The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-23 00:00:00

IMPROVEMENT IN THE PARKS.

The Stirling Journal says:—The sport on the moors in this
neighbourhood has been very promising since the 12th. The
birds are numerous and in excellent condition. On the 13th
inst., Mr. Basil Fisher, Sauchie House, bagged 151 brace in
4; hours ; on the 14th, 171 brace ; and on the 16th 24 brace.
Oa the 16tb Messrs. Jopp and Scott killed 24 brace on Bal-
gair moor. Mr. W. L. Ewing, of Arngomery, bagged 10
brace on the 16th. Mr. G. K. McCallum, of Braco, and
party, succeeded on the 12th in bagging 45 brace, and on
the 13th 3 brace and 4 hares. Mr. Watt from Glasgow
killed, on the 12th, 81 brace, and on the 16th 15 brace, on
Craigengelt moor. On the 12th and two following days,
Capt. Christie of the Ist Royals, and a friend, bagged 44
brace on Touchadam moor. Mr. Campbell of Boquhan, Mr.
Fletcher of Saltown, and Mr. Fletcher, jun., have had ex-
cellent sport on Boquhan moors; and we understand that
good sport has also been obtained by several gentlemen on
Gargunnock moor. Mr. Lees and party shot, on Kilbryde
moors, on the 12th, 24 brace, 13th, 40 do,, 14th, 41 do., 16th,
37 do., 17th, 12 do.-154 brace in all. Altogether the
season, so far as it has gone, has been most satisfactory.
—A correspondent from Dunkeld writes:—Thursday, the
12th, being wet, very few sportsmen were able to go out.
The 13th was but an indifferent day also. The Earl of
Wemyss, on the Grandtully moor, killed, on the 13th, 76
brace and two hares. The lion. J. C. Dundas, on the
Glenqneich moor, killed 541 brace and two hares on the
12th ; 441 brace and 4 hares on the 13th ; 35 brace and 3
hares on the 14th; and 31 brace and 2 hares on the 16tIr.
Mr. Hildyard, on the Curriemuckloch moor, killed 40 brace
on the 12th, and 35 brace on the 13th. Mr. Lumsden,
Kinlocb, and his party (3 guns) have been killing some 60
to 70 brace per day. The birds are very strong, no disease,
and in better condition than they have been for many years,
and there is not that disposition for making large bags the
first day or two has usually been the csse. —Our
Comvir correspandent says :—Notwithstanding the un-
propitious state of the weather on-the " twelfth,':. we learn
that on his bill at Brae of Fordie, Mr. D. R. Iv 'Main. son,
,
of Lowers, bagged to his own gun 33 brace of grouse and

Whatever there is of embellishment in our parks has been
accomplished within ten years, and the administration in
that department by Sir Benjamin Hall has met :he approval
of all. The cleansing cf St. James's canal, the erection of
the Suspension-bridge (or rather causeway), the girding of
Hyde-park with shrubbed plantation's and walks of floral
borders the like adornment of the Green-park along
Piccadilly, are all due to the activity and taste of
Sir Benjamin. In these particulars he may be said to
have performed a Herculean labour, for tbese works.
transcend all that has been done by all his predecessors. The
office of national gardener is, however, one that charges with
the Administration, so that there is little hope for a continu-
ation of those services which have so much contributed to
the public hlalth and satisfaction. A chief commissioner
may arise again who, imbued with the spirit of improve-
ment and the capacity to carry it out, may emulate the
example; but if the genius is not in the man, a nomination
by the Cabinet to a post of £1,500 a-ycar cannot create it
for him.

