6 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
January  5,  1899. 
average  years  a  very  good  return  upon  the  capital  invested.  We 
have  no  statistics  giving  positive  information,  but  I  believe,  fifty 
years  ago,  the  bulk  of  the  vegetables  consumed  in  the  metropolis 
were,  raised  in  Middlesex,  Surrey,  and  Essex,  and  a  great  part  of 
the  English-grown  fruit  came  from  orchards  within  the  sound  of 
St.  Paul’s.  It  was  curious  to  notice,  as  the  rural  districts  near 
London  became  the  sphere  of  building  operations,  that  the  market 
gardens  were  generally  the  first  to  be  cut  up  into  streets  and  roads ; 
the  private  residences,  with  park-like  grounds,  scattered  amongst  them, 
held  out  longer,  but  they,  too,  succumbed  at  last. 
At  the  census  taken  four  years  after  the  Queen’s  accession  the 
population  of  London  was  about  two  millions,  at  the  next  in  1851, 
a  quarter  of  a  million  had  been  added,  but  the  advance  during  the 
last  forty  years  has  been  much  greater.  The  Great  Exhibition  of 
that  year  was  a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  metropolis, 
bringing,  as  it  did,  visitors  from  all  countries,  and  it  added  to  the 
nu’.nber  of  residents.  ’J'hcr  the  rapid  increase  of  periodicals  and 
magaz’nes,  in  which  London  localities  or  Lond'in  life  were  frequent 
themes,  tended  to  draw  people  to  the  metropolis  as  a  grand  centie 
of  w’ealth  and  activity.  Again,  the  increase  of  railw.iy  lines  and 
branches  opened  up  new  facilities  for  reaching  London  from  many 
places,  where,  in  Georgian  times,  most  of  the  inhabitants  seldom 
travelled  any  distance.  Probably  people  would  have  been  less  eager 
to  migrate  to  London  half  a  centur}'^  ago  had  the  insanitary  condition 
of  many  districts  then  been  revealed,  but  the  newspapers  of  that  time 
took  little  notice  of  matters  which  would  now  be  soon  subjected  to  a 
searching  investigation.  Even  the  prevalence  of  the  fatal  cholera  in 
more  than  one  season  did  not  scare  people,  though  during  the  autumn 
of  1849  the  deaths  in  the  limited  area  of  London  of  that  date 
amounted  repeatedly  to  300  a  day,  or  more,  from  that  disease  alone. 
During  some  of  the  cholera  visitations  the  trade  in  fruit  and  vegetables 
suffered  considerably,  owing  to  a  notion  that  even  persons  in  health 
should  abstain  from  these  to  lessen  the  risk  of  taking  the  epidemic. 
Curious  to  say,  an  investigation  of  the  callings  of  those  dying  from 
cholera  in  one  suburban  neighbourhood  showed  that  gardeners  were 
more  exempt  than  other  ir.en.  Large  crops  were  raised  in  many  of 
the  market  gardens,  largely  with  the  aid  of  animal  manure,  and  the 
method  of  rapid  rota' ion  of  crops  was  general.  Therefore  it  is  not  at 
all  astonishing  that  when  in  low-lying  districts  houses  were  erected 
upon  ground  avhich  had  been  thus  treated  for  years,  built  without 
any  substantial  foundation  of  brick  or  concrete,  they  turned  out  to  be 
nurseries  of  malaria. 
Just  about  the  time  this  Journal  entered  on  its  honourable  and 
useful  existence  I  lived  in  a  house  not  far  from  Buckingham  Palace, 
on  the  border  of  Westminster.  This  was  not  very  lofty,  yet  from  its 
upper  windows  could  be  seen  the  hills  of  Surrey — i.e.,  Lavender  Hill, 
Pig  Hill  (so  called  formerly),  and  others  between  Battersea  and 
Clapham.  Up  to  that  date  the  builders  had  not  been  very  busy 
on  the  Surrey  side  of  the  Thames,  and  even  to  this  hour  the 
southern  suburbs  of  London  seem  endeavouring  to  retain  somewhat 
of  a  semi-rural  aspect.  In  1848  there  were  still  open  hills  on  the 
Middlesex  side  within  the  boundaries  of  Westminster  which  gave  a 
free  view  across  fields  where  the  sportsman  could  shoot  wild  fowl. 
