144 
JOURNAL  -  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  16,  1900. 
he  had  taken  possession  again  of  his  recess,  the  greenhouse.  “  In 
such  a  situation,  so  silent,  so  shady,  where  no  human  foot  is  heard, 
and  only  my  Myrtles  presume  to  peep  in  at  the  window,  you  may 
suppose  I  have  no  interruption  to  complain  of,  and  that  my  thoughts 
are  perfectly  at  my  command.  But  the  beauties  of  the  spot  are 
themselves  an  interruption,  my  attention  being  called  upon  by  those 
very  Myrtles,  by  a  row  of  Pinks  just  beginning  to  blossom,  and  by  a 
bed  of  Beans  already  in  bloom.”  From  one  of  his  short  poems  we 
get  the  fact  that  the  Pink  referred  to  in  this  quotation  was  also  one  of 
the  numerous  flowers  Cowper  nurtured  in  his  greenhouse  during 
winter : — 
’Tis  a  bower  of  Arcadian  sweets, 
"Where  Flora  is  still  in  her  prime, 
A  fortress  to  which  she  retreats 
From  the  cruel  assaults  of  the  clime  : 
While  earth  wears  a  mantle  of  snow, 
These  Pinks  are  as  fresh  and  as  gay 
As  the  fairest  and  sweetest  that  blow. 
On  the  beautiful  bosom  of  May. 
Bat  the  Myrtles  Cowper  speaks  of  were  surely  special  favourites. 
He  actually  offers  a  lady  a  fresh  wreath  of  Myrtle  daily  if  she  would 
come  and  live  near  him.  He  mentions  the  plant  as  one  he  cultivated 
when  he  was  a  student  of  law  in  the  Temple,  and,  in  after  years,  give< 
a  friend  exact  directions  about  its  management.  Amongst  other 
cautions,  he  says,  “Never  give  your  plants  spring  water,  and  supply  them 
every  other  day.  At  Michaelmas  take  them  out  of  the  pots  and 
remove  all  the  mould  you  can  without  disturbing  the  roots,  replacing 
by  fresh.”  Occasional  allusions  to  the  Rose,  Jessamine,  and  Honey¬ 
suckle  indicate  his  liking' for  these,  and  when  commenting  upon  the 
contrast  in  style  between  the  gardens  of  Anne  and  those  of  his  perio  1 
he  refers  to  the  old  fondness  for  a  Gothic  porch  crowned  with. Honey¬ 
suckle.  Again,  in  a  letter  of  September,  1784,  penned  in  his  green¬ 
house,  he  notes  that  the  garden  he  surveyed  was  as  full  of  flowers  as 
he  could  make  it,  but  he, ^ was  specially  charmed  by  a  bed  of  Mignonette 
near  the  window',  which  seemed  to  draw  all  the  bees  of  the  neighbour¬ 
hood,  He  liked  whit  he  calls  the  “  Frenchmin’s  Darling,”  and  which 
he  had  seen  growing  in  small  well-like  gardens  of  Central  London 
years  before. 
Though  seldom  so  designated,  the  Olney  mansion  of  which  Cowper 
was  the  tenant  bore  the  name  of  Orchardside,  his  garden  being  edged 
by  Mrs.  Aspray’s  orchard  on  one  side  and  on  the  other  by  a  row  of 
small  cottages.  Through  this  orchard  was  a  near  cut  to  the  vicarago, 
and,  while  Newton  lived  there,  Cowper  paid  a  guinea  yearly  for  the 
privilege  of  passing  and  repassing.  What  trees  grew  there  we  do  n(  t 
know,  probably  some  Apples,  Buckinghamshire  yielding  a  good  supp’y 
of  this  fruit;  Cherries,  also,  it  may  be,  as  the  holding  of  a  Cherry  Fair 
yearly  in  Olney  w'ould  indicate  the  county  produced  its  share  of  these. 
That  Cowper  had  a  few  fruit  trees  in  his  small  domain  is  likely  ; 
visitors  for  many  years  were  shown  a  Ribston  Pippin  planted  t'v 
Cowper,  and  slips  of  it  were  eagerly  sought  after.  Mr.  Wright,  the 
latest  biographer  of  the  poet,  says  this  tree  has  now  disappeared, 
perhaps  it  has  shared  the  fate  of  Shakespeare’s  Mulberry  and  been 
bought  by  some  speculator,  who  has  cut  it  up  into  fragments  to  dispose 
of  as  relics.  One  of  the  curious  fact-!  brought  out  by  Mr.  Wright’s 
biography  is  that  the  poem  on  “Yardley  Oak”  refers  to  a  tree  in 
lardley  Chase  which  is  hollow,  and  that  the  tree  formerly  called 
Judith,  and  of  late  years  “Cowper’s  Oak,”  at  Yardley  Lodge,  though 
well  known  to,  and  admired  by  Cowper  for  its  grandeur,  is  not  the 
subject  of  his  poem.  Judith  is  now  32  feet  in  girth  at  5  feet  from 
the  ground  ;  it  has  huge  protuberances;  near  it  is  another  of  rather 
loss  size.  These  are  now  styled  Gog  and  Magog. 
