knows very little about, the richer he is he commonly renders himself the more ridiculous: good taste is more frequently the result of necessity than of superabundance. Arundel Castle, as a piece of architecture, and as a nobleman's residence, is bungled from the want of one grand general plan to commence with and proceed upon, as well as from the bad taste of the details. We cannot recall to mind any quadrangle of castellated building so nobly placed by nature, and yet so deficient in dignity of expression when viewed from the entrance near the keep. On analysing this expression, we find it proceeds from the lowness of the floor of the main entrance, and the descent to that entrance from the gate to the quadrangle, instead of an ascent; from the want of determinate character in the lines of the plan, which is neither that of a quadrangle nor that of any other determinate figure, which operates on the eye of an artist like imperfect notes on the ear of a musician; from the want of such bold and striking features in the elevation as might have carried off any deficiency in the plan; and, finally, from the details of the architecture, which, setting at defiance all the received associations of art, have yet failed in making us forget this by grandeur or singularity of effect. In short, whatever might be said in favour of some particular parts or details (and we admire some other points besides the picture in stained glass of the signing of Magna Charta, and the alto-relievo in artificial stone of the trial by jury), the general impression is, that of the desire and the pecuniary means of doing something grand and suitable to the situation and the family, without the requisite knowledge or taste. What has been done in landscape gardening is not better than what has been done in architecture. The place is frittered into details, without connection, and without any pervading principle. There are three or four kitchen-gardens, and three or four places that may be called flower-gardens; but not one grand leading walk to show either these or any thing else. In all that relates to plan, in short, nothing can be worse; but there are some good trees and shrubs in a very thriving state, most extraordinary and successful care having been bestowed on them by Mr. Wood, an estimable man, a gardener of great experience, and interesting to us as being the only Scotch gardener that we know or ever heard of who is a Roman catholic. The present Duke, with that liberality and benevolence which every wealthy family of character in civilised countries shows, or ought to show, to their good and faithful servants, has permitted him, being no longer young, though only nine years in His Grace's service, to retire on his full salary. The characters of the present Duke, and of the Earl of Surrey, in this respect stand very high, and it gives us the most sincere pleasure to put it on record, as a stimulus and example to other wealthy men, and as affording us an opportunity of reminding gardeners, and the other servants of such masters, how attentive they ought to be to them, and how grateful to Providence. We know of families whose maxim it is never to keep servants more than six or seven years, lest they should have a claim on the family bounty for themselves, their widows or children. Mr. Wood is succeeded by Mr. Deas, a young man of great merit, recommended by the Horticultural Society: but no young man, whatever may be his merits as a cultivator, will ever make much of this place till a general system of arrangement, very different from the present, is fixed on, and the main roads and walks executed. In our excitement at the want of plan, however, we must not forget the fine old trees of different kinds about the castle and in the park. The native trees are the beech, the common maple, and about the castle probably the elm, the ash, and the ivy may be added. There are many very fine old maples, some curious-rooted elms on the castle banks, some large oaks, and some of the largest ivy we ever saw. This ivy has fastened itself on the ash trees, covered every part even of their extreme branches, and formed an evergreen tree of an entirely new character, having completely killed the ash which supports it. We never saw trees so effectually suffocated by ivy, or ivy with so much of the tree character, and can only compare the operations of the ivy to that of a petrifying spring on the objects immersed in it. In the ancient garden of the castle are five large standard fig-trees, which bear good crops: we had one of the trees measured, and found it 20 ft. high, and the head 22 ft. in diameter; the trunk, about a foot from the ground, is 6 ft. in circumference; it there divides into two stems, which about 5 ft. higher subdivide into numerous branches, which hang down at the extremities till within 2 or 3 ft. of the ground. A Breda apricot against a flint wall in this garden has been planted seventy years; it covers a space 43 ft. long by 18 ft. high, and ripens every year about 1500 fruit, besides a great number thinned off for tarts; the soil is apparently lime rubbish and black earth. There are four large sweet-bays, one of which measures 20 ft. high and 22 ft. in diameter, and ripens abundance of fruit every year, which being greedily eaten by the birds, one can easily conceive how, if the surrounding country were in a state of waste, this and other plants would become naturalised. Búxus baleárica has attained a large size, and also ripens its fruit: the largest specimen measures 16 ft. high and 10 ft. in circumference. As we have already observed, there are abundance of modern trees and shrubs, mixed up with fruit trees and roses in such a manner as to destroy all distinctive character; but all in the most thriving state as plants. In the park extensive plantations