The Serpentine, now a pestilential pond, festers in the
midst of Hyde-park. How is It to be expurgated ? Not by

throwing in 100 sacks of quicklime ; that may for a season
stay the plague; it must be drained off, brought to an equa-
ble level, and concreted ; moreover, it must have, like St.
James'e-park, a supply of artesian well water.
There is for the present a stagnation of improvement both
by land and water, for little is in progress throughout those
public domains, and what little we behold appears as point-
less as unnecessary. There is a wide walk extending from
the Arch-Duke at Hyde-park corner to Buckingham Palace,
within the park rails ; it was wide, and not being at any
time thronged, was of sufficient latitude; yet on this walk
there are some thirty labourers employed in doubling its
width, and thus reducing the verdure which is the charm ot
the park. Therefore all beholders consider the change not
beneficial, but, on the contrary, ill-judged.
Another theatre of immense labour, continued now for
six months, perplexes and puzzles all frequenters of the parks.
It is perhaps not under the surveillance of our Chief Commis-
sioner ; but we cannot forbear from noticing the vandalism
which is there in daily perpetration. The beautiful expanse
of grounds lately thrown open to Kensington-gore led us
to hope that the splendid shrubs and trees with which 100
acres were studded, and the wide lawn, showing a con-
tinued slope of greensward for nearly half-a-mile to the
Cromwell-road, would have been preserved in their wood-
land beauty. Not so; this slope, which descends at a gra-
dient of 5 in 100 from the Gore-road southward, has been
opened for about 400 feet along that road. A dwarf paling
bounds it, over which are seen 100 or more carts daily 'de-
positing earth or rubbish, in order to carry out a level ter-
race over the rich slope. Already the mass deposited ex-
tends 200 feet from the park side, and rises to a height of
11 feet over the submerged mead. By signal posts it is
demarcated that the terrace or embaokmentie to be continued
further to the extent of 500 feet altogether, at which dis-
tance the level will overtop the new park by an elevation of
25 feet. The accumulation of earth has wholly buried
numerous magnificent shrubs (Lady Blessington's parterre
amongst them), the most thriving and luxuriant of all.
The forest trees have been preserved by upright cal-sons of
collars of dry brickwork, which may fur a few seasons sus-
pend total extinction ; still at a depth of 20 feet the strongest
tree must soon perish.
What poetic creation of terraces may be designed, we
know not ; but as viewed from above, nothing could
more effectually destroy an enchanting shrubbery—ready-
made, too. As viewed from below, nothing more hideous
could be interposed to mar a sylvan scene, which connected
a long vista with the groves of Kensington-gardens.
It may be that a Dutch, or German, or Italian hang-
ing-garden is meditated ; or, possibly, some Montagnes
Busses on an extensive scale, or Tarpeian rocks, or
Alpine imitations. Nothing can compensate for the de-
molition of shrubberies which were the, result of time and
taste and liberal outlay. Artifices sl unnatural as towering
rectilinear and graduated terraces. are utterly un- Englisk.
The Danes have made such mounds throughout this country,
and they are always regarded as the exploits of Goths or
Vandals.
Kensington-gardens shows us the first example o' flower
walks in the public parks. This improvement was made in
the present reign. King William 111. having purchased
the small angular strip, about 25 acres, built the Palace and
added it to Hyde-park.
Queen Anne it was who first planted the whole design as
we now have it. Queen Caroline, in the reign of George 1.,
formed the Serpentine, dividing the Palace grounds from
the open park by a sunken fosse and wall, thus adding 300
acres to the gardens or private grounds, the halm, now ex-
tending from the Bayswater-road to the powder magazine,
remaining identically as it was then formed.
Many an the changes of form and fashion in Hyde-park
since its first arissue by Henry VIII., whets it was part ut
I.thseseions of the Monastery of St. Peter, Westminster.
The drive has been ever changing; first from the central
ring to alongside Park-lane, then to the ma-gin of the Ser-
pettine, Now to the Kensington side. Rotteurow, the arena
for equestrianism of both sexes, is a creation of the present
reign ; the solid bridge of masonry, lice the dry cascade,
was built in the reign of George IV. ; the Knightsbridge
Barracks in that of George 111., when the guard-house far
infantry was also iutruded upon the very centre, the most
beautiful and sequestered portion of it.
When the lodge—falsely called the Ranger's-lodge—was
built is doabtfal ; but the interval between that enclosure
of about eight acres and the Infantry Barrack was fenced
oil' as a rummage or stackyard in the time of George 111.
These three reserves, ill kept and mean as they are, destroy
rite clifpleasing grounds. There is an open
and a
peculiarost to this park beyond all others.
:eye t
lightness these most
The prospect includes the Surrey-hills, and though only
moderately elevated, there is a lightness in the air savouring
of the DCIWBS.
It is high time that the ill-fa% oured buildings and hovels
of barracks, timber-sheds, and ranger's cottage patronage,
should give place to the requirements of the citizens ot
Loudon. If need be to provide a ruinous villa, with ten
acres of garden and meadow, for a favourite retired servant,
a penny subscription by the public would compass the pur-
chase in three months. The writer will undertake to sub-
stitute a freehold to that extent within seven miles of Lon-
do', in et cry sense more convenient and better, if his Grace
the Ranger will consent to the terms, and forego the nomi-
nation of a resident deputy. The occasion of repairing an
old blemish has now arrived, as the late occupant is de-
ceased, and no concession to public tastes and uses could be
more popular than the fission of these enclosures into a free
park.
Other points these are about this park which require in.-
;movement. In the angle next Kensington, the old brick
hovel, lately used as Light Covello Barracks, are a end
spectacle of decrepitude and bad taste. It ought to be re-
moved, if only to admit daylight. Lately, at the new
entrance, opposite Prince Albert's Road, as erected by Mr.
W. Jackson, a large quantity of earth was heaped, as if to
level she approach thence to the flower walk. These works
were begun under and by approval of the late Commis-
sioner. At present all these mounds are being carted
away, whether with a view to undo and reverse the original
design, or to close up those beautiful and well-placed gates,
does not appear. These and such vagaries in the proereos
or interception cf public works ought not to be incidental
to the changes of Government officials, but should be car-
ried out, as upon private estates, with firm, deliberative
system.—Building News.

