"Sir Thomas Chaloner, in a letter to fir Julius Cæfar, dated 7 Nov. 1607, mentions fome of the above crcumftances, fays he would (at the firft) have undertaken to maintain the (prince's) houfe to the king's honour for 8oool. yearly, provided they might have good payment of the money; that in the first year he difmiffed of unneceffary dependants on the house at least 3 fcore, whereof many had paffports to return to their own country, and he utterly refufed all fuitors who addreffed themselves to him to obtain fome

place about the prince, and then he complains of the great increafe, without warrant, as well as with, and of the number of fuitors waiting for places. He fays, that for the want of ready money, the purveyors are forced to take up meate on truft, and then ferve it out fo fmall and ill, at a price fo high, that the king had better borrow money at 20 per cent.

It feems that king James's fer

Household coffers

76,118 6 63

14,336 19 14

laft of Sept. 1693

the average

1 year Oct. 1712-1713

King George I.

King George II.

124,806 17 61 108,290 10 2

pences. An increase attended the increase of his family, but they were again reduced in 1782.

A SHORT

I.

AMPTON Court gar

H den is a large plat, envi

roned with an iron palifade round about next the park, laid all in walks, grafs plats and borders. Next to the houfe, fome flat and broad beds are fet with narrow rows of dwarf box, in figures like lacepatterns. In one of the leffer gardens is a large green houfe divided into feveral rooms, and all of them with ftoves under them, and fire to keep a continual heat. In thefe there are no orange or lemon trees, or myrtles, or any greens, but fuch tender foreign ones that need continual warmth.

"2. Kensington Gardens are not great nor abounding with fine plants. The orange, lemon, myrtles, and what other trees they had there in fummer, were all removed to Mr. London's and Mr. Wife's greenhoufe at Brompton Park, a little mile from them. But the walks and grafs laid very fine, and they were digging up a flat of four or five acres to enlarge their garden.

3. The queen dowager's garden, at Hammerfmith, has a good greenhouse, with a high erected front to the fouth, whence the roof falls backward. The houfe is well ftored with greens of common kinds; but the queen not being for curious plants or flowers, they want of the most curious forts of greens, and in the garden there is little of value but wall trees; though the gardener there, monfieur Hermon

Van Guine, is a man of great skill and induftry, having raised great numbers of orange and lemon trees by inoculation, with myrtles, Roman bayes, and other greens of pretty flapes, which he has to dif pofe of.

"4. Bedington garden, at prefent in the hands of the duke of Norfolk, but belonging to the family of Carew, has in it the best orangery in England. The orange and lemon trees there grow in the ground, and have done fo near one hundred years, as the gardener, an aged man, faid-he believed. There are a great number of them, the houfe wherein they are being above two hundred feet long; they are most of them thirteen feet high, and very full of fruit, the gardener not having taken off fo many flowers this laft fummer as ufually others do. He faid, he gathered off them at least ten thousand oranges this laft year. The heir of the family being but about five years of age, the trustees take care of the orangery, and this year they built a new house over them. There are fome myrtles growing among them, but they look not well for want of trimming. The reft of the garden is all out of order, the orangery being the gardener's chief care; but it is capable of being made one of the best gardens in England, the foil being very agreeable, and a clear filver ftream running through it.

5. Chelfea phyfic garden has great

great variety of plants, both in and out of greenhouses. Their perennial green hedges and rows of different coloured herbs are very pretty, and fo are their banks fet with fhades of herbs in the Irish ftitch-way, but many plants of the garden were not in fo good order as might be expected, and as would have been answerable to other things in it. After I had been there, I heard that Mr. Watts, the keeper of it, was blamed for his neglect, and that he would be removed.

"6. My lord Ranelagh's garden being but lately made, the plants are but small, but the plats, borders, and walks, are curioufly kept, and elegantly defigned, having the advantage of opening into Chelfea college walks. The kitchen garden there lies very fine, with walks and feats, one of which, being large and covered, was then under the hands of a curious painter. The house there is very fine within, all the rooms being wainscoted with Norway oak, and all the chimneys adorned with carving, as in the council chamber in Chelfea college.

"7. Arlington garden, being now in the hands of my lord of Devonfhire, is a fair plat, with good walks, both airy and fhady. There are fix of the greatest earthen pots that are any where elfe, being at leaft two feet over within the edge; but they ftand abroad, and have nothing in them but the tree holyoke, an indifferent plant, which grows well enough in the ground. Their greenhoufe is very well, and their greenyard excels; but their greens were not fo bright and clean as farther off in the country, as if they fuffered fomething from the fmutty air of the town.