of forest trees have been made, the ground being carefully trenched before planting, and the subsoil, which is generally chalk, kept on the top. This subsoil being without seeds of weeds keeps the surface clean for several years, by which time it is nearly covered by the trees. The chalk also becomes soil by the operations of the weather, the leaves which fall from the trees, and the lichens, mosses, and insects which are produced: the only unavoidable evil is, that the wind and the birds soon deposit in it so many seeds of bad weeds, that less is gained in practice than we should anticipate from theory. Having gotten over the most disagreeable part of our duty with respect to Arundel, we have now shortly to hint in what way the grounds of this residence may be rendered among the finest in England. Fix on the two banks and the valley which lie to the east of the castle as the scenery for walks and pleasure-grounds; form a lake in the valley, with islands, peninsulas, and margins for peat-earth plants; the valley being in fact chiefly peat; lead a carriage walk from one of the terraces of the castle, suitably altered, round this valley on a seeming level along the steep wooded bank, opening occasional views, from one bank to that opposite, to the park, the castle, the sea, &c. Join this walk at the head of the valley by two inclined planes, in opposite directions to another walk on the level ground which shall surround the water, and let this lower walk ascend to the castle very gradually, so as to join the grand terrace at a very gentle inclination. Carry on the lake on one level to the back of the main street of the town, and conceal its termination there; forming, near a chalk cliff on the opposite side of the valley, a cascade which shall be seen from the windows of the castle, and give the idea, the springs on this valley being insufficient to drive a mill, that the river Arun flows from the lake. Remove the ditches, fences, willow trees, and all those appearances about the low meadows which at present give them the character of marsh or fen lands, and render them a source of malaria and typhus fever; and by scattered oak trees and other means give them a character of park scenery; render the old garden containing the fig trees a highly enriched ancient flower-garden, surrounded by a rampart or terrace walk, and change into open park scenery a number of the other petty garden scenes, shrubberies, and walks. These are a few of the features of future improvement which struck us at first sight; but it would require days of consideration to form the basis of a general plan suitable for a subject ren dered so complicated and deformed by what has been already done. It is but justice to Mr. Wood to state, that the leading feature of these suggestions, the water and the pleasure-ground around it, belongs to him. The gardener's house here is not inconvenient; but the floor is on a level with the walks, and the walls of the rooms having been plastered with sea sand have an appearance of dampness. The common excuse for low floors and low ceilings is the desire of concealing the building from the general view; but surely good sense and humanity require that this concealment should never be effected at the risk of the health and comfort of fellowcreatures of any kind, more especially of those on whom so much of our enjoyments depend as servants. Wherever two stories of ample-sized rooms would be too high, the bed-rooms may easily be built on the same floor as the day-rooms. Michel Grove, near Arundel. August 15.- This is a place of considerable extent and some natural beauty, arising from the undulating chalk hills, but unfortunately without water. The house is situated in a dry valley, and looks on a rising bank, and like West Dean, Blackdown, and every other house so situated, conveys to a stranger the expression of fixed and imprac ticable melancholy. It was purchased about the end of the last century by Mr. Walker, the son of a Liverpool merchant, who, it is said, was his own architect, probably in imitation of the late Duke of Norfolk, and whose landscape-gardener was Mr. Repton. The castellated exterior of the house is not bad, though deficient in simple and grand masses; the interior, an ill-natured critic might say, displays a mixture of prettiness and gorgeousness; we shall only state it not to be simple, elegant, or grand. There is an immense drawing-room most gorgeously finished and furnished, with an obvious allusion in the form of the ceiling to one of the three notable rooms, we forget which, in the Pavilion of Brighton, which rooms we do not like much better than that at Michel Grove. The whole estate having been lately purchased by the Duke of Norfolk, he has sold the furniture and materials of this costly house to a local auctioneer, and in a few months it will be rased to the ground. As characteristic of the late proprietor's character, we shall relate one circumstance that was stated to us by Mr. Wood: The Arundel coach having repeatedly refused or neglected to bring from London some brass work intended for a staircase erecting at Michel Grove, Mr. Walker was so angry at the neglect or insult, that he determined on starting an opposition coach; did so, procured the swiftest horses, regardless of their price, drove the coach himself, killed several horses worth 100%. each, and ultimately put down the coach which he opposed, by ruining the family who were its proprietors. When acting as coachman, Mr. Walker was most active in seeking for, and assiduously attentive to, his passengers, and received from them the usual gratuity of 6d. or 1s. uncovered and with every expression of thanks. In the kitchen-garden is a vinery which was planted, the present gardener states, between 50 and 60 years ago, by one Russel, a Scotch gardener, and