The Express.
London, England, 1860-05-24 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Garden that Paid the Rent. Chapman and

Hall.

As Mrs. Radcliffe wrote "The Romance of the
Forest," so the anonymous author of this pleasant
little volume may be said to have written a Ro-,
mance of the Garden, though the romance is,
intended to have a very practical application.
Having observed the expensive way in which the
Londoner's homestead is often cultivated, or the
carelessness with which it is allowed to go to waste,
he undertakes to show how, by the application of
the skill and industry of the owner lumself and of
his family, assisted occasionally by a little hired
labour, a garden of about an acre may be turned
into • little paradise of fruits and flowers, and may
at the same time be made to "pay the rent" in
the saving it effects in many household matters.
He works out this idea by means of a slight story,
very charmingly written ; and, though we doubt if
his plan could be carried out by any gardening
genius less than his own, some useful hints may be
derived by all, and the mere perusal of the book
will be a pleasure to any one with a feeling for
seines and domesticity. The writer poseesee a
delightful ideal of what a garden should be : as we
read his pages we feel the leafy snugness fisher
about us—ses the old sunny walls with the
wei tiny tad the wireeignilllllelllrlffitfinrgt:
in it, and the beehives, thrilling with the utterance
of "the staging masons building roofs of gold," and
.tic Masesld lawn glowing with beds and elide of
parti-coloured flowers—catch the breath of the rigs
apples on the apple trees, and feel the tranquillising'
influence of the loved enclosure where we can at
once come in contact with nature, and be at home.
Our author supposes himself introduced by his
friend, a Mr. Atkins, into his garden in one of
the London suburbs. This is the state he found
it in :

It was almost in a wild state. The gram wee rank and
Va desperate fight was forward in the distance,
on a few sickly and armies of vigorous
weeds : there was no doubt about where the victory would
lie. The greenhouse contained • vine, the leaves of which
' choked up every part of the roof where light nilOt have
entered. Stout shoots stood out at right angles from the
wall-fruit trees. It was di/Unit to discover where the
lawn ended and the gravel walks began. Spiders' webs
bunt across my face at every footstep.
A positive wilderness, isn't it r said my friend : let us
call him—well—say Atkins.
Atkins appeared, in truth, to be as proud of the weeds as
though they were the choicest flowers. The nettle was not
• nettle to him, but a tuberose at the very least. Had he
been the young widow of an unloved husband, be could not
have been prouder of his weeds. He surveyed the wild,
and plumed himself upon his sagacity.
I asked him why he had let the weeds run riot! He wee
delighted with the opportunity of dwelling upon his old
extravagance and his present prudence.
" You see," he said, diving his hands deep into his
pockets, and rattling his keys and his money as he swkst.—
' You see, I am not a young man now. I have gone themo
the follies of my greenness. When I was eight-and-
twenty, that garden, sir, was a floral paradise—a frectifer.
one paradise. No peaches were ever worthy to be premed
to woman's lip before peaches hung in net, against yonder
walL Sir," and taming full upon me, Atkins looked like •
man about to impart a solemn secret—" Sir, I grew my own
orange-flowers for my own wedding-day. Now I cultivate
neither peaches for woman's lip, nor mange-Gowen for the
chip of lira Atkins. Sir, it never pays."
. .

