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tary; the treasurers, Mr. Dickson and Mr. Linning; Professor Dunbar and the Committee of Prizes; the successful competitors, and the unsuccessful competitors, were given and drank with great applause. The conviviality of the Meeting was much enlivened by the vocal powers of Messrs. Kenward, Smith, and Gleadhill. (Edinburgh Advertiser, Sept. 4.) Aberdeenshire Horticultural Society. A Competition was held in Aberdeen on July 15, when the judges awarded the prizes as follows:Flowers. Pinks: 1. William Barron, gardener, Blackhall; 2. Geo. Johnston, gardener, Haddo House. Seedlings (best six): 1. James Mennie, gardener, Hardgate; 2. Captain John Clyne, Aberdeen. Irises: 1. Mr. Wm. Davidson, jun., Aberdeen; 2. Alexander Diack, Mile-end. Roses. Double: 1. William Chalmers, gardener, Loch-head; 2. Alexander Bell, Esq., Marywell Place. Seedlings: 1. Diack's Ecyd Rose, Mr. Alexander Diack, Mileend; 2. John Roy, jun., seedsman, Aberdeen. · Fruit. Melon : 1. William Anderson, gardener, Cornhill; 2. George Forbes, Esq., Springhill. Gooseberries: 1. and 2. Alexander Malcolm, gardener, Damside. Currants: 1. William Smith, gardener, Grandholm Cottage; 2. Peter Archibald, gardener, Park. Strawberries: 1. John Davison, Dunottar House; 2. Alexander Malcolm, gardener, Damside. Cherries: 1. George Johnston, gardener, Haddo House; 2. John Wood, gardener, Logie Elphinstone.

The Society's large medal, with a premium also, as an extra-prize, was awarded to Alexander Malcolm, gardener, Damside, for a species of very superior new seedling strawberries.

The show, particularly in strawberries, irises, pinks, roses, &c., was very fine. There were also various packages of rare plants in pots from the gardens of Messrs. J. Walker, W. Davidson, jun., and James Forbes, Broadford. The prize melon (Willox's Fame) from the garden of Mr. Young, Cornhill, weighed 7 lbs., and was highly flavoured. William Simpson, Esq., advocate, was elected a member.

Upon this occasion, the president, Mr. Crombie of Phesdo, presented to Mr. John Davidson, gardener, Dunottar, the London Horticultural Society's large silver medal, voted to Mr. Davidson by this Society last year. (Aberdeen Journal, July 22.)

Dunfermline Florists' Society. A Show was held on June 19., when the best six ranunculuses were adjudged to Mr. David Hutcheson; the second to John Duncan; the third to Wm. Meldrum; the fourth to John Angus; and the fifth to D. Inglis. The heaviest twelve early potatoes were produced by Mr. William Anderson; the second by James Beveridge; the third by Robert Sinclair; the fourth by John Duncan; and the fifth by Wm. Meldrum. The heaviest six early turnips were produced by James Elder; the second by J. Inglis; the third by Robert Sinclair; the fourth by David Hutcheson; the fifth by D. Inglis; and the sixth by William Meldrum. (Scotsman, July 1.)

Library of the Falkirk School of Arts. — In addition to the many valuable volumes which this institution can now boast of having in their library, Lord Dunmore, with that liberality which distinguishes his family, has this week given a very valuable donation of 21 volumes on science and history. (Scotsman, June 24.) We feel great pleasure in recording donations of this description, scarcely knowing any way in which a man of property can do more good to his neighbourhood. Were such schools, libraries, museums, and gardens, as we contemplate, established in every parish, we have no doubt the donations to them, from the surrounding proprietors and clergymen, would be considerable; and as there can be no doubt that every future author would send a copy of his works to his native village, and every painter and sculptor a specimen of his works, for the approbation of his townsmen, the accumulation of interest of mind and of power which would thus be made in every village and hamlet, would produce effects on human character and happiness in this country, of which it is difficult to foresee the result. Cond.

ART. IV. Calls in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Middlesex.