WlLLs.—Tbe will and codicils of the Right lion.
Frederick Whitworth William, Bsron Aylmer, K.C.8.,
Admiral H.M. Navy, was proved in London on the 4th Atte',
by the executors. The personalty sworn under £12,000.
The bulk of his property he has kft to the successor to the
title.
toTtiesroe, are many legacies varying in atncuut front
as well as specific bcequests. The cameo given
him by the Pope, the piece of plate presented to him by the
late Duke of Cambridge, the order and badge of St. Fer-
dinand of Naples, the Turkish order and other medals
(excepting the order of the Bath, which will he returned to
the herald), together with all the undisposed of books,
plate, prints, maps, and the residue of his property, Le
bequeaths to Lord Aylmer, his successor. —The will and.
three codicils of Sir Henry Fitzlit rhert, Bart., of Tissington
Hall, Derby, vra. proved in £4O ,00 London on July 30, by the omit—
tors ; the personalty in England sworn under 0, and,
together with his freeholds and the estates in Jamaica, ig a,9
made liberal provisions for his large family, appoinctohuq.:ntbiost
son, Sir William Fitzllerbert, Bart., the residuary legatee.
The will is of great length, and bears date Mb February,
1853.—The will of Lord Clifford, of Chudleigh—
a
the Holy Roman Empire—was proved in London. by his
son Lord Clifford, the sole personalty,extentowri;llomeizdrtan.ubgenitdphiefla-ce, eu, s _ .
The will of Mr. Thomas Sheppard, bi Folk' °Cl,o°°.--
rhKiaee4lnsNnoVedioly-.
sex, Dr,0,000 personalty.—The
Hutchinson, whose s just been
Hams, of Cornwall,
wiillshooa,o 00.—of milrs
has
,isri'sLt
iLying-in
nt
institutions
sn
.residue:
and e r 1 3.
Iproperty'toth4 vel
—HNo* iszp.
i,t Salt; George's Ho.p.ital, Queen
igia°rlothttge
Society.—lllustrated London
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