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to be regarded as forming part of the same course. Handbook is intended for actual service. Its office is to point out the things which are most worth seeing in the district it describes, and what is the best and easiest way of seeing them. They could not be well understood without such an introduction as we have been insisting upon; but the introduction is necessarily comprised within narrower limits than the description of things and places which are to be oculis subjecta 'fidelibus.'

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When the variety of subjects is considered which in any one of these Handbooks have to be touched upon at less or greater length; when it is remembered that the author is, or ought to be, besides historian and archæologist, a geologist, a botanist, an agriculturist, a mechanist; appreciating the marvels of Saltaire and of the great brother-factories which have darkened the air and the waters of the North, no less heartily and sincerely than the charms of wild nature and the glories of the prospect from Helvellyn or the heights of Dartmoor-one is tempted to recall the disquisition of the philosopher Imlac, and to adopt the words of Rasselas, Enough; thou hast persuaded me that no man can '-write a Handbook. And this in a sense is true. The work, to be satisfactorily done, would be altogether beyond the powers of a single writer, were he not entitled to lay hands on the published conclusions of labourers in the various fields of knowledge, and, by condensing, to bring them within the range of his own volume. But in all casesand this is one of the special merits of Mr. Murray's seriesthe general descriptions and notices should be the result of personal visitation. Unless the author is himself well acquainted with the places of main interest, and with their actual condition, he cannot guide others to them, although his knowledge of their past history may be accurate and profound. Each of the English Handbooks is the result of many tours, in which the highways and byways of the county have been diligently explored, and the present state of every important objectchurch, mansion, or ruin-duly noted. In this manner the successive editions will be as useful to future inquirers as those of Chamberlayne's Notitia' were to Lord Macaulay; the changes which have occurred in the intervals of publication being always recorded. These changes, however, are not the least among the author's difficulties. England, in some respects the most stable, is in others the most changeful country in the world. Great art collections are scattered, great houses pass from one owner to another, old landmarks disappear, even in the brief period between the writing of the book and its publi

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cation; and, in spite of very careful watching, it is impossible to avoid an occasional table of errata.' We only wonder they are so few.

The difficulty in collecting these local details, especially in procuring the precise information which is required, can only be appreciated by those who have themselves attempted some similar task. By far the best and most ready assistants (and their good offices are often acknowledged in the Handbooks) are the clergy. There is many a Gilbert White still to be found in the remoter, as indeed in the more frequented, corners of England, to whom his own parish has afforded ample materials for study, and who is almost always ready to communicate the results of his labours. The importance of these may often be exaggerated, and the historical conclusions somewhat doubtful. But for the most part they are useful aids, and, judiciously sifted, may assist materially in the raising of the main structure. It is not often that, as once happened to ourselves, a rector will refuse to show, or to allow admission to, his church, on the score that to make an architectural idol of the building is an offence against the solemn purposes for which it was erected. The historical conclusions of this divine would probably resemble those of a brother-clergyman whom we encountered in a solitary Yorkshire dale. History? ' a parcel of old crimes and wickednesses-best forgotten, best 'forgotten. No, sir, I make a point of knowing nothing at all about history.' Such personages are themselves curiosities, and deserve a corner in the Handbook. The proffered help is generally too ample rather than too slender; and it is somewhat startling (we speak again from experience) when a request has been made for information about certain monuments in an ancient church, to receive copies of-apparently all the inscriptions inside the walls and out, including two distinct versions of the celebrated Afflictions sore.' 6 With an embarra des

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richesses' like this the editor has to deal gently; yet it may be feared that he will not escape some grumbling over the injustice done by the omission of such records of the forefathers of the hamlet.'

A knowledge of the great difficulties to be encountered in the collection of material should lead to a lenient criticism of the Handbooks; and, we say this, because we have noticed in some quarters a disposition to make the most of light errors or omissions, and to dwell on them rather than on the wide and great merits of the entire volume. Such a book is not to be treated like a work of pure literature; although its composition may often demand rarer qualities than are required for

VOL. CXXXVIII. NO. CCLXXXII.

LL

that. The true way of regarding a Handbook, and the best criticism that can be bestowed on it, is-always supposing that the foundation has been thoroughly well laid-not by any means to pass over errors, be they greater or less, but, on the contrary, to point them out carefully, in accordance with the request made at the beginning of each volume. If this were

done, and in a kindly spirit-not for the sake of discovering faults, which in a first edition, at any rate, are quite unavoidable, but with the view of correcting them--we should find that all spots of real importance would rapidly disappear, until a Guide for Travellers was produced as perfect as the changing circumstances of each district render at all possible.

ART. VIII.-1. A Description of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew, in Surrey: with an Engraving thereto in Perspective. By Sir WILLIAM CHAMBERS.

2. Official Guide to the Kew Museums: a Handbook to the Museums of Economic Botany of the Royal Gardens, Kew. By DANIEL OLIVER, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c.

3. Guide to the Royal Botanic Gardens and Pleasure Grounds, Kew. By DANIEL OLIVER, F.R.S., F.L.S., Keeper of the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, and Professor of Botany in University College, London. Twenty-seventh Edition. London: 1872.

