290 
.lOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
April  13,  1899. 
luck”  on  the  one  hand  and  misfortune  on  the  other,  the  fact  remains 
tlint  those  who  commonce  “longing”  for  the  lioped-for  reward  soon 
enough,  and  who  strive  as  earnestly,  perseveringly,  and  thought¬ 
fully  as  they  “long”  for  the  means  of  support  in  the  latter  days, 
are  much  more  likely  to  accomplish  the  laudable  desire  than  are 
those  who  give  little  thought  to  the  impwtant  matter,  and  who 
trust  to  “luck,”  or  that  tickle  jade  “fortune,”  to  carry  them  through. 
Some  men  have  been  naturally  more  fortunate  than  others  in  obtaining 
some  coveted  position,  but  a  proportion  of  these  have  made  mistakes 
and  failed,  while  others,  by  their  unciuestioned  ability  and  more 
discreet  methods,  have  increased  their  reputations  and  firmly  established 
themselves  in  the  positions  that  they  so  worthily  till,  or  from  which 
they  have  retired,  with  so  much  credit  to  themselves,  to  their  well 
won  rest. 
With  very  few  exceptions  these  worthies  have  not  won  their 
honours  by  any  mere  freaks  of  fortune  but  by  very  real  work. 
They  have  gone  through  the  drudgery  of  gardening,  and  most  of 
them  also  through  another  kind  of  drudgery  —  self-education  — 
liocoming  men  of  considerable  and  varied  mental  acquirements,  while 
not  ignoring  the  courtesies  or  even  some  of  the  accomplishments  of 
life;  yet  never  forgetting,  nor  wishing  to  forget,  they  are  gardeners. 
They  have  struggled  through  many  a  hard  task  and  overcome  many 
a  difliculty ;  they  have  not  been  tempted  by  the  frivolities  of  life  from 
ihe  path  of  duty;  have  thought  seriously  over  every  change  from 
place  to  place  ;  have  made  few  mistakes  or  missed  few  opportunities ; 
and  thus  by  learning,  by  working,  and  by  waiting,  their  time  and 
turn  have  come,  and  then,  being  well  equipped  for  various  duties, 
have  won  success. 
These  remarks,  which  are  penned  mainly  in  the  interests  of  the 
men  of  the  future,  have  been  called  forth  by  the  perusal  of  a  letter 
t  f  an  unusual  nature  from  a  gardener,  who  by  indomitable  work  of  all 
imaginable  kinds  in  the  garden  and  much  out  of  it,  has  made  his  fame 
and  fortune  in  the  prime  of  life.  Here  follows  the  letter,  the  character 
of  which  we  have  ventured  to  condense  in  the  heading  of  this  little 
introduction. 
]\Iy  gardening  career  at  Wimbledon  House  has  been  for  some  time 
at  an  end.  AVe  left  there  last  autumn,  October  20th,  after  twenty-four 
years’  service,  to  make  room  for  the  place,  grounds,  and  gardens,  to  be 
cut  up  by  the  building  community.  By  the  death  of  the  late  Sir 
Henry  W.  Peek,  Bart.,  1  lost  a  good  master  and  sincere  friend.  For 
years,  1  can  truthfully  say,  he  was  a  daily  companion,  alwaj's  spending 
any  spare  time  he  could  with  me  in  walking  about  his  estates,  either 
in  Surrey  or  Devon.  AVhen  we  were  separate  it  was  very  rare  that  I 
passed  a  day  without  writing  him  to  post  him  up  in  my  doings. 
'Phis  1  made  a  golden  rule,  and  it  was  seldom  that  a  day  passed 
without  receiving  a  letter  from  him,  and  1  felt  his  loss  the  more 
keenly  because  of  our  close  association.  The  inevitable  end, 
however,  came,  and.  as  1  have  said,  the  estate  is  being  broken  U])  for 
building  purposes,  1  shall  have  more  time  to  devote  to  brick-making, 
and  a  few  miUions  of  bricks  will  be  wanted. 