When  Cowper's  health  prevent' d  him  from  following  business 
pursuits,  he  came  to  regard  gardening  as  one  of  the  employments  to 
which  he  could  devote  his  time.  Writing  to  his  friend  Hill  from 
Huntingdon,  in  3766,  he  states  he  had  commenced  gardening  work  ; 
having  a  large  place  to  display  his  abilities,  “  he  studied  the  arts  of 
pruning,  sowing,  and  planting,  being  also  prepared  to  enterprise 
anything,  from  Melons  to  Canbages.”  Only  the  next  year,  however, 
the  death  of  Mr.  L’nwin  led  him  to  remove  to  Olney,  where  he 
exercised  his  skill  in  the  smaller  garden  he  has  made  so  familiar  to 
the  readers  of  the  “  Task,”  where  it  figures  prominently.  Allusions  to 
it  are  frequent  also  in  minor  poems  and  many  letters.  Shy  as  he  was*- 
it  led  Cowper  into  communication  with  other  persons  fond  of  horti¬ 
culture,  some  at  a  distance,  leading  to  friendly  interchange  of  seeds 
and  plants.  When  Cowper  had  a  visit  from  Lord  Dartmouth,  in 
1777,  he  showed  his  old  schoolfellow  his  garden,  and,  amongst  other 
things,  a  flower  he  had  just  raised  from  a  few  seeds  given  him,  which 
he  thought  one  of  the  most  elegant  he  had  ever  seen.  This  was  the 
Browallia,  a  stove  plant  from  Peru,  then  new  in  England,  named,  it 
appears,  after  Browallius,  Bishop  of  Aboa.  The  transfer  of  seeds 
sometimes  gave  Cowper  an  opening  for  a  bit  of  fun,  as  in  the  sending 
of  »  Cucumber  to  a  friend  at  a  distance,  with  the  riddle,  “This  is  of 
my  own  raising,  yet  not  raised  by  me.”  The  friend  could  not  solve 
it,  the  explanation  being  that  he  had  raised  the  Cucumber  because  he- 
grew  its  progenitor,  though  the  fruit  he  sent  had  come  from  a 
gardener  to  whom  he  had  given  seeds. 
Writing  about  his  kitchen  garden  work,  Cowper  states  that  he 
advanced  by  stages,  starting  from  Cauliflowers  and  Lettuces  to  reach 
Cucumbers,  Melons,  and  Pines.  One  of  the  books  of  the  “Task”" 
contains  an  amusi  g  and  exact  description  of  his  proceedings  in 
growing  Cacumbers.  The  frame  in  which  Cowper  grew  his  first 
Pines  was  put  together  and  glazed  by  himself,  an  achievement  of 
which  he  was  somewhat  proud.  He  did  not  mind  fatigue  or  trouble  if 
his  plants  needed  attention;  thus  he  mentions  having  gone  on  many 
a  winter’s  night  into  the  cold  wind,  or  through  snow,  to  give  atten¬ 
tion  to  the  little  fire  which  warmed  his  greenhouse,  going  as  late  as 
possible  lest  the  temperature  should  fall  before  morning.  Afterwards 
he  managed  to  have  this  heated  by  a  subterranean  flue,  so  that  he 
did  not  need  to  leave  the  house.  In  several  letters  he  remarks  upon 
the  value  of  bark  and  dead  leaves  as  a  means  of  supplying  heat  to 
plants  in  frames.  , 
One  of  the  poet’s  occasional  treats  was  a  visit  to  some  neighbour¬ 
ing  garden  of  greater  extent  than  the  humble  one  that  gave  him 
pleasant  employment  at  home.  A  notable  place  he  delighted  to  visit 
was  Gaj  hurst  (fig.  39),  remarkable  for  its  Orange  trees,  its  range  of 
hothouses,  and  its  extensive  flower  beds,  where  one  season  he  saw  a 
grand  show  of  Tulips.  He  made  his  first  visit  there  in  September,  1779» 
One  of  the  singular  circumstances  connected  with  it  is  that  the  church 
stands  in  the  garden  of  the  mansion,  specially  interesting  as  being 
nearly  the  la-t  work  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  During  Cowper’s  life  it 
belonged  to  the  Wright  family  ;  about  1882  Gayhurst  came  into  the 
possession  of  J.  W.  Carlisle,  Esq. ;  the  surroundings  aie  lovely,  and 
may  well  attract  the  excursionist.  Indeed,  the  old  name  is  expressive 
of  its  beauty,  Gayhurst,  or  Gotehurst,  is  stated  to  have  been  originally 
Goddeshurst,  the  hurst  or  forest  of  God.  Gayhurst  House  was  famous 
for  its  secret  chambers,  hiding  places,  and  trapdoors  ;  it  was  built  in 
three  distinct  periods,  the  oldest  part  being  Early  Tudor.  Many  a 
gardener  has  read  with  keen  interest  the  “  Garden,”  that  portion  of 
Cowper’s  great  poem  which  discusses  particularly  the  subject  of 
gardening,  though  it  is  also  torched  upon  in  other  divisions  of  the 
work.  A  good  deal  of  speculation  has  arisen  connected  with  some 
plants  or  trees  ho  names,  his  knowledge  of  these  being  popular  rather 
than  scientific.  For  instance,  his  “Spangled  Beau  Ficoides”  Professor 
Williamson  regards  as  a  Mesembryanthemum,  and  he  thinks  Cowper’a 
Amomum  is  the  Jamaica  Pepper,  Myrtus  Pimenta. — J.  R.  S.  C. 
- - - 
Botanical  TTomenclature.^ — Our  botanical  works  are  praying  for 
some  new  Adam  to  arrive  who  will  give  names  to  flowers  that  everyone 
will  recognise.  In  regard  to  the  scientific  names  they  thought  they  had 
it  “  down  fine  ”  when,  in  the  time  of  Linnmus,  they  established  a  set  of 
canons  which  every  orthodox  botanist,  it  was  supposed,  would  obey. 
After  a  century  of  trial  it  was  found  that  the  laws  agreed  upon  had  not 
been  observed.  There  has  become  a  revolt,  and  a  sort  of  go-as-you- 
please  practice  is  prevailing.  One  author  issues  a  book  with  one  set  of 
names,  another  a  book  with  a  different  set  for  the  same  plants. 