this man's master. The stems of the vines are outside the house, their roots in a bed of earth 3 ft. wide and 3 ft. deep, and completely confined by the front wall, which is not built on arches, on one side, and by the native bed of chalk which rises to within 6 inches of the surface, on the other side, and at bottom. Notwithstanding this limited space for the roots, the branches inside the house have all along borne good crops. Last year the gardener found the bed of earth matted with fibres, as he expresses it, like a wig of black hair, and he has removed the chalk in front and widened the border, not doubting that he shall thereby add to the fruitfulness of the vines, and to the size of the berries. We have no doubt Russel's object was to prevent the vines from running too much to wood, the shoots being confined to the rafters, and to induce fruitfulness. At all events, it is important to know experimentally that vines will bear for such a length of time with their roots so much confined; because it confirms the idea of our correspondent F. N. B. (Vol. III. p. 145.) as to the practicability and proper mode of growing vines in the open air in this country. The same plan of operation will apply to figs, and probably to a certain extent to pears and peaches. The gardener here, Lasaney, is a member of the Brighton Cooperative Society, which he informed us was going on successfully; his employer rents the garden of the Duke of Norfolk, and sends the produce to the watering places along the coast. Arundel to Dorking. August 16. - An agreeable road through a varied and fertile country. Cnícus acaúlis is abundant on the Downs, and the summits of the broad purple flowers, spread out on a level with the surface of the grass, have a fine appearance. At Pulborough a cottage covered with a very large and handsome parsley-leafed grape, which we were told ripened its fruit in ordinary years. In the churchyard four children of one birth in one grave. Some picturesque, Gothic cottage villas on the right of the road, on the margin of a common two or three miles before entering Dorking, most agreeable to look at; but knowing the small, gloomy, low-ceiled rooms which architects generally form in these buildings, as being characteristic of the style, we have no pleasure in the idea of inhabiting them. Whoever wishes to know the immense importance of continual supplies of fresh air to health, should read Holland's Enquiry into the Laws which regulate Organic and Animal Life. (8vo. 1829.) The entrance into Dorking is highly enriched by cottages, villas, gardens, trees, and hills; the town, as compared with many others, may be described as elegant and picturesque. William Fuller, a tinman, makes a very ingenious seed-box for feeding pheasants; and Mr. Carter, Woodhatch, Hargate, potter, makes handsome garden vases, in use at Deepdene and other places; both these articles are worth having, and may be obtained through Donald and Westland, in Dorking; or Charlwood, seedsman, Great Russel-street, London. Donald and Westland's Nursery. August 17. — Mr. Westland is an excellent cultivator, and an ingenious mechanic. He built, glazed, and painted his own green-houses, and has a propagating pit heated by dung thrown in at one end. He propagates very successfully all the more rare and elegant Cape and New Holland plants, has raised several new georginas, and maintains a good collection of the more showy border flowers, annual and perennial. Those fine showy plants, Lupinus mutabilis, Enothèra speciosa, introduced by Mr. Bunbury (Vol. II. p. 298.), are here finely grown, and now in great beauty. Water for the green-house is kept in large cisterns of pavement stones grooved into each other, and made water tight by Roman cement, as is done with the Plymouth and Welsh slates, when used for the same purpose. Deepdene; Thomas Hope, Esq. August 17. - This is a place which presents but little food for the critic, since it contains so much beauty, both by Nature and by art, that there is little left for him to do but to walk round and admire. Even the historical associations of the place are beautiful. The situation was distinguished by its natural beauties and delightful prospect so long ago as the time of Charles I., at which time it was selected as the retirement of the Honourable Charles Howard, a man of science and taste, who effected several garden improvements here in the terraced style of his time. In Camden's Britannia, Deepdene is said to contain " gardens, vineyards, grots, terraces, and plantations." Aubrey, in his Antiquities of Surrey (Vol. IV. p. 164.), describes it as a long hope, i. e. according to Virgil deductus vallis (a lengthened valley), contrived in the most pleasant and delightful solitude for house, gardens, orchards, boscages," &c. which he had seen in England. Mr. Hope has greatly enlarged the house and offices, and having combined in them all the finest parts of what may be, called the landscape architecture and sculpture of Italy, has formed a whole, the greatest praise that we can bestow on which is to say, that it will delight such men as Sir Uvedale Price and Gilbert Laing Meason. The house, with the conservatory and sculpture galleries on one hand, and the dairy, laundry, &c. on the other, forms a group so rich in classic forms and combinations, that no one can duly appreciate its beauties, whose mind is not thoroughly imbued with Italy and the fine arts. It is, in short, an 119 There example of what the Germans call the ecstatic in architecture. The property, we are informed in the same work, "consists of above 400 ac. of pleasure ground, so judiciously disposed, that a walk admitting a pleasing transition of view, of upwards of 12 m. may be undertaken without retracing one step. The surface partakes of the greatest irregularity, and |