4. Reports on the Gardens at Kew.

CAN

Progress and Condition of the Royal
By Dr. J. D. HOOKER. 1872.

YAN we wonder that the citizens of London have for ages been drawn, as if by some irresistible impulse, westward; beckoned onward, as it were, by the splendid beauty of the setting sun? In our own time we have seen the famous Gardens of Vauxhall, where Pepys tells us the nightingales used to sing so sweetly, swallowed up in the advancing tide of brick and mortar, and Kensington Gardens, where, within the memory of many middle-aged men, squirrels were as plentiful as blackberries, are now caged in by a suburb, until they are not more retired than a square in Bloomsbury. Westward still the great wave of human life is advancing, until our last open space yet, thank God, open to the pure country fields in the form of a public pleasureground, is in the Royal Gardens at Kew. Like the Hampton Court Palace Gardens, they have flourished under the

favour of the Crown for many reigns, and the forest-like pleasure-grounds have had time to form a deep setting of noble trees round the Botanical Gardens, brilliant with flowers and exotic plants gathered from all quarters of the globe. It is true they did not pass into the possession of the Crown until the beginning of the last century, but for a century before, a residence known as Kew House, with these grounds, was in the possession of Lord Capel, and from him fell into the hands of Mr. Molyneux, who married his daughter, the Lady Elizabeth Capel; so that these noble grounds, at least as far as the Arboretum or forestial portion is concerned, have been in careful cultivation for at least two hundred years. Mr. Molyneux's connexion with the Court, as Secretary to the Prince of Wales, son of King George II., and father of George III., appears to have drawn the attention of that Prince to the charming situation of these grounds, and induced him in the year 1730 to take a long lease of them from the Capel family. At that time the estate consisted of about 250 acres, bounded, to speak broadly, by the Richmond Road, the old Royal Deer Park, and the river Thames. In the time of George II., when these grounds were first laid out for his son, the Chinese fashion in gardening was in vogue, and the grounds round the present lake by the Palm-house were designed after the fashion of the picture in the old-fashioned willow-pattern plate. In the old lake there was an island crossed by an apparently inaccessible Chinese bridge, not far off a Chinese Tai House, and as if to give a still more cosmopolitan character to the grounds, a Turkish Temple and an Assembly Room, the style of which, as set forth in Sir William Chambers' perspective view of it, it would be hard to guess at. The Great Pagoda, however, which still stands in handsome preservation some little distance off, in the midst of the Arboretum or pleasure-ground, is the only vestige of this Sinesian garden folly of the seventeenth century now remaining. The classical folly still exists. Sir William Chambers, as we all can see, capped artificial mounts with Temples of the Wind, Temples of the Sun, Temples of Victory and Minden ; now either entirely empty or tenanted by a stray bust or two of departed heroes, which look wonderfully cold and miserable in their deserted shrines.

These so-called Classical temples and buildings in the gardens were erected under the direction of the Princess Augusta, the relict of the Prince of Wales, by whom the exotic department of the garden was commenced. All vestiges of her glass stoves have, however, given way to new buildings

more fitted to the advanced appliances of our day; one noble building, however, still remains-the old Orangery, a heavy but imposing-looking conservatory (marked by the date 1761 over the portal of the building), where once the blooming fruit flourished, but now devoted to specimens of Colonial timber. Under the guidance of William Aiton, the author of Hortus Kewensis,' published in 1789, the Gardens were enriched with a large number of foreign plants. During his time and that of his son, W. Townsend Aiton, Esq., who was an especial favourite of George III., these gardens were the receptacle of the riches in horticulture collected and brought over by Captain Cook, Sir Joseph Banks, and Captain Flinders, in their voyages round the world. In addition to these Mr. Allen Cunningham brought home from Australia many rare plants, and the expeditions of Bowie and Masson to Brazil and to the Cape of Good Hope furnished the Gardens with singular products of the Southern Hemisphere. With the reign of the poor blind king (who, by the way, spent the last years of his life in the quaint old red-brick palace seen from the lawn) the value of Kew Gardens as a scientific centre of botanical and horticultural science gradually declined, the two succeeding monarchs taking little interest in the establishment, and spending but little upon it. With the first years of the present Queen's reign, during which such vigour seemed to be infused into the scientific life of the nation, the first movement was made which transformed the Gardens from an effete royal establishment into the noble grounds which, under its able directors, has become the most famous botanic garden in Europe. In the year 1838, in consequence of the general feeling that the Gardens should be placed upon a different footing, and thrown open to the public as a great popular and scientific institution, at the instigation of Lord John Russell, a Committee was appointed to inquire into their management and condition. In 1840 the inquiry resulted in a report by Dr. Lindley, which recommended that the Royal Botanic Garden, the pleasure-grounds, and the Richmond Deer Park should be transferred to Her Majesty's Woods and Forests, and this arrangement was immediately carried out; but subsequently the management has been divided between two departments, the gardens and pleasure-grounds passing to the Works and Public Buildings Department, and the remainder to the Woods, Forests, and Land Revenue Office. The Botanic Gardens in 1841 received as its Director, on the resignation of Mr. Aiton, Sir William Hooker, and from the day of the advent of this distinguished botanist

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