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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  i-<'bruary  20,  190Z. 
from  Nature  that  is  listened 'to  as  eagerly  as  any  of  his 
discourses  in  church. 
Dreariness  is  almost  unknown  in  the  rectory  garden.  In 
the  winter  it  is,  of  course,  more  gloomy  than  usual,  but 
even  then  there  is  a  brightness  about  the  berries  on  the 
Holly  trees  in  the  shrubberies,  and  the  tree  of  Crataegus 
pyracantha  that  covers  one  end  of  the  house.  But  as  soon  as 
Nature  allows  it,  young  green  growths  appear  above  the 
ground  in  a  score  of  spots,  and,  in  due  course,  the  rectory 
garden  is  a  place  of  nodding  Daffodils.  They  form  one  of 
the  good  man’s  loves,  and  his  collection  is  a  comprehensive 
one.  The  simple  Snowdrops  mark  the  opening  of  the  floral 
year,  and  the  garden  is  never  dull  after  that.  Annuals, 
herbaceous  plants,  Roses,  Dahlias,  and  Chrysanthemums  — 
they  all  have  a  place  in  the  garden,  a  little  jumbled  up, 
maybe,  and  perhaps  the  critic  would  say  overcrowded,  but 
the  rector  says  that  he  does  not  profess  to  be  a  gardener, 
and  the  old  man  who  acts  in  that  capacity  excuses  himself 
on  the  grounds  that  he  cannot  have  his  orvn  way.  “  Ah ! 
the  garden  would  be  a  place  of  Cabbages  and  Potatoes  only 
if  you  could,”  is  the  rector’s  reply,  and  the  discussion  ends. 
In  the  kitchen  garden  the  factotum  may  be  said  to  rule, 
and  it  was  a  sore  trial  to  him  when  the  rector  took  a  fancy 
to  Cactus  Dahlias,  because,  in  spite  of  protests  and  threats 
of  resignation,  he  would  insist  on  gi owing  them  on  the 
border  that  for  years  had  been  sacred  to  early  Potatoes.  But 
the  master  had  his  way,  and  his  collection  is  the  envy  of 
every  Dahlia  grower  in  the  parish.  At  least  it  was,  but 
some  of  his  best  varieties  are  dispersed  about,  and  may  be 
seen  in  several  other  gardens  in  the  district.  In  most  things 
he  has  confidence  in  the  gardener,  but  cannot  trust  him  with 
labelling  the  Dahlias^  so  the  rector  do?s_it  himself;  and 
when  the  frost  has  put  an  end  to  the  flowers  in  the  autumn 
master  and  man  may  be  seen  busily  employed  in  taking  up 
the  tubers  and  storing  them  inside  the  capacious  barn  that 
provides  room  for  everything  that  has  to  be  stored,  and  then 
is  not  half  full. 
I  am  tempted  to  dwell  a  moment  on  the  old  rambling, 
timber-built  structure  near  the  rectory.  It  is  the  ancient 
tithe  barn,  where  the  tenth  sheaf  of  the  farmer’s  corn  used 
to  be  stored  away  in  the  days  when  these  dues  were  paid 
in  kind.  That  order  of  things  has  passed  away,  but  the 
barn  remains,  thanks  to  its  sturdy  timbers  and  repeated 
coatings  of  tar,  and  serves  the  useful  purpose  of  storehouse 
for  the  Dahlia  tubers  and  other  produce  from  the  garden. 
There  are  fruit  trees  in  the  rectory  garden,  but  never 
much  fruit  if  the  gardener’s  test'mony  be  correct ;  and  he 
says  “it’s  all  on  account  o’  them  dratted  b’rds  that  pick  the 
buds  from  the  bushes  and  devour  the  fruit  afore  it’s  ripe  ; 
but  it’s  no  use  o’  talkin’  to  th’  parson.”  This  is  another  of 
the  Old  gardener’s  wondes,  and  when  you  walk  round  with 
the  rector  in  the  summer  he  will  peer  into  the  branches  of 
an  espalier  Apple  tree,  presumably  for  the  purpose  of  show¬ 
ing  you  a  fine  fruit,  but  it  is  only  to  reveal  the  presence  of 
a  iittle  bird’s  nest.  He  loves  the  feathered  tribe  even  to 
the  mischievous  sparrow,  and  smiles  when  the  gardener 
complains  of  the  damage  they  do.  “Never  mind,  John,  we 
won’t  destroy  them,”  is  the  reply  which  affords  little  comfort 
to  the  gardener,  who  does  not  share  his  employer’s  sympathy. 
But  the  birds  add  some  charm  to  the  garden,  particularly  in 
the  spring,  when  the  song  thrush  welcomes  the  dawn  from 
some  tree  top,  or,  in  the  stillness  of  the  night,  when  copse 
and  garden  ring  with  the  sweet,  thrilling  music  of  the. 
nightingale. 
Such  is  the  rectory  garden,  such  is  the  rector  himself. 
The  former  is  old-fashioned,  the  latter  belongs  to  an  ancient 
school — simple,  conscientious,  sympathetm,  and  loveabl?. 
Pei  haps  you  know  such  a  garden  and  such  a  man.  Examples 
of  the  former  exist  in  many  a  country  village,  and,  happily, 
parsons  of  the  type  described  are  not  unplentiful.  Long 
may  he  live,  for  there  will  be  a  day  of  real  mourning  in  the 
parish  when  the  time  comes  for  him  to  be  gathered  to  his 
fathers  and  the  rectory  garden  knows  him  no  more. — 
A  British  Kustic. 
The  Construction  of  Glass  Ranges. 
On  three  of  our  pages  this  week  we  bring  to  notice  by  means; 
of  illustrations,  forms  of  conservatory  and  hothouse  construction 
that  commend  themselves  from  various  pioints  of  view.  On 
page  169  will  be  seen  the  architectural  character  adopted  by 
Messrs.  Richardson  and  Co.,  of  Darlington,  in  building  two 
adjacent  conseiwatorfes  to  a  iireviously  existmg  structure  in  the 
Public  Park  at  Newport,  Monmouthshire.  Then,  on  other  pages 
(170  and  171)  are  shown  respectively  the  interior  arrangement 
and  heating  apparatus  of  the  range  of  glass  homses  newly  erected’ 
bv  the  same  firm  for  the  Horticultural  College  authorities  at 
Swanley,  in  Kent.  The  general  idea  of  the  Swanley  range  is  that 
everything  is  so  compact,  and  there  only  being  two  outside  doors, 
no  heat  is  lost,  as  is  the  case  with  doors  ouening  to  the  outside 
atmosphere  in  the  ordmai-y  way.  The  boiler  which  heats  the 
range  is  a  Terminal-end  Chatsworth,  fitted  with  two  6-inch  cross 
tubes,  having  an  actual  heating  capacity  of  2,100ft  of  4-inch  pipe. 
Ground  Plan,  showing  interior  arrangement  of  Range  figured  on  page  171. 