Although  I  found  jdenty  to  do  when  I  entered  on  my  charge  at 
Wimbledon  House,  1  was  soon  afterwards  further  entrusted  with  the 
duties  of  supervising  the  laying  out  and  planting  of  Sir  Henry’s 
Kousdon  estate  in  Devon,  from  plans  supplied  by  the  late  Mr.  Kobert 
Marnock.  This  led  to  my  taking  the  entire  management  of  the  estate, 
including  the  direction  of  tradesmen  and  employes,  and  necessitating 
a  journey  to  Devonshire  every  ten  days  or  so,  and  spending  half  my 
time  there.  The  management  of  the  two  estates — one  at  Wimbledon, 
the  other  close  to  the  Atlantic — was  no  small  undertaking;  still, 
looking  ahead  to  eventualities,  1  extended  my  labours  by  developing  a 
brick-making  business  on  my  own  account.  From  an  output  of 
300,000  bricks  a  few  years  ago  the  work  steadily  advanced  to  an 
output  of  2P  millions  a  year,  a  result  not  to  be  despised  in  these  days 
of  strong  competition. 
I'uring  this  private  work,  fully  known  to  Sir  Henry  Peek,  the 
men  and  boys  in  his  employment,  for  whom  I  have  been  responsible 
for  and  had  the  direction  of,  have  often  exceeded  over  100  on  the  two 
estates,  150  miles  apart.  This  has  been  done  without  any  assistance, 
not  even  an  office  bo}'.  'J'he  ordering  of  everything,  and  the  payments 
for  everything,  were  issued  by  my  hands,  after  approval  by  Sir  Henry, 
so  that  for  some  years  I  was  heavily  faxed,  and  as  I  have  not  had 
forty-eight  consecutive  hours  to  myself  on  my  own  account  for  over 
twenty  years,  excejtt  on  one  occasion  when  I  attended  a  funeral,  I 
.think T  am  now  entitled  to  a  little  rest,  which  I  hope  to  enjoy. 
1  have  not  sent  you  any  gardening  matter  for  some  time,  as  I  felt 
I  should  be  inviting  people  to  come  and  see  the  nakedness  of  the  land 
at  Wimbledon,  as  after  Sir  Henry  went  away  live  years  ago  the  house 
was  “  shut  up,”  and  the  grounds  have  naturally  been  very  rough.  It 
w\TS  then  that  1  gave  up  the  Devonshire  portion  of  work,  pro'nising  to 
remain  at  the  “  old  place”  with  a  small  staff  of  men  until  it  was  sold. 
The  gardens  w'ere  e.Ntolled  by  Loudon  in  the  “Suburban  (iardener.” 
Sir  Henry  spent  over  £30,000  in  the  rebuilding  of  glass  house.®,  lodges, 
offices,  and  remodelling  various  portions  of  the  grounds  thirty-one 
years  ago.  They  were  long  the  pride  of  the  neigh tiourhood,  but  now 
being  blotted  out,  and  will  soon  be  a  thing  of  the  past. 
Although  the  late  Sir  Henry  Peek  was  a  very  rich  man  and  exceed¬ 
ingly  charitable,  few  equalling  him  in  that  respect,  he  was  nevertheless 
very  precise,  and  what  some  might  call  “exacting.”  One  of  the 
greatest  rebukes  I  ever  experienced  was  one  evening  on  returning  frem 
Pousdon  to  Wimbledon  he  gave  me  thrre-hal'pmce  to  get  him  a 
“St.  James’  Gazette”  and  an  “Echo.”  Arriving  at  Basingstoke  I 
bought  the  “St.  James’,”  but  no  “Echo”  was  obtainable  at  any 
station.  On  arriving  home  w'e  retired  to  his  room  to  do  a  little 
business.  On  bidding  him  good  night  he  remarked,  “  But  you  did  not 
give  me  my  halfpenny.”  If  I  had  forgotten  it  for  a  moment  he  had 
not,  and  on  handing  it  to  him  he  said  “it  will  be  very  useful 
to-morrow.” 
