have been supported by government, as the Dublin Society, the Cork Institution, &c., have degenerated into mere jobs. Whoever wishes to know something of the state of jobbing in Ireland, may turn to the Scotsman newspaper of Jan. 6. 1830, where, in a review of the Report of the Commissioners of Revenue on the State of the Irish Post-Office, will be seen an account which is enough to make a man exclaim, that, if the peasantry of Ireland are in a state of physical degradation, the gentry are not less degraded morally. We do not believe there is any thing in the world equal to it, except in Russia. However, as the Society proposes to confine itself to collecting and diffusing arboricultural knowledge, we cannot see how it can possibly do harm. An active, scientific, and practical agent, by travelling through the country, might possibly effect something by instructing local foresters and woodmen; and if proprietors were very anxious for the improvement of their woodlands, such professional foresters as Pontey in England, and Sang and Cruickshanks in Scotland, would soon be called into existence in Ireland, without the aid of any society: in fact, there is our correspondent Fraser, who, we will venture to assert, understands vegetable physiology, as applicable to trees and the whole management of plantations, as well as any man in the two islands. But, from what we can learn, the foresters of Ireland are much too ignorant and conceited to take instructions, or be put out of their routine practices by strangers; and therefore the grand and essential thing is to enlighten the rising generation generally, to begin at the beginning. In the mean time, every temporary exertion is worth something; and the mere circumstance of calling public attention to the subject, and bringing people together, or into communication, who are occupied with the same pursuit, is certain of doing good. In these views, we hail the appearance of the Arboricultural Society, and wish it every possible success. - Cond.

Mr. Fraser's name, we in this country regret to see, is falling into the middle distance of your pages. He has left much undone, which might have been of real use to the county where he resided; I may add, to gardeners and Ireland at large. Knowing your Magazines to be widely circulated in this kingdom, I hope you will call upon some of your intelligent readers to send you an account of the places they have visited, which might be the means of operating upon both the employer and the employed. Start the subject, and I have no doubt of its success. I am, Sir, &c.L. L. January, 1830.

We have repeatedly done so, but there seems to be something in Ireland which breeds laziness; there seems to be a want of poor rates, to excite to activity and industry. As far as gardening is concerned, absenteeism causes the blight. To the peasantry poor rates would be a real good; and if the landlords would meet them by the cottage system already laid down (not a forced cottage system), and by giving every cottager a loom, which might reduce the quantum of land, they would have nothing to fear.— Cond.

Poor Laws. We have not the least doubt that had a system of poor laws, similar to that which has been established in England, been established for the same period in Ireland, it would, by giving the landlords and gentry of the country a deep pecuniary interest in the repression of the numbers of the poor, have powerfully tended to prevent that splitting of farms, and excessive increase of the population, that are the prime causes of all the evils of Ireland. (Ed. Rev.)

Mildness of the Climate near Belfast. Sir, Having received much pleasure from your Gardener's Magazine, and being passionately fond of cultivating shrubs and flowers, which I have been in the habit of practically doing myself in a small garden as my greatest amusement, I am induced to give you some remarks, which, if you please to make use of in whole or part, you are very welcome. I think this part of Ireland, on the sea-shore,

