538 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  December  12  1901. 
sert  classes,  and  certainly  few  can  complain  at  the  collective 
qualities  of  the  selection. 
Peasgood’s  Nonesuch  were  conspicuous  in  the  culinary 
section,  several  fine  dishes  being  on  view.  Mere  de  Menage 
too,  were  beautiful  in  colour  and  weight,  and  Warner’s  King, 
though  not  equal  to  Mr.  Cannell’s  monster,  were  distinctly 
fine  in  size  and  state.  There  were  Cox’s  Pomona,  Gloria 
Mundi,  Belle  Dubois,  Loddington  or  Stone’s,  Newton 
Wonder,  Alfriston,  Byford  Wonder,  Alexander,  Bramley’s 
Seedling,  Blenheim  Orange,  Lane’s  Prince  Albert,  Annie 
Elizabeth,  Bismarck,  Tower  of  Glammis,  and  Beauty  of 
Hants,  all  of  good  repute  for  size  and  quality.  Except  in 
the  single  dish  classes,  four  fruits  comprise  a  dish  in  these 
cooking  kinds,  the  number  being  all-sufficient  for  every  pur¬ 
pose.  Five  fruits  are  required  in  the  dessert  section,  and  if 
Pears  four  is  the  number  required.  Those  societies  who 
demand  larger  numbers  should  take  a  hint  from  this  well- 
appointed  exhibition.  The  smallness  of  the  dish  raises  the 
standard  of  quality  instinctively  higher,  a  fact  that  should 
have  a  value  not  only  as  affecting  Apples  and  Pears,  but 
other  fruits  also,  at  summer  and  winter  shows. — W.  S. 
Pear,  Doyenne  dn  Cornice. 
Fruit  growers  unite  in  assenting  to  give  the  first  place  in  order 
of  general  merit  among  Pears  to  the  variety  we  name  in  the 
headline,  and  illustrate  this  week  on  page  539.  The  spray  is  so 
reduced  that  the  characters  of  the  individual  fruits  are  not 
correctly  defined  ;  but,  at  any  rate,  the  figure  shows  the  fine  bear¬ 
ing  qualities  of  this  Pear,  and  emphasises  its  worth  for  pot 
culture.  A  correspondent  a  few  years  ago  wrote  to  the  Journal 
stating  that  about  eight  dozen  fruits  had  been  gathered  by  him 
from  one  tree  in  a  15-inch  pot ;  and  it  was  from  a  spray  sent  by 
the  writer  we  refer  to  (Mr.  Geo.  Hawkins,  when  gardener  at 
Fwenny  Priory  Gardens,  Bridgend,  South  Wales)  that  the  illus¬ 
tration  was  prepared.  The  cultural  work  necessary  to  keep  pot 
fruit  trees  in  continued  health  and  good  form  is  by  no  means  light, 
yet  does  it  not  repay  to  have  even  a  few  orchard-house  trees  when 
such  returns  are  yielded  ? 
Landscape  Gardening,: 
Landscape  gardening  deal  with  the  disposition  of 
gVoll?ds’  wa^er»  ro°ks,  buildings,  trees,  and  other  plants 
which  go  to  the  composition  of  the  landscape.  Such  in  a 
broad  sense  is  the  definition  of  the  art,  for  it  may  be 
employed  to  create  a  beautiful  and  harmonious  scene  where 
only  Nature  in  barren  wilderness  reigned  before,  or  to  merely 
improve  and  adapt  existing  natural  beauties  and  resources 
to  the  requirements  of  taste  ftfid  convenience  ;  and  although 
it  is  an  art  of  which,  like  many  others,  everybody  thinks  he 
is  a  judge,  and  the  younger  and  more  confident  the  land¬ 
scape  gardener  is  the  more  he  deems  his  judgment  infallible. 