On  another  occasion  he  told  me  he  sent  one  of  his  clerks  to  the 
post-office  with  a  telegram  for  which  they  charged  one  halfpenny  too 
much,  as  they  had  counted  a  compound  word  as  two  single  words; 
he  in,stantly  sent  the  clerk  back  to  fetch  the  halfpenny,  as  they  had  no 
right  to  charge  it.  This  he  did  on  principle,  regardless  of  the  value 
of  the  clerk’s  time  going  to  and  fro.  I  have  olten  thought  if  the  public 
in  general,  and  gardeners  in  particular,  were,  as  some  are,  ecjually 
carelul  and  exact  in  smalt  matter.®,  that  an  enormous  amount  of  poverty 
would  be  prevented  and  charitable  institutions  relieved  of  the  pressure 
of  so  many  would-be  pensioners. — J.  Olleruead,  the  Gardener 
Brichnah'er. 
It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  Ollerhead  does  not  sink  the  title  of 
“  gardener,”  to  which  he  has  so  good  a  claim  ;  nor  is  too  proud  to 
acknowledge  the  occupation,  which  W'e  rather  susjrect  has  brought 
him  some  wealth  ;  but  if  he  had  not  been  careful  in  small  matters, 
after  the  manner  of  his  late  and  rich  employer,  he  could  not  have 
jnirchased  the  laud  and  material  for  raising  and  distributing  2,500,000 
bricks,  which  he  foresaw  would  be  wanted  in  the  architectural 
transformation  of  the  gardens  and  ornamental  grounds  of  Wimbledon 
House. 
Though  some  people,  imacquainted  with  the  abysmal  depth  of  the 
ignorance  of  editors,  appear  to  think  that  these  hard-working  officials 
know  everything,  we  really  do  not  know  the  Ollerheadean  profit  on 
“a  thousand  of  bricks  ;  ”  but  if  they  are  the  same  as  that  of  another 
manufacturer,  the  25  millions  alluded  to  w’ould  bring  in  a  very  respect¬ 
able  income.  The  portrait  of  our  “  gardener  brickmaker  ”  may  be 
seen  on  the  opposite  page. 
OLD-FASHIONED  BEDDING  PLANTS. 
Three  decades  back  should,  one  ventures  to  think,  entitle  those 
plants  then  in  common  use  for  bedding  purposes  to  be  termed  old- 
fashioned,  for  they  are,  as  a  rule,  so  much  out  of  date  as  to  warranit 
the  designation.  And,  still  another  reason,  there  was  a'  certain 
careless  grace  and  freedom  characterising  the  then  new  fashion  which 
has  long  since  been  improved  (?)  a^vay^  Had  it .  been  otherwise, 
probably,  the  recent  sweeping  condemnation  of  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  bedding  would  not  have  arisen,  and  what  was  really  a  charming 
feature  in  the  long-ago  would  be  more  than  tolerated  amongst  our 
“  up  to  date”  conceits  of  to-day. 
It  is  only  during  recent  years  that  we  reached  the  height  of 
fashion  in  this  direction  ;  and  the  height  of  fashion  is  often  the  height 
of  folly,  from  which  the  descent  is  made  with  fatal  rapidity.  One 
cannot  but  think  so  in  noting  how,  in  some  large  gardening  establish¬ 
ments,  summer  bedding  has  been  utterly  abolished  in  favour  of 
perennial  hardy'^  plants.  J'here  is  much  to  be  said  lor  the  latter 
]ihase,  an»l  nothing  against  it;  but  should  there  not  be  a  place  in  our 
hearts,  and  a  corner  in  our  gardens,  for  the  old-fashioned  bedding 
jjlants- — that  is,  as  they  were  ere  they  were  pinched  and  punished, 
dw'arfed  and  prostituted  into  billiard-table  levelness  ? 
Thirty  years  ago  the  list  of  tender  bedding  plants  was  a  limited 
one.  Beds  or  borders  devoted  to  them  were  often  only  spiarsely  filled. 
Ihey  had  not  then  robbed  for  half  a  year  the  rightful  occupants  of  the 
houses  of  their  birthright,  even  then,  to  some  extent,  being  regarded 
as  usurpers,  and  treated  as  supernumeraries  ;  nor  did  they  occupy  so 
long  a  period  under  glass.  In  the  South  of  England,  with  the  advent 
of  May,  planting  out  began,  and  was  generally  comp’eted  ere  the 