about three miles from Belfast, latitude 54° 35′ 42′′ N., must be peculiarly favourable to gardening. I find many plants grow well here, which I have observed in the Gardener's Magazine are spoken of as rare in other places: for instance, Fuchsia coccínea, as bearing berries in a green-house, from which young plants spring; and then it is observed, it might perhaps be treated as a hardy annual. My old plants ripen seed in the open ground, and never get any protection, and I have them in the coldest situations. I never thought of sowing the seed, as I find the cuttings grow as well as those of the common willow. I cut some plants down to the ground about January, and these cuttings I put very thickly together into any part of the garden, and give them no care: almost every plant succeeds and flowers that autumn. The broad-leaved myrtle I have as an edging as low as box, and as hedges in my garden of all heights, from 6 in. to 12 ft. My 12-ft. hedge is on a south wall. When Dr. Haliday came to this place twenty years since, it was 2 ft. high. It has never had even a little straw laid over the roots in winter, and it flowers beautifully. It is bushy from the ground to the top of the wall, with which I always cut it even about April. In the summer it shoots a foot and a half above the top of the wall: it is 5 ft. in breadth from the bottom to the top, and spreads 3 ft. over the door-case on one side. From this I have taken all my other plants, observing to cut off a flowering branch, otherwise it is very long before they come into flower. I always strike them in the open ground, and many have been put down at Christmas; in fact, I give them no more care than the Fuchsia. I have at least forty plants now, and many in fine flower this day (Nov. 11.). The narrow-leaved myrtle is also in the garden, and has twice flowered; it is not protected. I cannot go to any great expense, but I try every plant I can get a cutting of, and often succeed where many who take great care and trouble do not. The snowberry I struck by a cutting in the open ground, when the nurserymen were asking 78. for a plant. The white double primrose is quite hardy here. Tigrídia Ferrària I plant in the garden in February; its seeds are now quite ripe; this winter I will leave some roots in the ground: it seems so far to have changed its habit as to open the flower at all times in the day; it even did so at six in the evening this year. Mirábilis longiflòra stands the winter here well, and flowered the year it was sown. Scarlet-flowered Cyrilla, sown in the garden, is now in fine flower; as are also a variety of pelargoniums and Cinerària, turned out of the green-house to take their chance. The Althæa frutex flowers well in many places here. I have a very small green-house, nearly all glass, but with no artificial heat. I reared in it Crássula coccínea and alba; the seeds came up in a parcel of heath seeds from London (the latter all died): the crassulas flowered beautifully. My fine pelargoniums are later in flowering, but are in general in better health, than where great heat is used. The Madagascar periwinkle flowered from a cutting. My gardener has also been successful in flowering the Amaryllis vittata in it: he was laughed at for supposing it possible; but the fourth year I had a fine plant, the stem 2 ft. high, and five handsome flowers: the second year it was not quite so fine. This year I have a second bulb from it, which I hope will flower: one of the bulbs I have just looked at; it has now a leaf a foot long, owing, he supposes, to the experiment of not treating it as he did at first. If it does flower, I shall send a communication to the Gardener's Magazine. I know he does not give at any time any thing like the quantity of water which some of your correspondents recommend; but he says, not having heat, the plant does not require it. My green-house is chiefly managed by him, and he is quite anxious to acquire information relating to his profession, and very fond of it; but, except in regard to the vittata, every fact I state is from my own knowledge and experience. There are now seven beds nearly blown of the scarlet Chinese rose, budded on the 20th of July on the common double white rose; and I had the rose unique, Tuscany, moss-white, and double yellow-flowered on the Chinese

blush, budded rather late last year. I think it is the best stock. The situation was too sunny for the yellow; two buds only flowered perfect. I have it also budded on the scarlet Chinese. I have long been trying to discover what is the cause of the variation of the colour in the hydrangea: it is not the strong black soil that gives the blue; for in that, for four years, I have a fine red plant, taken from a blue one; and in a sandy soil (which is the general soil here) I have a blue one. I once thought, as you observe, that the plant requires to be old before the blue colour becomes prevalent; but I am convinced that will not always hold. I have not observed any of your correspondents remark the very neat method, French I believe, which a friend described to me, of striking slips of carnations or pinks, particularly if to be sent any distance; and I think it would answer well for pelargoniums, gilliflowers, &c. It is thus: - A strong shoot is just pierced through a joint, or as if going to be layered; have some pieces of the lead tea is so commonly put up in now, and twist it round the shoot (fig. 75.); tie the bottom close with bass mat, and then fill the lead full of proper compost, now and then watering. If the plant is tall, put in a stake, and tie it firmly in six weeks it will be well rooted, and may be cut off below the lead, and sent any distance. This I have practised for two years, and find it succeeds well; but it does best if the plants are pretty high, which carnations are generally here. I beg to give another instance of either the soil or climate. Two years ago a root of the orange lily threw up a stem which twisted from the ground and flattened to an inch and a half in breadth, was 7 ft. high, and had 130 flowers on it. I had the dry stem till very lately. Clifton, near Belfast, Nov. 11. 1829.