LONDON to Flitwick House. July 22. – It happens that the most direct route from Bayswater to Flitwick House is by secondary roads and lanes, so quiet and rural, that such a proprietor as the Duke of Bedford, riding along them, might fancy himself on his own estate. As we passed Cannons, at Edgeware, the magnificent and truly aristocratic idea of the Duke of Chandos recurred to our mind, viz. that of having a straight avenue from his house here to his house in Cavendish Square, a distance of above nine miles, entirely on his own estate. Had he lived but a few years longer, it is said he would have realised the idea, as he had succeeded in purchasing every thing necessary but a small spot at Paddington. We can conceive something of the feelings of a man thus desirous of isolating himself from general sympathies, and of the kind of enjoyment which results from being looked up to and flattered, and from the conscious possession of great power; but we cannot conceive that this species of happiness is at all to be compared with that which would be sympathised in by the whole of human nature; with that, for instance, of a man cultivating his own acres, and happy in his wife and children. At the same time, the enjoyment produced by every natural feeling depends so much on its cultivation, that any state of existence may yield happiness by being made the most of; and, without some degree of cultivation, no state, either of riches or poverty, will yield much. Notwithstanding the beau ideal of an English yeoman or an American farmer's manner of life, there are few states of existence duller or less enviable than that of an ignorant man and woman working hard on their own farm. To the uncultivated who know any thing better, such a state can only be rendered bearable during a certain period of life, from the interest which man, in common with all animals, takes in bringing his offspring to maturity. By the time that work is completed, such parents as those to whom we have alluded will have become habituated to dullness.

To return to Cannons and the Duke of Chandos: what must strike every one as the most remarkable feature in the character of this duke, is his regulated magnificence; his employing the best calculators to ascertain exactly to what extent he might carry his annual expenditure without exceeding his income, and how that income might be expended so as to produce the most brilliant effect. The magnificence of the house is still talked of by the old people in the neighbourhood. The principal staircase consisted of blocks of Italian marble, 20 ft. long, and the hand-railing was of silver. This house has long since been pulled down, but the lodges at the entrance gates still exist, and are so ample in their dimensions, and commodious within, as to have been let, at different times, as country-houses, to gentlemen of the rank of esquires, magistrates, and officers in the army and navy. The duke had a horse-patrol, which perambulated the boundaries of the park, by night and day; a body-guard; a band of music for general purposes, and one or two eminent musicians for joining them on grand occasions, and leading the church music. That the whole establishment should have been broken up at his death is looked on by some people as a visitation of Providence, for certain alleged irregularities in the mode (in the army, and by marriages) by which he acquired his immense fortune; we know of nothing on record, however, that indicates him to have been less honest than other menof like rank in his time. Perhaps, indeed, he may be considered as superior to his contemporaries; not only in having made such an immense fortune, but in having spent it with so much magnificence and liberality. We would much rather see such an establishment as Cannons demolished, than such a one as Blenheim kept up to the ruin or injury of creditors, and to the protection of disgraceful conduct from its natural consequences. We should be

sorry to see one stone of the palace of Blenheim touched, or the park diminished by one acre; but not so to see the family of Marlborough made subject to the like penalties with other men. In the present stage of civilised society in Britain, there ought to be no special laws by which certain individuals may, with impunity, set the general laws of society at defiance. No outlet from London has been more improved within the last fifteen years than the road to Edgeware, which, from passing through naked grass fields, with, here and there, a miserable cottage, farm-house, or a hay-barn, is now bordered by villas and gardens, vying with each other in architectural taste, in the display of flowers, exotic trees and shrubs, and in what no foreigner can form an idea of who has not been in the country, English turf and gravel. The hills on the road have been lowered, the direction of the road straightened, its width regulated, and its surface Macadamised. A nursery at Edgeware, founded by Mr. Greg, an industrious Scotch gardener, nearly 40 years ago, has now extended to a number of acres. He yielded up his interest in the nursery to his son, on consideration of an annuity to retire on; a plan of life rarely yielding the happiness it promises and ruinous to all parties in this case. We mention the circumstance as a cautionary hint to other gardeners, and to parents in general. The churchyard has been enlarged, and surrounded by an elegant iron railing; we wish two dozen of exotic trees, and as many shrubs of so many distinct species, had been scattered over the surface, the walks better arranged, gravelled, bordered with trees and a few perennial flowers, and a few creepers planted against the church; but one step on the road of improvement having been taken, these and others will, no doubt, succeed in due time. New alms-houses are building a little beyond Edgeware. We confess we do not like the sight of such buildings perpetually recurring through the country, as if it were a condition of human nature that a certain portion of society must live on alms. We would rather see a parochial school-house, library, museum, and garden; and we can prophetically see such buildings rising up from the hands of local architects and builders, by command of parliament and the vestries, all over the country.