Landscape  gardening  has  been  practised  since  the  earliest 
dawn  of  civilisation.  The  earliest  accounts  we  have  of 
gardens  are  those  recorded  in  the  Bible,  the  gardens  of  the 
Israelites.  It  may  be  assumed  that,  in  addition  to  all  the 
varieties  of  indigenous  plants  and  trees,  exotics  were  also 
cultivated  in  ancient  Palestine.  Solomon,  doubtless,  culti¬ 
vated  trees  and  plants  after  some  scientific  system.  Gardens 
of  considerable  extent  were  attached  to  the  King’s  palaces, 
and  aiso  to  the  houses  of  the  wealthy  ;  and  in  these  gardens 
were  fountains,  baths,  grottos,  rockeries,  &c.  Irrespective 
of  their  own  inherent  attractiveness,  and  yet  in  close  alliance 
with  it,  the  universal  delight  in  gardens,  and  particu’arly  in 
such  gardens  as  are  most  intimately  associated  with  human 
habitations,  may  be  traced  to  the  remembrance  of  the  fact 
that  the  first  earthly  garden  was  planted  by  the  Creator 
Himself,  and  by  Him  was  expressly  ordained  to  be  the  home 
of  newly-created  man — man  in  his  condition  of  primeval 
perfection  and  happiness. 
The  Christian,  also,  cannot  fail  to  associate  with  his  idea 
of  a  garden  the  habit  of  Christ  to  frequent  that  garden  called 
Gethsemane  ;  and  he  also  will  remember  that  the  tomb  in 
which  the  body  of  the  Lord  was  laid  was  a  tomb  in  a  garden. 
Solomon  had  grand  Royal  gardens  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
*  A  lecture  delivered  by  Mr.  William  Miller,  F.R.H.S.,  land¬ 
scape  gardener  and  nurseryman,  Berkswell,  before  the  Birmingham 
and  Midland  Counties  Gardeners’  Mutual  Improvement  Association, 
November  4th,  1901. 
Jerusalem,  beautiful  gardens  at  Urtza,  near  Bethlehem,  a 
country  residence  and  beautiful  gardens  at  a  place  called 
Tirzah.  The  gardens  of  Uzza.  Existing  remains  also  go  to 
show  that  Solomon  built  a  mountain  palace  in  the  Lebanon, 
which  of  course  the  whole — or  at  any  rate  as  much  as  he 
required — of  the  beautiful  Libanus  Hill  country,  with  all  the 
Cedars  of  historic  fame,  would  go  to  fo;m  his  great  park. 
It  needs  but  a  small  stretch  of  imagination  to  fancy  King 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory  walking  arm-in-arm  with  his  Royal 
guest,  the  Queen  of  Sheba— his  own  wives,  meanwhile,  we 
will  suppose  to  be  well  out  of  the  way— around  those  Royal 
gardens,  which  were  so  magnificently  grand  and  some  of 
them  so  far  apart,  that  had  the  motor-car  of  these  days 
been  then  in  existence,  methinks  the  Royal  pair  might  have 
found  it  useful.  Besides  the  above,  the  Egyptians,  the 
Persians,  Assyrians,  and  other  remote  nations  prided  them¬ 
selves  on  their  magnificent  gardens.  Those  of  Epicurus, 
and  of  Pissistratus,  Cimon,  and  Theophrastus  were  the  most 
famous  in  Greece.  The  gorgeous  gardens  of  Lucullus, 
Sallust,  Crassus,  Pompey,  Seneca,  &c.,  show  the  delight 
which  the  Romans  took  in  them.  The  Romans  were  the 
first  who  introduced  the  art  of  gardening  into  Western 
Europe.  But  it  was  not  until  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  that 
gardening  made  any  particular  advance  in  England. 
