  the  mansion  to  the  river  what  possi¬ 
bilities  lie  before  the  landscape  gardener  !  There  one  might  conceive, 
if  bo'd  enough,  a  riverside  garden  of  surpassing  beauty.  Will  this 
improvement  ever  be  made  ?  Possibly  not  ;  and  yet  one  never  knows 
what  the  future  may  hold.  Divided  from  the  pleasure  gardens  by  a 
sunken  wail  the  river  front  is  now  browsed  on  by  sturdy,  hard,  fierce* 
looking  Scottish  cattle,  and  even  these  add  a  share  in  the  beauty  of  the 
place.  But  they  are  not  the  only  occupants,  for  they  have  as  companies 
some  stately  trees,  less  fierce  perhaps,  but  equally  as  hard  and  as  sturcv. 
They  have  weathered  many  a  gale,  and  have  not  in  the  tussle  with  tip 
boisterous  elements  come  out  unscathed,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  abseno, 
of  many  a  top  and  branch  ;  still  they  look  to  be  capable  of  passing 
through  other  ordeals  that  may  be  still  in  store.  Pages  might  be  writtei 
of  the  trees  alone  at  Syon,  and  to  some  of  them  attention  will  now  b< 
called,  but  it  will  only  be  to  a  few  of  the  many. 
The  Mulberry  tree  was  ever  a  tree  of  interest,  and  truly  could  the  one 
growing  in  comparative  contiguity  to  Syon  House  speak  it  would  tell  a 
history  that  many  would  like  to  hear.  For  300  years  it  is  said  to 
have  grown  and  flourished  through  times  of  famine  and  of  plenty,  and 
now  it  stands  on  its  ancient  mound  a  true  veteran  of  its  race.  Few 
are  the  signs  of  decay  about  it,  each  year  it  produces  its  leaf  buds,  its 
blossom  buds,  and  its  bounteous  crop  of  fruits.  Of  the  Cedars  of 
Lebanon  one  would  require  the  most  facile  and  fluent  of  pens  to  accord 
the  full  measure  of  justice.  They  spread  their  gaunt  arms  and  leafage 
over  many  square  yards  of  ground,  and  rise  before  the  eyes  in  an  almost 
idealic  form  of  picturesque  and  imposing  grandeur.  Every  now  and 
again  a  branch  will  be  swept  from  it3  parent,  and  though  the  tree’s 
symmetry  is  thus  destroyed  it  still  retains  its  great  attractiveness. 
One  of  the  most  curious  of  the  hundreds  of  trees  on  the  estate  is  the 
Taxodium  distichum,  growing  on  the  margin  of  the  lake  (close  to  the 
Blackpool  of  Mrs.  Henry  Wood),  and  which  is  producing  "knees.” 
In  Yeitch’s  “  Manual  of  Coniferm  ”  reference  is  made  to  this  remark¬ 
able  root  growth,  and  an  extract  relative  to  it  is  made  from  Loudon,  as 
follows  : — “  The  roots  of  large  trees,  particularly  in  situations  subject  to 
inundations,  become  covered  with  conical  protuberances,  commonly 
from  18  inches  to  2  feet  high,  and  sometimes  from  4  to  5  feet  in  thick¬ 
ness  ;  they  are  always  hollow,  smooth  on  the  surface,  and  covered  with 
a  reddish  bark  like  the  roots,  which  they  resemble,  also  in  the  softness 
of  their  wood.  No  cause  has  been  assigned  for  their  existence,  they  are 
peculiar  to  the  deciduous  Cypress,  and  begin  to  appear  when  it  is  from 
20  to  25  feet  high.  They  are  made  use  of  by  the  negroes  of  the  Southern 
States  for  bee  hives.”  Continuing,  Mr.  Yeitch  says,  in  giving  an 
excellent  wood  engraving  of  the  tree  : — “  In  Eogland  these  protuberances 
or  ‘knees’  are  rare ;  at  Syon  House,  the  seat  of  the  Duke  of  North- 
umber, and,  where  are  some  of  the  finest  deciduous  Cypresses  in  Britain, 
‘  knees  ’  have  been  produced.”  In  1881,  this  being  the  year  in  which 
the  sketch  above  referred  to  was  done,  the  tree  was  90  feet  in  height, 
and  the  “  knees  ”  extended  60  feet  from  the  bole.  Another  tree  worthy 
of  note  is  the  Cretan  Acer,  A.  cretica,  and  which  is  the  largest  in  the 
kingdom.  Unfortunately  Mr.  Wythes  cannot  propagate  from  it,  though 
he  has  tried  every  possible  expedient. 
