short, is talked of, and we all know how proud Mr. P. is of
the share he had in the architecture of the house. The
gardener went there on wages which he felt to be low; but
which he trusted would be raised as he displayed his talents.
With the most honourable feelings he declined asking for an
advance while the great works he had in hand were going on,
least it might be considered as a sort of threat to leave in the
midst of them; but when the whole was completed, he then
respectfully represented to his employer that he found great
difficulty in supporting himself, his wife, and three children on
forty pounds a year, and eleven shillings a week board wages,
for he had no perquisites, not even milk or a pig. The
magnificent and generous nobleman, not more rich than
pious, after several weeks' consideration offered an addition of
127. a year.
Such is the liberality of a man who is said to
have upwards of 100,000l. a-year. I make no reflections on
the subject, but I think it is a fit case to be recorded in the
Gardener's Magazine for the benefit of its practical readers.
Had this gardener not been an honourable minded man, and
enthusiastic in his profession, he never would have gone on
for so many years with such extensive works, and with so
paltry a remuneration. But he was wrapped up in the plans
he was executing, and fancied that while erecting a column
to his own fame as a gardener, he was also laying the surest
foundation for an increase of salary, and, in short, for rendering
his situation comfortable and permanent. At the moment,
however, when he thought of beginning to reap the fruits of
his labours, he was politely swept away from the place where
he had spent his best years, and made his greatest exertions;
and the small increase of salary that was denied him was
more than included in the wages of his successor.
Had this
gardener not been an honest man, he might, out of the
thousands a year that passed through his hands, in the mul-
tifarious payments of from 250 to 300 men weekly, easily have
helped himselt. Is not such treatment enough to tempt men
to dishonesty? and is it not astonishing that gentlemen, when
they hire servants, do not take these things into account in
adjusting their remuneration? In a word, there is no class
of servants so ill paid as gardeners, and none, who from their
general good conduct, and the long study and attention
required to excel in their profession, deserve to be so well paid.
But I am confounding general views with the relation of a
particular case, and shall, therefore, conclude for the present, by
expressing a hope, that this case will teach them
trust to the gratitude or generosity of their employers for that
which they are entitled to receive from them as matter of

never to

right. But you shall hear from me again on this subject before I send you any plans of gardener's houses.

Formosa Cottage, Holloway, 10th February, 1826.

Yours, very truly,

I. P. BURNARD.

ART. XIV. On the Beurré Spence and other new Pears, and on the art of keeping Fruit. By W. BRADDICK, Esq. F.H.S. of Boughton Mount, Kent.

Dear Sir,

In the account of new pears planted by me on Coxheath, as published by you in the first number of the Gardener's Magazine, there is an omission of the word Spence, after the word Beurré. As it cost me much trouble to obtain possession of a bud of this fine pear, I feel desirous that this omission should not go uncorrected, in order that the pear may be more generally known: the more especially as it has ripened well on espalier and standard trees, both in Surrey and Kent, which inclines me to think that it will prove a valuable acquisition to our fruit growers. Its history is as follows:- About seven or eight years ago, when I was just going to undertake my annual journey to the Continent, for the purpose of collecting buds of new fruits, my much esteemed and valued friend, Roger Wilbraham, Esq., happened to call on me; in the course of conversation we spoke of the advantages which posterity would derive from the labours of those horticulturists of the present day, who are now employed in raising new fruits, through the knowledge which is pretty generally disseminated of the sexual intercourse of plants. Mr. Wilbraham said, that it would be advantageous to discard all the bad, and to make a judicious selection of a moderate number of good table fruits; the time, labour, trouble, difficulty, and expence which would attend the bringing this matter about, owing to the many thousands of new fruits yearly coming forward, was then spoken of, as it is supposed that not more than two or three per cent. of any number of new fruits raised from seed, turn out to be superior in goodness to the parents from whence the seed is derived. Mr. Wilbraham then suggested to me that I should ask such amateurs of new fruits as I might visit during my intended journey, which of all the fruits raised by each individual were esteemed the best, and

confine my collection to sorts preferred. Upon my afterwards putting this question to M. Von Mans, professor of chemistry, agriculture, and rural economy, at the University of Louvain, who had raised 80,000 new pears, he very laconically replied, "Monsieur Braddick, that depends on taste;" offering me at the same time, with a grace peculiar to our continental neighbours, a pinch of snuff out of an elegant box, which he said was presented to him by the king of Würtemberg, for a new pear which he had raised, and named la Roi de Würtemberg, on account of that king's liking it. I then asked him, if his own taste was called upon to decide the question, to which of all his new pears he would give the preference; he immediately replied, with much vivacity, "The Beurré Spence," and added, "this fruit, to my taste, is inestimable, and has no competitor."