75

- M. H.

We are much gratified with these proofs of the mildness of the climate of Ireland, even in the north. We have no doubt the whole or the greater number of Australian, Japanese, and Chinese plants might grow there; many of them with no protection, and others with the same degree of protection which is given to the orange and the lemon in the north of Italy and in Devonshire. As our correspondent cannot have many neighbours who have extensive collections of exotics, we take the liberty of recommending such of our amateur cultivators as have spare young plants, and Mr. Mackay of Clapton, to send a few to Clifton, for trial in the open garden. The result will be something for all parties to hope for; and it will be given, we have no doubt, with readiness and pleasure by M. H. in this Magazine, in say three years after receiving each parcel. We are delighted to find a lady deriving so much enjoyment from her garden. We have just had the pleasure of showing the London gardens to a lady of similar pursuits from the north of Scotland, who has created a garden there, and who is not only a botanist and a naturalist, but who can and does perform all the operations herself, even to digging and wheeling.- Cond. May 22. 1830. Castlemartyr, County of Cork, the Residence of the Earl of Shannon. — Sir, In consequence of the notice taken in your Encyclopædia of Gardening, in the list of noblemen's and gentlemen's seats in Ireland, of Castlemartyr, the residence of the Earl of Shannon, I was induced to visit it a few days ago, and was so highly gratified by an inspection of it, that I shall attempt to give you a brief account of its varied beauties, which, if you deem worthy of insertion in your interesting Magazine, may prove a stimulus to future communications on similar subjects. This magnificent demesne is entered by a plain gateway with castellated piers, the external appearance of which would not lead a visitor to expect much internal beauty. He is, however, agreeably deceived immediately on entering, by the view of a distant bridge and waterfall, terminating in a splendid canal, or rather basin, along the banks of which his walk now commences. The effect is much increased by the appearance of a number of swans, which approach strangers with great familiarity. Amongst them we were highly pleased to notice, for the first

:

time, that "rara avis in terris," the black swan of Van Dieman's Land, with its splendid red bill. Closely observing his habits, he appeared to us a much more lively and animated bird than the white; and such we learned to be the case from a guide who attended us, and is in the habit of noticing him daily the neck did not appear to be quite so long as that of the white swan. Amongst them were a number of fine geese, which the guide called "American." Passing the bridge under which the water falls, we soon arrived at the house, which appears very old, and fast going to ruin: the rooms are spacious, and contain some excellent paintings. On remarking to our guide that the house appeared much neglected and going to decay, he said," he supposed His present Lordship would not rebuild it, but that there was every probability of Lord Boyle's (the eldest son) doing so, as he was greatly attached to the place, and always quitted it with tears in his eyes for England, where the family chiefly reside since the death of the amiable countess, who seems to have been almost adored by the people here. Our guide added a piece of intelligence, which to us was most unwelcome, that, since her death, about seven years ago, the chief flower-garden, in which she spent most of her time, has not been entered by any person but the gardener and the assistants, though it is said to be kept in as neat order as ever." As a recompense for this disappointment, he conducted us over a wooden bridge, on a distant part of the canal, to another garden most delightfully situate on the side of a hill gently sloping to the south, and embosomed in a thick wood, through which a winding pathway, planted on each side with the choicest evergreens, led to the entrance gate. Here we were delighted to find a number of half-hardy shrubs, apparently acclimated in a high degree, if we were to judge from their great size and healthy condition; amongst them the Magnòlia grandiflòra and conspicua, Kálmia latifòlia, myrtles of every kind, with numerous others. I never saw the Chinese roses, odoràta and indica, half so large or healthy as against the green-house wall, with a south-eastern aspect: perhaps the yellow rose would answer equally well here, if tried. In the green-house, or conservatory, which is indeed a mean one, and ill suited to so extensive a place, we observed a very fine Nèrium spléndens, Brugmansia arbòrea, and Acàcia, I believe, decípiens. In mentioning the acclimated shrubs in the garden, I omitted Camellia japónica, which seemed quite as hardy as the Prùnus Lauro-cérasus in its neighbourhood outside, and forming as numerous blossom buds, and as forward, as some under glass. The myrtle is said to thrive particularly well in this part of the country, which lies within four or five miles of the southern coast, from which sea sand is procured for its cultivation. Some that I observed at Youghall, near this, were at least 20 ft. high and well furnished, and required no protection during the winter season. The Arbutus Unèdo, our favourite native, was here, on the banks of the canal, in higher perfection and vigour than I found it at Killarney. A vast number of the inhabitants of the sweet village of Castlemartyr, adjoining the demesne, are kept employed almost constantly, not a withered leaf being allowed to remain beyond a day on the walks; indeed, it exceeds in neatness of keeping many places of note which I have visited in England. - A. B. C. Cork, Oct. 5. 1829.

