August  6  1897. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTTCULTUEE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
117 
phalanxes  of  pot  fruit  trees,  as  healthy,  as  productive,  and  as  well 
trained  as  Mr.  Rivers’  own.  You  know  him,  good  reader,  aa  well 
as  if  I  had  worked  his  name  into  every  line.  I  ask  again — 
What  will  be  his  future  ?  The  workers  do  not  always  come  out 
the  best  in  the  end,  but  the  Carnation  hero  has  a  chance  that  most 
of  us  would  envy — and  he  will  not  let  it  pass. — W.  Pea. 
GARDEN  ARCHITECTS  AND  ARCHITECTURE. 
British  gardeners  may  well  view  with  pride  Paxton’s  Palace 
of  Crystal  adorning  the  Sydenham  Hill  ;  familiarity  with  the 
structure  can  never  breed  contempt,  although,  just  possibly,  it  may 
be  taken  with  other  marvels  of  modern  skill  and  mechanical 
enterprise  in  a  matter  of  fact  kind  of  way.  Yet  it  is  but  common 
justice  to  the  memory  of  the  great  gardener-architect  to  include  in 
the  mental  stock-taking  now  being  made  of  progress  during  this 
beneficent  reign  a  brief  survey  of  the  cJief  and  his  chef  d'ceuvre. 
Great  gardeners  had  preceded  him,  illustrious  architects  left 
enduring  monuments  behind,  such  monuments,  indeed,  aa  are  seen 
in  our  cathedrals,  to  testify  to  sublimity  of  conception  in  the 
magnificent  realisation  of  design. 
It  is  true  that  the  Palace  arose  for  purposes  somewhat  apart 
from  gardening,  and  for  such  it  has  been  retained  ;  it  is  true  that 
others  may  view  it  in  a  totally  different  light,  but  we,  as  gardeners, 
regard  it  as  a  great  greenhouse,  and  glory  in  its  creation  by  a 
gardener.  We  mark  advance  by  marking  time  and  the  traits  it 
has  developed — stage  coaches  and  railroads ;  wind  and  steam  ; 
candles  and  electricity ;  and,  recognising  the  value — nay,  the 
necessity  of  comparison,  we  must  for  the  nonce  place  in  juxta¬ 
position,  not  the  Crystal  Palace,  perhaps,  but  one  of  these  palatial 
conservatories  of  the  present  with  its  antitype  of  a  hundred  years 
ago  and,  by  analogy,  acknowledge  that  Paxton  was  veritably  the 
Napoleon  of  garden  architecture. 
There  are  good  reasons  for  supposing  that  our  illustration  of  a 
conservatory  in  1797  is  an  example  of  the  best  then  existing, 
a  noted  gardener  of  that  day  thinking  it  worthy  to  adorn,  as  a 
frontispiece,  a  comprehensive  little  work  by  him  on  gardening 
—viz.,  “  The  Gardener’s  Journal.”  The  reproduction  (fig.  17) 
■hows  that  the  engraver  of  the  original  has  given  a  tilt  to  one 
angle  of  the  roof  which  does  not  improve  its  appearance,  and  which 
I  do  not  think  a  gardener-architect  even  of  that  day  would  have 
been  guilty  of.  Possibly,  though,  the  stately  dame  figured  in  the 
foreground  is  enforcing  some  remarks  upon  the  point  in  question 
by  displaying  what  appears  to  be  a  huge  horse  pistol,  and  the  good 
old  gardener,  in  view  of  possible  consequences,  has  brought  out  his 
largest  spade  as  a  shield  of  defence. 
We  can  duly  allow  that  glass  being  a  luxury  a  hundred  years 
ago  its  employment  for  our  purpose  was  severely  restricted,  but 
the  fact  cannot  be  ignored  that  no  marked  development  of  its  use 
in  horticulture  took  place  until  the  man  and  the  hour  had  arrived 
— until  Paxton  in  three  giant  strides  reached  the  pinnacle  of  fame 
aa  a  gardener-architect  on  the  summit  of  Sydenham  Hill.  This 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  by  laborious,  protracted  stages.  His 
first  practical  exposition  of  that  remarkable  engineering  talent  he 
displayed  being  the  Victoria  Regia  house  at  Chatsworth,  from 
which  was  conceived  and  brought  into  existence  the  great  Exhibi¬ 
tion  of  1851  in  Hyde  Park,  this,  in  its  turn,  being  the  parent  of 
the  present  Crystal  Palace.  There  are  few,  if  any,  more  fitting 
monuments  to  that  munificent  patron  of  the  arts  and  sciences, 
the  lamented  Prince  Consort,  to  whom  must  be  accorded  unqualified 
honour  and  esteem  for  including  among  the  many  traits  of  a  noble 
life  that  of  fostering  and  promoting  the  magnificent  talents  of 
Paxton. 
