A GARDEN IN SURREY.*

F any of our classical readers should chance to have entertained hitherto even the shadow of a shade of doubt as to the real existence of Virgil's "Corycius Senex" in the flesh, let him henceforth own that that shade is dispelled, for that at Wallington, in the parish of Beddington, near Croydon, less than fifteen miles from London, resides the venerable sage whom Virgil has immortalised under that name, and he has lately written a book, which, if it were only in poetry instead of prose, would easily pass muster as a fifth Georgic, on Horticulture.

But Mr. Smee is not a poet; he is a practical man; he is well known in the City of London as chief medical officer of the Bank of England, and as the busiest of busy men in other matters of a commercial, as well as of a scientific nature. He has found time, however, -at the beginning and end of the day, we presume to bring into successful cultivation a small estate of which he is the owner, and which, as he tells us in his preface, he regards in a twofold light; firstly, as "an experimental garden, designed to obtain information,” and secondly, as "a practical garden, from which his residence in town is supplied with vegetables, fruit, and flowers." The book which he has lately published under the title of "My Garden," will serve to justify this twofold "end and aim.”

It appears from a perusal of the second chapter of the work before us that when he entered upon his land at Beddington, what now is Mr. Smee's garden was a peaty bog, across which he could not walk. However, he at once set to work to remove the cause of offence by taking in hand and fairly mastering the river which ran through it, and which he regarded as an enemy that could be turned into a friend;

Multâ mole docendus aprico parcere prato.

He "lowered the central brook, made a second stream parallel with the river, and another crossing the garden at right angles ;" nor was he victorious on the waves alone: he conquered also the peat and the sand; studied the nature of the chalk soil of the district immediately adjoining his property; introduced a system of drainage

*My Garden: its Plan and Culture. By Alfred Smee, F.R.S. (London: 1872.)

Bell and Daldy.

suitable to the locality and the purpose in hand; and, by a judicious management of soils and manures, and by other scientific applications, he "made the desert smile."

It does not fall within the scope of the present paper to give a detailed account of the way in which, step by step, Mr. Smee overcame the difficulties which nature placed in his way, and did for his garden on the banks of the Wandle-the "blue transparent Vandalis" of Pope -what the monks of old did for the once barren lands which by their labour and skill blossomed into the fair demesnes of Glastonbury, Beaulieu, and Tintern. But the work of Mr. Smee is one which has,

and must ever have, a special interest for SYLVANUS URBAN and his numerous readers, as embodying, inter alia, an admirably written account of the topography of Carshalton, Beddington, and the neighbourhood.

Flint instruments have been found, scattered over the district, in sufficient quantities to show that the neighbourhood was inhabited at a very early period. Equally distinct is the proof of Roman occupancy; and the discovery of a Roman house in situ, just at the east of Beddington Park, with the ground plan of its chambers still clearly distinguishable, could leave no room for doubt on the subject. Near this building were found specimens of Roman pottery and coins of the reigns of Commodus and Constantine, one at least of which was struck at Colchester. It is well known, we may add, that the Roman road known as Stane Street must have run through or near Beddington, on its way from the South Coast to London, though no actual traces of it remain at the present day; and some antiquaries have not hesitated to place near the same locality the Roman town Noviomagus-the site of which has been so long and so keenly

disputed among antiquaries. Passing on to the Anglo-Saxon period, coins, arms, and other implements of that age appear to have been found in sufficient quantities to justify the inference that Beddington was not an unimportant place from the seventh to the tenth century, as Mr. Smee states that several skeletons were found along with the

CINERARY URN AND UMBONE OF SHIELD.-ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.

above, and that they lay "with their heads towards the west." Since this was the case, the inference is obvious that they were Christians who were buried there. With them were found a Saxon silver penny bearing the name of Edelstan (Ethelstan), and also a bronze bracelet, both of which we are able to reproduce here by the kind permission of Mr. Smee.

The history of Beddington, from the middle ages down to the recent extinction of the Carews, who were long its owners, as recorded by Mr. Smee, is so full of interest that we have ventured to draw largely upon his pages for the brief summary of its annals which we here lay before our readers.

It appears that in Doomsday Book Beddington comprised two manors, one of which was held by Robert de Watville from Richard de Tonbridge, and by his successors immediately from the King, by the service of rendering to the Sovereign every year a single wooden crossbow. At this time there were in Beddington two mills and a

parish church; but the manor, in the reign of Richard I., had passed into the hands of a family named De Es or De Eys. In A.D. 1205, on the extinction of this family, the manor reverted to the King. It would be tedious and useless to mention the names of the families to

WATER-MILL ON THE WANDLE AT CARSHALTON.

whom from time to time the manor was granted prior to the reign of Edward III., when it passed, by an arrangement, from the Willoughbies to the De Carrues, or, as they afterwards styled themselves, Carews. This knightly and noble family-if we may believe the

heralds and genealogists-were descended from one Otho, who came over with the Conqueror, and obtained a grant of Carew Castle, in Pembrokeshire, and they bore for their arms, " Or, three lions passant in pale sable." The Carews can boast that they produced some distinguished sons, among whom was Giraldus Cambrensis, the celebrated. historian. Sir Nicholas Carew, the first actual owner of Beddington who bore that name, was a man of note in the reign of the third Edward, under whom he served as a Knight of the Shire and Keeper of the Privy Seal, and of whose will he became executor. The manor of Beddington remained vested in the hands of the Carews till the reign of Henry VIII., when its holder, another Sir Nicholas, the "Lieutenant of Calais, Master of the Horse, and a Knight of the Garter," having incurred the displeasure of that arbitrary monarch, was attainted and executed on Tower Hill, his broad lands being seized by the King, who took up his residence at Beddington, and

held a Council there.

BEDDINGTON PARK.

He even went a step further, and granted the manor to the proud D'Arcyes of Chiche, to whom Sir Francis Carew was glad to pay a round sum of money, in order" to make assurance doubly sure," upon obtaining restitution of Beddington from Queen Mary, in whose service he had risen to favour and influence. It was this Sir Francis who rebuilt the mansion of Beddington Park, the great hall of which now alone remains standing, according to Mr. Smee, who adds that the great door of its hall has a curious and ancient lock, very richly wrought, the key-hole of which is concealed by a shield bearing the arms of England in the Tudor times. Queen Elizabeth honoured Sir Francis with her presence at Beddington in August, 1599, when she spent three days at his mansion and held her Court; and again in the August of the following year.

The following quaint account, which Mr. Smee quotes from Sir Hugh Platt's "Garden of Eden," is strictly in keeping with the plan of his book, and it serves, moreover, to show what pains were taken to keep back cherries, the favourite fruit of Queen Elizabeth, for the table of that Queen :

Here I will conclude with a conceit of that delicate knight, Sir Francis Carew,