"8. My lord Fauconbergh's garden, at Sutton court, has feveral

pleafant walks and apartments in it; but the upper garden next the houfe is too irregular, and the bowling green too little to be commend. ed. The greenhoufe is very well made, but ill fet. It is divided into three rooms, and very well furnished with good greens; but it is fo placed, that the fun fhines not on the plants in winter, where they moft need its beams, the dwellinghoufe ftanding betwixt the fun and it. The maze or wildernefs there is very pretty, being fet all with greens, with a cyprefs arbour in the middle, fupported with a wellwrought timber frame; of late it grows thin at the bottom, by their letting the fir trees grow without their reach unclipped. The enclofure wired-in for white pheafants and partridges is a fine apartment, efpecially in fummer, when the bones of Italian bayes are fet out, and the timber walk with vines on the fide is very fine when the blew pots are on the pedestals on the top of it, and fo is the fish-pond with the greens at the head of it.

"9. Sir William Temple, being lately gone to live at his houfe in Farneham, his garden and greenhoufe at Weft Sheene, where he has lived of late years, are not fo well kept as they have been, many of his orange trees, and other greens, being given to fir John Temple, his brother, at Eaft Sheene, and other gentlemen; but his greens that are remaining (being as good a stock as moft greenhouses have) are very fresh and thriving, the room they ftand in fuiting well with them and being well contrived, if it be no defect in it that the floor is a foot at leaft within the ground, as is alfo the floor of the dwelling houfe. He had attempted to have orange trees to grow in the ground (as at Beddington), and for that purpofe

had

had enclosed a fquare of ten feet wide, with a low brick wall, and fheltered them with wood, but they would not do. His orange trees in fummer ftand not in any particular fquare or enclosure, under fome fhelter, as most others do, but are difpofed on pedestals of Portland ftone, at equal distance, on a board over against a fouth wall, where is his best fruit, and faireft

walk.

66

10. Sir Henry Capell's garden at Kew has as curious greens, and is as well kept as any about London. His two lentifcus trees (for which he paid forty pounds to Verfprit) are faid to be the best in England, not only of their kind, but of greens. He has four white ftriped hollies, about four feet above their cafes, kept round and regular, which coft him five pounds a tree this last year, and fix lauruftinufes he has, with large round equal heads, which are very flowery and make a fine fhew. His orange trees and other choicer greens ftand out in fummer in two walks about fourteen feet wide, enclosed with a timber frame about feven feet high, and fet with filver firs hedge-wife, which are as high as the frame, and this to fecure them from wind and tempeft, and fometimes from the fcorching fun. His terrace walk, bare in the middle, and grafs on either fide, with a hedge of rue on one fide next a low wall, and a row of dwarf trees on the other, fhews very fine, and fo do from thence his yew hedges with trees of the fame at equal diftance, kept in pretty fhapes with tonfure. His flowers and fruits are of the beft, for the advantage of which two parallel walis, about fourteen feet high, were now raised and almost finished. If the ground were not a little irregular, it would ex

cel in other points, as well as in furniture.

11. Sir Stephen Fox's garden. at Chifwick being but of five years standing, is brought to great perfection for the time. It excells for a fair gravel walk betwixt two yew hedges, with rounds and fpires of the fame, all under fmooth ton fure. At the far end of this garden are two myrtle hedges that cros the garden; they are about three feet high, and covered in winter with painted board cafes. The other gardens are full of flowers and falleting, and the walls well clad. The greenhoufe is well built, well fet, and well furnished.

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12. Sir Thomas Cooke's garden at Hackney is very large, and not fo fine at prefent, because of his intending to be at three thoufand pounds charge with it this next fummer, as his gardener faid. There are two greenhouses in it, but the greens are not extraordinary, for one of the roofs being made a receptacle for water, overcharged with weight, fell down laft year upon the greens, and made a great deftruction among the trees and pots. In one part of it is a warren, containing about two acres, very full of coneys, though there was but a couple put in a few years fince. There is a pond or a mote round about them, and on the outfide of that a brick wall four feet high, both which I think will not keep them within their compafs. There is a large fish-pond lying on the fouth to a brick wall, which is finely clad with philaria. Water brought from far in pipes furnishes his feveral ponds as they want it.

"13. Sir Jofiah Child's plantations of walnut and other trees at Wanfted are much more worth feeing than his gardens, which are but indifferent. Befides, the great

number