With a desire to render this place conspicuously attractive, Mr. Noble has spared no expense in planting the shrubberywalk and other parts of the grounds, or in erecting the hothouses. The former are now rendered worthy of note, in comparison with their size, for many beautiful and costly specimens. And the latter I would especially request attention to, on account of their being more complete than any of which my limited space will allow me to offer an illustration. Indeed, there are comparatively few places which will either require or

admit of a greater number of glass structures. And it will be found that these and their appurtenances have been carefully studied, and their form and position, with regard to both use and effect, very deliberately chosen.

Rather more than three quarters of an acre, exclusive of the ornamental parts, is occupied by the kitchen-garden just described. That now to be spoken of, and which forms part of the grounds at Norley Hall, near Northwich, Cheshire, the seat of Samuel Woodhouse, Esq., contains about half an acre, but has two separate outside portions, which together nearly compose another quarter of an acre. The figure (176) includes some of the pleasure-gardens likewise. In this figure, the house is at 1, the house offices at 2, some of the minor offices at 3, the house-court at 4, the stables and their accompaniments (5) round the stable-court, 6, the farm-yard at 7, the farm-buildings at 8, a rick-yard at 9, and a drying-ground at 10. There is a road to the stable-lofts, &c., at 15, to avoid entering the stablecourt with hay and straw. At 11, is a small scattered parterre,

having some of the beds filled with low evergreen shrubs, and 12 is an oblong rosery. There is a border for climbers (13) round the wall of the house-yard. An old Sycamore tree, with

a seat around its stem, is at 14, and the walk encircles it.

There is a back-road, for cattle, from the farm-yard to the park, just beyond this point.

All this section of the grounds was laid out in 1855, and the

plan for the remaining half was prepared and executed in 1856. It is this latter department which comprehends the kitchengarden. A walk continues from the pleasure-grounds across the cattle-road, and, travelling round a circular mass of evergreens, of which there is a corresponding mass at the other end, passes along the front of the kitchen-garden, giving access to it in its centre. Pleasant views of the park are obtained from this walk, and there are some large irregular borders between it and the plantation of shrubs which surrounds the kitchen-garden, and similar borders by the sides of walks leading to the two reserve gardens. The taller kinds of herbaceous plants, with Dahlias, Hollyhocks, &c., are intended to be cultivated in these borders.

The kitchen-garden (17) is on two levels, the southern division being about two feet higher than the other. The first is enclosed by a Holly hedge, (30,) like the reserve gardens, and there is a bank, covered with Cotoneaster, (18,) between the two parts. The northern half is surrounded, except on the south, by a fruit wall, the corners of which are rounded off, as shown, to adapt them better to the contracted space behind. The small area to the east of the kitchen-garden (19) is for herbs, and for growing a reserve of flowers to supply the flower-borders in the pleasure-grounds. The corresponding area on the other side (20) is for forcing-pits and frames, and for such plants as Rhubarb, Sea-kale, and similar things, that require largely manuring, and create litter. There is a border for Vines and Peach-trees, (21,) in front of two Vineries (22) and a Peachhouse, 23. In the garden-yard, 29, is an Onion and seed room, 24, a fruit-room, 25, an open shed, 26, a potting and tool-shed, 27, and a boiler-shed, 28. A public road lies to the north of the garden, and gives ready access, for carts, to the garden-yard, besides affording easy communication with the farm-yard for

manure.

A somewhat larger kitchen-garden will be found in fig. 188, at p. 360, within the homestead of Charles Longman, Esq. The kitchen-garden here (13) is an ample one, being one

hundred yards long by forty yards wide, and having a supplementary part, for inferior vegetables, containing about 1600 square yards additional. The whole of these two areas being

walled in, there is most extensive accommodation for trained fruit trees, and the walls of the capacious garden-yards behind are partly employed for the same purpose.

Other kitchen-gardens, containing about half an acre, are depicted in fig. 165, and fig. 189, where they are walled in entirely; as is a smaller one in fig. 154. Another of about half an acre, walled only on the north and east sides, is shown at fig. 185. And, for a place of moderate pretensions, where the family is not very large, and where such things as winter potatoes are either grown on the farm or are purchased elsewhere, half an acre is about an average size for a kitchengarden. Larger families will require from three quarters of an acre to an acre. And mansions of the first class may have from two to four acres assigned to this object.

Kitchen-gardens that are not fenced in by walls have sometimes been made circular in form; and this shape may be useful in adapting itself to particular situations, and in appearing to occupy less room. In general, however, curved lines in a kitchen-garden are quite incompatible with convenient cropping; for there are few vegetables that an orderly gardener will not prefer to grow in rows. In a kitchen-garden which I have arranged for Gilbert Henderson, Esq., Recorder of Liverpool, at Rose Trees, on the margin of Derwentwater, I have obviated the above objection by making the garden itself octagonal, with the walks and inclosing hedges in this form; and placed an irregular belt of shrubs, within a wire fence that is circular towards the field, on the east, north, and west, around the whole; thus adapting the exterior outlines to the gently undulating surface of the ground, and to the curves in the neighbouring plantations.

Orchards, when they are allowed a separate existence, can be treated as an adjunct to the kitchen-garden, and be connected with it by suitable walks. For several years after their forma