Details  of  the  great  workman  and  his  works  need  but  be  briefly 
mentioned  here.  Mr.  Paxton,  born  in  1803,  was  educated  in  the 
Woburn  Free  School,  and  entered  the  service  of  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire  at  Chiswick,  eventually  attaining  to  the  post  of  head 
gardener  at  Chatsworth.  Here  his  successful  experiments  with 
iron  and  glass  for  horticultural  building  led  to  the  planning  of  the 
great  Exhibition  on  the  larger  scale,  embodying  the  same  principles. 
For  this  he  received  the  honour  of  knighthood  ere  commencing  his 
magnum  opus.  In  1854  Sir  Joseph  was  elected  M.P.  for  Coventry, 
which  he  represented  until  his  death  in  1865.  Apropos  of  his 
regime  at  Chatsworth,  that  veteran  horticulturist  and  cultured 
scholar  the  late  Mr.  Geo.  Cunningham  of  Liverpool  told  the  writer 
there  was  none  he  enjoyed  and  appreciated  converse  with  more  than 
Paxton,  and  that  the  last  time  be  dined  with  him  in  the  gardener’s 
bouse  at  Chatsworth  there  was  outward  and  visible  signs  of  coming 
events  in  two  livery  servants  waiting  upon  them  at  table. 
The  great  Exhibition,  as  well  as  it  served  its  direct  purpose, 
indirectly  paved  the  way  to  that  perfection  found  in  its  permanent 
successor  ;  for,  as  far  as  the  building  was  concerned,  various  defects 
.  which  only  experience  could  determine  were  noticed  to  be  avoided. 
In  the  present  Crystal  Palace  the  grandeur  and  harmony 
of  design  are  perfect  to  a  fault,  if  we  may  say  so,  for  where 
criticism  finds  no  margin  for  adverse  judgment  it  often  lacks  by 
want  of  comparison  a  full  measure  of  appreciation.  Would  that 
by  some  hip  Van  Winkle  process  the  architect  of  our  conservatory 
of  a  century  since  could  view  this  sparkling  triumph  of  iron  and 
glass  ! 
The  writer’s  first  impressions  of  this  colossal  conservatory  were, 
I  fear,  but  parallel  with  those  of  the  public,  whose  wonder  is  often 
absorbed  in  the  variety  shows.  Well  do  I  recollect  as  a  child 
seeing  it  fir»t  from  a  vantage  point  some  few  miles  distant 
flashing  back  the  dying  rays  of  the  setting  sun,  and  the  childish 
wonder  and  admiration  which  could  only  be  appeased  by  the 
promise  of  a  vi»it  to  it.  Of  that  visit,  which  took  place  at  a  school 
excursion  some  few  years  after,  there  is  but  one  feature  prominent 
in  memory,  and  that  is  the  waiter  who  served  op  our  cold  colla¬ 
tion,  brought  it  ready  cut  on  plates  piled  up  sandwich  fashion,  and 
Fig,  17. — A  Conservatory  in  1797. 
the  bulk  of  my  moiety  stuck  to  the  bottom  of  the  next  boy’s  plate 
which  he  appropriated,  to  the  end  that  I  was  a  sadder  boy  and  but 
little  wiser  for  the  visit.  Then,  I  think,  the  next  visit  was 
engrossed  by  Blondin,  and  the  next  ii  yet  to  come,  when,  doubtless, 
in  looking  up  its  174  feet  to  the  roof  of  the  central  transept,  in 
knowing  that  there  are  some  25  acres  superficial  of  glass  and  some 
sixty  miles  of  hot-water  pipes,  the  grandeur  and  magnitude  of  its 
proportions  will  be  justly  appreciated. 
Probably  the  source  of  Paxton’s  inspiration  as  a  designer  may 
be  traced  to  that  voluminous  writer,  zealous  scholar,  and  earnest 
worker,  John  Claudius  Loudon,  who,  in  addition  to  his  exhaustive 
studies  and  comprehensive  published  works  upon  agriculture  and 
horticulture,  grafted  upon  each  of  these  great  branches  the  study 
of  architecture  in  direct  relation  to  them.  In  1805  Loudon  pub^ 
lished  “  A  Short  Treatise  on  Some  Improvements  Lately  Made  on 
Hothouses  in  the  following  year,  in  two  volumes,  “  A  Treatise 
on  Forming,  Managing,  and  Improving  Country  Residences,  and  on 
the  Choice  of  Situations  and  in  1832  “  The  Encyclopaedia  of 
Cottage,  Farm,  and  Villa  Architecture.”  To  the  fertility  of 
Loudon’s  inventive  faculties  must  be  attributed  the  “ridge  and 
furrow  ”  system  of  horticultural  building,  although  it  was  left  to 
Paxton  to  place  it  in  practical  form.  Loudon  was  not  destined  to 
witness  Paxton’s  crowning  work,  nor,  indeed,  the  exhibition  pre¬ 
ceding  it,  his  death  occurring  eight  years  previously  at  the  age  of 
sixty  whilst  actively  engaged  upon  his  labour  of  love,  his  unfinished 
work  being  “  Self-Instruction  for  Young  Gardeners.” 
Rude  as  were  the  earliest  examples  of  greenhouse  architecture, 
some  of  them  being  simply  sheds,  with  a  glazed  sash  introduced  for 