Besides  these  there  are  hundreds  of  others  of  which  many  lay  claim 
to  being  the  finest  of  their  kind  in  the  country,  and  in  all  probability 
with  ample  justification.  To  the  ardent  arboriculturist  Syon  is  a 
veritable  museum  of  interest,  which  is  materially  added  to  by  the  fact 
that  at  least  one  specimen  of  every  kind  is  named.  The  labels  used  are 
strong  ones  made  of  enamelled  iron,  and  have  printed  on  them  in  easily 
legible  characters  the  name  of  the  tree  and  the  country  to  which  it  is 
indigenous.  This  is  quite  as  it  should  be,  and  to  His  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland  arboriculturists  are  indebted  for  the  adoption  and 
maintenance  of  this  system  at  Syon.  Few  are  those  who  know  trees 
better  than  this  nobleman,  and  it  is  to  his  love  of  them  that  may  be 
ascribed  the  numberless  additions  that  have  been  made  to  the  collection 
during  the  last  two  or  three  decades.  From  remote  quarters  of  the  globe 
have  come  specimens,  and  almost  the  whole  of  them  have  flourished 
far  beyond  expectations.  Their  care  is  now,  and  has  been  for  the 
past  eight  years,  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  George  Wythes,  the  excellent  chief 
of  the  garden  and  pleasure  grounds,  who,  in  the  role  of  conductor,  proves 
himself  as  efficient  a  historian  and  raconteur  as  the  estate  in  his  charge 
demonstrates  him  to  be  a  thorough  gardener.  But  of  his  work  more  anon. 
As  the  trees  are  the  greatest  feature  of  the  pleasure  grounds  they 
have  been  dealt  with  apart  from  the  remainder,  and  towards  these  latter 
we  will  now  wend  our  way.  Would  that  the  paths  of  life  were  always 
as  peaceful,  as  pleasant,  as  healthful,  as  varying,  as  instructive  as  the 
one  through  which  we  wandered.  On  the  left  the  river  Thames  in 
its  winding  course,  bears  on  its  waters  rowing  boats,  noisy  tugs, 
listless  barges,  and  smart  steamers  full  of  holiday-makers,  while 
beyond  these  could  be  seen  the  many  people  enjoying  Kew  Gardens, 
the  scarlet  jackets  of  the  golfers  also  gleaming  through  the  trees. 
To  the  right  hand  are  trees  and  shrubs,  some  with  gorgeous  flowers — the 
golden  rain  of  the  Laburnum,  the  snowy  pHffs  of  the  Gueldres  Rose,  the 
soft-hued,  fragrant  flowers  of  the  Lilac,  others  conspicuous  for  the 
wondrous  beauty  of  their  leafage,  and  here  from  the  historian  our  guide 
becomes  a  gardener  again.  He  tells  how  “  Capability  ”  Brown  had  a 
supervising  interest  in  the  formation  of  these  gardens  ;  how  Time  has 
bad  his  way  in  changing  things,  as  he  always  does  ;  how  some  trees  have 
died,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  grown  so  strongly  as  to  require  a  check  ;  and 
how  it  has  been  absolutely  necessary  to  make  several  alterations,  of 
which,  unfortunately,  the  innate  modesty  of  the  man  makes  it  difficult 
to  learn  full  particulars. _ 
Progression  is  naturally  slow,  as  footsteps  must  be  arrested  very 
frequently  to  examine  some  charming  tree  or  shrub,  or  to  catch  a 