Atkins's friend promises to remedy all this, and
iu the course of a few months to put the garden
into such a state that it shall pay. Here is the
pretty pm-vision of the renovated ground which he
shadows forth to Mrs. Atkins :
" My dear madem," said I, " your children shall have
broad, dry walks where they may trundle their
Winter sad matey these walks *shall dry an hour after
rain has erased. Before your windows there shall be a small,
but a perfect lawn ; its colours fresh as the green of • young
apple. Plower-stands, that shall not oost you one farthing,
and whisk shall be more comely than theee of any of your
neighbours, shall hold sweeteoented Bowen under yourwin-
down. You shall peep into your garden in late autumn
through the eery leaves of the sreanSid American creeper.
abut out the beds with Portugal Thu wader shall
leurelt2orhstiodendrons, the perfum bay-tree, and vane-
pled ; and amid the liveliest greens the yew shall
dad • t mourner in the bright company. For outer
curtains you shall have the graceful folds of the sweet
smiling wistaria and it shall, when you are distrait,
perhipbeer your dreams upon its pale-blue flowers to China,
where it glees • shade to poor little limping Chineee,
witberie free sae so happy, I fear, as you are. In the
• yatir hit, Os clematis shrill drop its skits flews
the weleenstru : and the wall on your right shall grow with
the sun:ldened sides of Royal George peaches. Nor shall
the -sower be wanting to bewitch your sight."
The following is the way he manages it :
Before the drawing-room windows are flower-stands
and a lawn : then comes a broad gravel walk ; then
flowers again, backed by evergreens, and as arch-
way covered with American creepers. Beyond this
stretches the kitchen garden, flanked by standard
currants and espalier apples on the north aide—
themselves backed by strawberries, vines, peaches,
and cucumber pita ; and bordered in a similar way
on the south side, only that here Morillo cherry
tram take the place of vines. Hives and a home
for rabbits are disposed of in the two corners
opposite the house, and every inch of ground is
turned to account. The result is, that Atkins is
not merely enabled to live rent-free, but, by selling
his superfluous produce, actually makes a profit.
The figures are thus set forth :
d.
Expense..
Receipts

Toted profit
Deduct 4O 6 01 wil i° tb•
house.

267 18 0

The author is stronglycoi;inCed that all these
wonders might be wrought by the ladies of the
house, and says he knows a lady " wbo alone
keeps in order a garden of a quarter of an acre,
and two greenhouses. She also attends entirely to
her poultry. A gardener is her horror ; and the
only time she permits one on her premises is when
the lawn wants cutting or the fruit-trees pruning.
He is never allowed to enter the greenhouses,
except to move, under her superintene a pot
too heavy for her strength." We suspect that this
is a very exceptional case. Indeed, the only objec-
tion we have to offer to the book under review is
that the contemplated plan could only be made to
" pay the rent' by an amount of toil and attention
which would require the whole life of those who
gave it. Charming as it is to see our wives and
daughters tending the flowers in the greenhouse,
or looking after the peaches on the wall, we should
not like them to be brought to the level of the poor
Irishwomen who prematurely bend their back-
bones, and destroy the feminine contour of their
figures, by working in the market gardens that belt
the metropolis.

LAKE or GLPIEVA Ltrzboar. —A new lifeboat
and tranimorting carriage, on the plan of those adopted by
the National Lifeboat Institution, have just been despatched
from London to the Lake of Geneva. The boat, which is
28 feet long, was built by the Mews. Forrest, of Lime.
house, and the earrings by Mr. Robinson, of Camden-town.
A few days ego • grand demonstration was made at Geneva,
in celebration of theirarrivaL Load were the prelate of the
Genevese on the breathe/architecture of the boat and her
equipment, including lifebelta for her crew. Her transport-
ing carriage was also much admired for it workmanship and
suitability for] its purger. Some time ego a terrible ship-
wreck occurred during a fearful storm on the lake of Ge-
neva, when the live■ of several persons were placed in
great jeopardyr. At the critical period a pliant seaman,
named Mermillod, nobly risked his own life in a frail boat
in rescuing the shipwrecked men. To testify their appre-
ciation of Mermillo's breve exertions the Genevese raised
a large subscription, and after rewarding him with a portion
of the money, they decided on appropriating the surplus in
the purchase of a lifeboat on the plan of that now swam-
fully empim ed by the National Lifeboat Institution on
different part of the coasts of the British Isles. Accord
ingly, an order wan given for her construction, and great
has hem the satedaction of the Genevem with the happy
onisensmation of their humane design.

EMS'S IiOIIO3OPATRIC Cocoa.—lte delieious
grateful emewlinand Invtweeting power have pea
rordalta general am a breakteet beverage.
and 1 lb. packets, at la. %, P.r Ib.. byt e PefficiPal
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itheribilftwk