Then  the  Willow  Walk  not  only  retained  its  name,  but  its  Willows 
and  rivulets  ran  amongst  the  market  garden",  over  which  persons  had 
to  cross  by  a  plank  bridge.  The  broad  space,  however,  which  bore 
the  name  of  Tothill  or  Toothill  Fields  had  been  built  over  before  the 
Queen’s  accession;  all  but  the  green  centre  of  Vincent  Square,  which 
yet  remains  as  a  memory  of  a  spot  where  the  old  herbalists  sought 
medicinal  plants,  and  the  ditches  afforded  Watercresses  to  the  West¬ 
minster  folk. 
But  for  the  obstruction  caused  by  the  warehouses  and  other 
buildings  of  Lambeth  persons  could  have  seen,  by  aid  of  a  glass,  from 
the  terrace  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  the  orchards  which  fifty  years 
ago  yielded  crops  of  fruit  about  Vauxball  and  Kennington,  in  spite  of 
the  London  smoke.  More  recently,  about  seven  years  since,  I  was 
shown  Mulberries,  Cherries,  and  Pears  taken  from  a  small  garden  at 
A^auxhall,  which  was  being  cleared  to  be  thrown  into  a  recreation 
ground  then  forming.  In  1848  I  believe  there  was  yet  visible  a 
remnant  of  the  stream  called  the  Effra,  which  flowed  from  the 
uplands  of  Biixton  and  Norwood  to  South  Lambeth,  a  boon  to  many 
gardens  near  which  it  passed,  but  in  its  capricious  moods  apt  to  damage 
some  of  them  by  a  sudden  overflow.  It  was  in  that  year,  on  April  10th, 
that  Kennington  Common,  a  wild,  unattractive  space  of  waste  land, 
was  the  chosen  place  for  a  vast  Chartist  gathering,  which  caused  no 
small  alarm  at  the  time.  People  thought  that  Fergus  O’Connor  and 
his  companions  were  going  to  inaugurate  a  revolution,  but  the 
movement  ended  in  an  ignominious  collapse.  What  a  contrast  between 
the  scene  of  that  day  and  that  which  greets  us  in  the  present 
Kennington  Park,  a  home  of  flowers  from  spring  to  autumn,  where 
the  trees  and  shrubs  planted  since  the  old  common  underwent 
transformation  have  made  good  progress,  and  it  affords  a  pleasant 
resting-place  amid  the  bustle  of  a  suburb  traversed  by  many 
thousands  daily  !  ^ 
Taking  another  retrospect,  in  that  neighbourhood  there  was,  fifty 
years  since,  a  remnant  yet  of  the  far-famed  Vauxhall  Gardens,  a 
favourite  resort  for  nearly  two  centuries.  Diminished  by  various 
changes,  with  little  left  of  the  garden  about  it,  about  1852  it  was 
closed,  and  the  ground  cleared  for  building.  Some  of  the  old  trees 
remained  till  the  last,  but  the  Gooseberry  hedges,  the  Asparagus 
grounds,  the  beds  of  Boses  (for  it  was  at  one  time  partly  a  nursery 
garden)  had  vanished  with  the  nightingales,  long  before  that  date. 
Many  persons  now  living  will  remember  the  Surrey  Zoological  Gardens, 
which  occupied  a  space  of  about  12  acres  at  the  time  of  which  I  am 
waiting,  situated  between  Kennington  and  Walworth.  Though  thus 
named  in  the  later  years  of  its  history,  at  first  it  was  a  sort  of  botanical 
gardens,  which,  opened  to  the  public  during  the  reign  of  William  IV., 
was  planted  with  a  variety  of  exotics.  Lectures  were  given,  open  air 
demonstrations  in  botany,  and  so  forth,  but  the  educational  scheme 
did  not  answer,  and  so  Mr.  Cross  removed  his  animals  thither  from 
Exeter  Change,  zoology  and  miscellaneous  exhibits  becoming  the 
attractions  of  the  place.  It  had  a  rather  extensive  lake,  used  for 
aquatic  shows.  At  one  time  there  was  a  probability  the  gardens 
would  be  taken  by  the  Boyal  Horticultural  Society,  when  a  suburban 
site  was  being  sought  for  a  show  garden ;  had  that  happened  the  ground 
might  awhile  have  escaped  the  builder. — J.  B.  S.  C. 
WANTON  WASTE  OF  WEALTH. 