ART. IV. Rural Architecture.

TOLL-GATE Houses in the neighbourhood of London have been a good deal improved within the last seven or ten years, and it were much to be wished that only the most elegant compositions of this kind were erected all over the country; because they could not fail to have an influence on the general taste in matters of architecture. Toll-gates and parochial or village schools ought to be particularly attended to as examples of architectural

taste; because they are inevitably seen by every body, and the latter when we are young and open to impressions. We should be glad if some of our architectural readers would send us perspective views or isometrical elevations of this description of buildings, and in the mean time we shall make the commencement by giving a view of a toll-house lately erected at Edgeware. (fig. 76.) On the summit of the cupola of this house there was

originally a lamp with three burners and three separate reflectors. Two of the reflectors directed the light along the road in opposite directions, to show what might be coming or departing on either hand; the third reflector threw the light directly across the road, and down on the gate, for the purposes of the gate-keeper and those passing through. After this light had remained between two and three years it was taken down, as being too brilliant, and as having frightened some horses; but it surely might have been softened so as to be retained. Where there are two gates, a lamppost is very properly placed between them, as is now done at Edgeware, which answers all the purposes of the cupola and triple lamp formerly there.

Isometrical (isos equal, and metron, measure) Perspective. - As some of our young readers may not clearly understand what is meant by this term, and as that description of perspective is particularly adapted for drawing plans of kitchen-gardens, we give the following extract from Waistell's Designs for Agricultural Buildings: "Isometrical perspective is a term given recently by Professor Farish of Cambridge, to a projection made in rays parallel to the diagonal of a cube upon a plane perpendicular thereto. This is a comprehensive and useful method of exhibiting the different parts of a homestead, and any person moderately acquainted with drawing, if they make the attempt, will find it extremely easy to perform; nothing more being required than to divide a circle into six equal parts, which may be done with the radius; and draw the hexagon and three radii, one radius to every other angle, to represent a cube. (fig. 77.) All the vertical or plumb lines in any design are then to be drawn parallel to a b; all those in the direction, say north and south, parallel to a c; and all those at right angles or perpendicular to the last, or in the direction east and west, parallel to ad; and the several heights, lengths, and breadths, being taken from a scale of equal parts, and set off, and lines drawn in these three directions, the projection is produced. The position of any point, or the direction of any other line, may be found, by finding where the first would fall upon any plane parallel to either of the three sides of the cube, and where the latter, if produced, would cross any line in the three directions." (Designs, &c., p. 91.)