I obtained from the learned professor a letter addressed to his gardener; he at the same time gave me leave to take buds out of his garden, which was fourteen miles from Louvain; upon my presenting M. V. M.'s letter to his gardener, a Walloon, I found great difficulty in making him understand me; he, however, readily gave me buds; but, as it appeared two years after, upon my fruiting those buds in England, the pear which he named Beurré Spence turned out to be the Gros Dillan, another new pear, very fine, and very large, fit for an espalier. Upon discovering that I had not yet got possession of the Beurré Spence, I went to Louvain again, and at length succeeded in establishing that pear in England. As soon as I fruited it, I sent specimens of the fruit, with a great many other new pears, to the Horticultural Society. Mr. Turner, the under secretary, pronounced it to be the very best of all the new Flemish pears yet raised; to which I have to add, that I accord with professor Van Mons and Mr. Turner, in my opinion of its merits, it being in my estimation the very best table fruit that we at present possess, for its season, which is from the middle of October to the middle of November. I gave buds or grafts of this pear to Mr. Young, Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Ronalds, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Masters, Mr. Knevett, and many other nurserymen and gardeners, of whom I presume plants by this time may be had.

As I do not like to send you a barren letter, I herewith forward you specimens of two other new pears, which have heretofore been exhibited by me at a meeting of the Horticulture Society.

Beurré Pentacost. (Good. Cond.)

Poire d'Ananas. This pear is nearly allied in appearance

and flavour to the Present de Malines, and Passe Colmar. The two pears now sent grew against a west wall, in my garden at Thames Ditton, in Surrey. (Excellent. Cond.)

I have kept back those pears as long as I conveniently could, in order to try the keeping quality of the fruit against the Poire d'Auch, heretofore our best keeping pear. A specimen of this last I send, that you may compare them together. It is scarcely treating these pears with fair play, to tumble them about before tasting, at this season of the year, as such usage is almost certain of deteriorating their flavour, by bringing on fermentation into their juice, which will render them mealy. To keep fruits well, they should be preserved in an equal dry temperature, under the fermenting point, from whence they should only be brought just at the time of using. This my experience teaches, and acting upon this principle, I have prepared the fruit room in my new habitation, for my choice keeping fruit, thirty-two feet under the surface of the earth, in the solid dry rock; the foundation being laid thirty-three feet and a half above the level of the spring in the well, a few yards off. The stone which was quarried out of these three stories of cellars, was all used in the building, and cost less than an equivalent of bricks at fifteen shillings per thousand.

Respectfully, I am,

Boughton Mount,

March 1. 1826.

Dear Sir, &c.

JOHN BRADDICK.

ART. XV. Remarks on the Constitution and Administration of the London Horticultural Society. By a Fellow of the Society.

Sir,

I CONGRATULATE you very sincerely on the undertaking a Gardener's Magazine, which, if conducted with common care, and some spice of impartiality, will be as amusing as instructing to amateur gardeners like myself. I am not given to authorship, and have some hesitation in putting pen to paper, when I consider that it is to be printed; but the fact is, you have won my heart by the remark in your first number, on the laying out of the garden of the Horticultural Society of Chiswick; if the term " laying out" may, with any thing like decent propriety, be applied to such an arrangement of straight walks and kidney-shaped clumps, as are displayed in this garden of the richest and most highly patronized

society in England. I have a deal to say on the subject of the society, and I hope that I shall have the good fortune from time to time to be permitted to occupy a spare page or two in your Magazine. The society has done and will do much good; but, like most of these companies and societies it has the seeds of its own corruption within it "there is something rotten in the state of Denmark." I trust that notwithstanding you are a member, you will hear both sides, and freely admit the remarks of each.

The greatest benefit and the greatest evil to the concern is the secretary; benefit, because he is indefatigable in the establishment and management; his whole time, care, and attention is devoted to the furtherance of it; but then comes the evil-- the society receives the benefit of his care, time, and attention for nothing— and this to me is a great evil. Shall we not fall into the same error as other societies who have been patronized by honorary secretaries? Is not the society accepting too much? Seeing how rich it is, would it not be much wiser if all its officers, except those whose services are professedly of an honorary nature, were paid? The objection to the contrary is, that when this is not done, the individual has claims on it, which, from being undefined, are always dangerous. How can the different members with any grace gainsay the wishes of one who has done so much for them? How can the distribution of this patronage, or the donation of that packet of seeds, or that plant, be denied to him who has been such a benefactor? As far as I am convinced, and as my knowledge goes, I should say, that though Mr. Knight was the king, the secretary must, to all who dabble in the arrangement of the interior, be considered as the "viceroy over him." Is he not omnipotent in the council in the committee of drawings. -in the garden committee and in short, in every thing? Suppose him to give offence to any member, to whom is that member to complain? Will the council venture to decide against the secretary?

Now you must not fancy for a moment that I am disinclined towards our secretary, or the society, far from it. I only mention these things for the benefit of the former, and the well being of the latter. At present it is going on swimmingly. Government, it is said, has, or is about to bestow, a large sum of money for the furtherance of its objects; and, as this is the case, the concern belongs to the public in some measure; and as such, all difficulty or delicacy as to observation is removed. It has been a matter of as much surprise as regret to find, that with such a vast annual subscriptionand a subscription of some thousands of pounds for the