The road from Edgeware to St. Albans is very retired, and almost wholly pastoral or agricultural. Some few of the cottages and gardens which border it appear comfortable; but not many. The doors of those of the lowest class were open, and we could see mothers and their children seated at little tables, with cups and saucers and a small loaf before them, but without a table-cloth; the men, doubtless, at work in the fields, had carried with them their bread and bacon. The landlord of the public-house at Ellestree, a man apparently more than usually religious, described to us the manner in which three men had, ten days before, been drowned in the reservoir. Four companions, somewhat intoxicated, went to take a sail on the Sunday afternoon, and fell overboard; only one of them, who could swim, was saved. They were single men, and bad characters; and the parish, he observed, would be rather a gainer by their loss than otherwise. How dreadful to have such a tribute to one's memory paid by a neighbour ! The very idea of it seems enough to reform a man. A new inn in the outskirts of St. Albans, in the Dunstable road, has an ample garden, not made the most of. Such a piece of ground, and a gardener of taste, would give an inn so situated so great a superiority, that every body would be tempted to stop there; but the garden of this Boniface exhibits but the beginning of a good idea. Every thing that creates an allusion to home ought to be encouraged at an inn; and, therefore, every place of entertainment, from the smallest hedge-alehouse upwards, ought to have a large garden, a library more or less extensive, a book of country maps, a road-book, a Shakspeare, a Don Juan (purified copies, of course), a newspaper, and one periodical or more. In many parts of Germany, the commonest

public-houses have pianofortes, because there all are musicians and dancers. Freedom from national debt, and a thorough general school education, high and equal (Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 76.), would soon render us so, and, in fact, make us every thing to which man, in our latitude, may hope to attain. The road to Dunstable has been greatly improved by that first of road-makers, as Macadam is the first of road-menders, Mr. Telford. At Dunstable, notwithstanding the number of workers in plaitstraw, we could find no one to undertake the manufacture of our Epinal hat. (Vol. IV. p. 491.) The objection was, that the straw did not require to be plaited, that the hats were only calculated for poor people, and that the poor would never buy a thing that was in no case used by the rich; an argument from which the rich may learn how to introduce good fashions among the poor. The very small village of Flitwick is composed of as miserable cottages as any in England; the inhabitants, following no manufacture, and having very little agricultural employment, derive a great part of their scanty subsistence from the poor-rates. The men are said to be almost all poachers, and three fourths of them, we were told, had been on the tread-wheel; some had been transported, one belonged to the Cato Street conspiracy, and one or two have been hanged. At church, on Sunday (July 26.), very few men attended, and the congregation consisted chiefly of young women and children, by no means healthy for a country population. We were not much surprised at hearing two marriages announced; for, when mankind are in a state of degradation and suffering, there is nothing to restrain them from doing all they incline to do; and every thing will be resorted to that has any chance of procuring present enjoyment, without reference to future consequences. The marriages of poor people are always prolific in children; they do not always grow up; but their births and deaths are at least food -for the church, as poaching is for the magistracy and the lawyers. The clergyman had an excellent discourse on contentment, and against covetousness!