This  alliterative  heading  is  taken  from  some  significant  remarks 
by  Mr.  Eoupell  in  his  paper  on  “Suburban  Fruit  Growing,”  in  part  3, 
vol.  xxii.,  of  the  Journal  of  the  Boyal  Horticultural  Society,  just 
published.  The  following  are  the  remarks  alluded  to  : — 
“  Fruit  growing  in  the  suburbs  of  London  is  no  new  thing.  From 
time  immemorial  market  gardeners  have  grown  their  fruit  and 
vegetables,  and  taken  them  to  market,  bringing  back  in  their  carts 
and  vans  manure  obtained  at  a  cheap  rate  in  the  town.  The  distances 
to  be  covered  fifty  years  ago  were  comparatively  small,  and  growers 
made  a  pleasant  and  comfortable  living  by  the  cultivation  and  sale  of 
Grapes,  Plums,  Apples,  and  bush  fruit,  in  addition  to  vegetables,  all 
of  which  brought  good  prices.  The  land  was  not  over-drained,  and  in 
some  cases  it  was  marshy  and  waterlogged.  Ponds  and  ditches  were 
in  many  instances  the  sources  of  their  water  supply  for  horticultural 
purposes  ;  but  in  those  days  w’e  did  not  suffer  so  much  in  dry  weather 
from  lack  of  moisture  as  we  do  now  that  there  is  no  reserve  stored  up 
in  the  subsoil. 
“  The  main  drainage  of  London,  though  necessaiy  from  a  sanitary 
point  of  view,  has  greatly  lessened  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  In  the  first 
place,  it  has  carried  to  the  sea  incalculable  wealth  in  the  shape  of 
organic  matter,  which  was  formerly  available  for  the  fertilisation  of 
the  land.  Houses  were  then  drained  into  cesspools  ;  the  night-waggon 
was  a  familiar  institution  in  the  town  ;  hardy  farm  labourers  cheerfully 
engaged  in  the  most  offensive  tasks  for  the  sake  of  a  little  addition  to 
their  wages  and  privileges ;  and  Mother  Earth,  the  great  deodoriser, 
received  back  her  due.  But  now  she  is  robbed  and  starved,  or  cheated 
with  stable  litter,  which  differs  greatly  from  the  old  farmyard  manure, 
or  she  is  insufficiently  fed  with  artificial  manures,  some  of  which  are, 
of  but  little  value. 
“  In  the  second  place,  the  main  drainage  of  London  has  inter¬ 
cepted  all  the  springs  and  rivulets  which  previously  found  their  way 
from  the  beautiful  hills  which  surround  London  to  the  valley  of  the 
Thames,  and  the  blessed  raindrops  which  heaven  distils  are  bound  by 
Act  of  Parliament  to  hurry  from  the  roofs  of  palaces  and  cottages 
alike  through  the  same  foul  pipes  which  carry  the  diluted  sewage  to 
the  sea.  It  is  within  my  knowledge  and  recollection  that  the  eminent 
engineer  Bobert  Stevenson  the  youngiT,  and  others,  who  professionally 
approved  the  main  drainage  scheme,  regarded  it  as  a  necessary  first 
step  which  would  eventually  have  to  be  followed  by  a  system  of 
separation.  This  is  not  a  cheerful  prospect  for  the  ratepayer,  but  the 
question  will  have  to  be  faced,  as  Nature  will  inevitably  call  the 
inhabitants  of  London  to  a  strict  account  for  their  wanton  waste  of 
the  vast  wealth  of  organic  matter  which  is  now  sent  down  to  thu 
river’s  mouth  to  feed  or  poison  the  fishes. 
“  One  has  only  to  look  at  the  standard  trees  in  the  suburban 
gardens  to  see  how  rapidly  they  are  failing.  The  tops  are  dying — an 
ominous  sign.  And  this  is  true  also  of  the  forest  trees  in  Kensington 
Gardens  and  some  of  the  public  parks,  especially  where  the  subsoil  is 
gravel. 
“  I  have  touched  upon  this  branch  of  the  subject  because  one  of 
the  first  necessaries  in  fruit  growing  is  a  copious  supply  of  water.  My 
friends  often  ask  why  their  out-of-door  Peaches  fall  off  every  year 
when  they  are  about  the  size  of  hazel  nuts,  and  on  examination  at  the 
foot  of  the  wall  the  subsoil  is  always  found  to  be  as  dry  and  hard  as 
bath  brick. 
“  When  the  old  suburban  gardens  were  first  laid  out  the  soil  was 
generally  fresh  and  in  good  condition,  for  as  building  extended  meadows 