The  Romans  introduced  landscape  gardening  into 
Britain,  but  the  art  was  lost  when  the  country  was  abandoned 
by  them  to  the  Saxons.  As,  however,  it  had  meantime  been 
fostered  in  Fiance,  it  was  probably  introduced  again  by  the 
Normans.  Henry  I.,  according  to  Henry  of  Huntingdon, 
had  a  park  (habitationem  fararum)  at  Woodstock,  and  it  is 
conjectured  that  this  park  may  have  surrounded  a  magnificent 
Roman  vi'la,  the  ruins  of  which,  covering  about  six  acres  in 
extent — -were  discovered  on  the  Blenheim  estate,  early  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  If  the  conjecture  is  well  founded, 
Blenheim  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  ancient  site,  as  well 
as  the  grandest  example  of  landscape  gardening  in  Britain  ; 
according  to  some  it  is  the  grandest  in  Europe. 
The  ea’th’s  landscape  in  all  its  varied,  sublime,  and 
appreciable  forms,  have  been  bequeathed  to  us  by  the  Great 
Creator  of  all  things,  and  the  first  man,  we  aie  told  in  Holy 
Writ,  who  enjoyed  such  glorious  elysian  scenery  in  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  was  Adam.  Whether  that  is  so  or  other¬ 
wise,  is  good  enough  for  us  and  for  our  put  pose  here  ;  any¬ 
how,  in  this  belief  we  are  far  from  being  alone.  Amongst 
many  others  we  find  so  celebrated  a  painter  as  John  Martin 
exhibiting,  in  1824,  his  imaginary  “Garden  of  Eden.”  Aho 
an  imaginary  picture  of  the  terraces,  o"  of  that  which  is 
better  and  mPre  generariy  known  as  the  “  Hanging  Gardens 
of  Babylon.”  These  are  pioduced  in  Loudon’s  “Arboretum 
Britannicum.” 
What  ever  the  earth  was  like  prior  to  the  creation  of 
Adam,  we  have  no  history  save  that  of  the  recorded  testi¬ 
mony  of  the  rocks.  These  give  ample  and  uncontrovertible 
proof  that  the  earth  had  most  extraordinary  and  marvellous 
prehistoric  or  mythical  periods  of  convulsive  history,  far 
beyond  the  comprehension  of  mortal  man.  No  time  such 
as  we  term  “  years  ”  can  be  put  to  the  age  of  the  earth,  yet 
by  knowledge  or  observation,  carefully  and  scientifically 
applied,  and  wrought  out  by  sundry  geologists  who  have 
made  it  their  study,  we  have  been  enabled,  with  much  per¬ 
severance,  from  time  to  time  to  so  classify  the  different 
periods,  aided  by  the  respective  representations  of  the  fossil 
flora  and  fauna  found  in  the  many  series  of  formations, 
or  in  their  absence,  from  the  Archoean  or  most  ancient 
formation  upwards  through  the  Primary,  Secondary, 
Tertiary,  &c.,  until  we  arrived  at  the  Glacial  and  Post  Glacial 
per  ods  d  nominated  by  geologists  as  the  Anthropozoic — 
from  the  Greek  words  “  anthropus  ”  man,  and  “  zoe  ”  life, 
when  relics  of  man  were  beginning  to  be  found.  This 
short  cut,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  term  it,  of  geological 
explanation,  brings  us  up  to  the  time — years,  months,  and 
days  were  not  yet  arranged — when  Adam  was  formed  and 
placed  on  this  great  floor  of  Nature’s  creation,  already  pre¬ 
pared  for  him  by  the  grandest  representation  of  flora  and 
fauna,  and  also  of  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  that  is  possible,  or, 
rather,  impossible,  for  the  imagination  of  modern  man  to 
conceive. 
In  his  “  Domain  of  Amheim  ”  Edgar  Allen  Poe  made 
Ellison  maintain  that  the  richest,  the  truest,  and  most 
natural,  if  not  altogether  the  most  extensive  province  had 
been  unaccountably  neglected.  No  definition  had  spoken 
of  the  landscape  gardener  as  of  the  poet ;  yet  it  seemed  to 
Ellison  that  the  improvement  of  the  landscape  garden  offered 
to  the  proper  muse  the  most  magnificent  of  opportunities 