Flitwick House; John Thomas Brooks, Esq. We have already mentioned this place (Vol. III. p. 246.) as a pattern of order and judicious arrangement; and the proprietor is a warm-hearted man, a kind and liberal master, and a great friend to gardeners and gardening. Both the grounds and house have been materially improved since the period referred to, and the whole continues to maintain its high character for good keeping. A public road has been changed in direction, which, while it has added to the beauty and free unrestrained air of the scenery, has, of course, increased the value of the property. There is not a more universal error in improving grounds than that of sacrificing useful arrangement and permanent beauty to the accidental position of existing trees or plantations. Mr. Brooks has had the courage and good sense to free himself from this morbid senseless feeling, and to thin out some plantations, and entirely remove others, which, though beautiful and thriving of themselves, yet tended to counteract the general effect of the place. The arboretum has grown so luxuriantly, that the trees are almost as much crowded as they are in the arboretum of the Chiswick garden; and Mr. Brooks, therefore, very judiciously proposes to distribute them along a shrubbery or plantation walk, at such distances from one another, and from the walk, as will at least admit of their finally attaining their full size. To make room for these trees and shrubs, spaces will be cleared of from 6 ft. to 12 ft. in diameter, among the trees and shrubs already there; and as the arboretum plants increase in size, these spaces will be increased also, by thinning out more trees, so as that the specimens will always stand free of, and untouched by, any other tree. The climbers and twiners will have larch or oak poles terminating in crosslets placed beside them as props, and every species will be named on the ends of bricks, either in Messrs. Loddiges' manner, in that of Mr. Murray of the Glasgow botanic garden (Vol. III. p. 29.), or in the manner which we shall

afterwards describe as about to be adopted by an eminent nurseryman. The length of the home shrubberies and plantations destined to receive this arboretum is about 21 miles, so that nothing hitherto executed in pleasuregrounds or ornamental plantations will equal it. Mr. Brooks deserves the highest credit for an improvement which will soon be found productive of so much interest as to be frequently adopted. The ground hitherto occupied by the arboretum and the botanic collection, at Flitwick House, will be laid out as a Natural Arrangement of Herbaceous Plants, combining also an exemplification of each of the classes and orders of Linnæus. A Natural Arrangement will, in a short time, we trust, be as common to every gentleman's seat as a flower-garden; and will, we have no doubt, take the place of the sort of mixed botanical flower-garden in present use almost everywhere, as being much more truly beautiful and intellectual. (Vol. III. p. 300.) Trotter, the gardener here, is enthusiastically devoted to his profession, and much attached to the place and to his master; the latter knows the value of a good servant, and has presented him with a copy of the Encyclopædia of Plants. Most employers, we hope, will place this work in the library of their gardens; but Mr. Brooks has not only placed one in his library, for the general use of all his future gardeners, but given one to his present gardener individually. Such attentions on the part of masters to faithful servants are mutually gratifying and beneficial.

Woburn Abbey; the Duke of Bedford. July 28. We have been blamed by some correspondents and readers, who have lately been here, for not saying more of a place which, taking it altogether, is perhaps the very first in England, and at which so many improvements are now going forward. No one has more respect for the high and consistent character of the family which owns this property than we have, because we think there are few families in Britain, to whom estates have passed from the church, that have managed them in a way calculated to do so much good to all the occupiers and dependants; and because we consider Woburn Abbey, and the surrounding farms, as standing examples of good management and rational magnificence. If the great mass of society in England had remained in the state of ignorance in which they were before the abolition of religious houses, we have no hesitation in saying it would have been much more for their happiness that the church property should have remained untouched; and that, instead of the palaces, castles, and mansions of the present nobles and gentry, open only to their friends and equals, we had the monastic abbeys and priories of former times, open and hospitable to all, from the beggar to the prince. But freedom and knowledge have increased by this change of property; instead of depending on voluntary charity, the poor are supported as a matter of right; and, though this last provision of the legislature, has led to the greatest abuses; still, on the whole, the chains of mental slavery have been broken, and we believe human improvement and happiness have gained by the change. The statistics of Woburn Abbey and its dependencies, in 1500 and in 1800, if they could be obtained, would be a striking exemplification of the difference between a society consisting of rich men and slaves, partly beggars, and one consisting of free men, some of them beggars, and some of them rich and powerful, but all of them free, and subject to the same laws. We admire, in the present and late Dukes of Bedford, the simple manners and style of living of the private gentleman, notwithstanding the enjoyment of an income which could command all the personal sumptuosness of a Continental prince. A Duke of Bedford has a legal and prescriptive right to surround his person with all the pomp and splendour, all the lacqueys and trappings, the heralds, the guards, and what not, of a rich duke of the age of Louis XIV. or Charles II.; but a duke of the present day shows great superiority of mind, as well as worldly wisdom, in not doing In fact, there is too much good sense in this country for a man to procure himself any sort of credit or applause from his personal retinue; it

So.