Pepper Harrow Park, Lord Viscount Midleton, is a very fine place, many points of which reminded us of Broadlands; but the situation of the house, and the terrace walk on the high bank of the river Wey, are here far grander. The house is much too low, and, from being overtopped by the trees, it has but a poor effect. When the advantages of having lofty and well-lighted and ventilated rooms, and particularly lofty kitchens and bedrooms, and when the superior healthfulness of sleeping in a stratum of air considerably elevated above the ground in any given locality, are properly understood, no such mansion as that at Pepper Harrow will be built. There is a singular inconsistency, though it is not a very obvious one, in sleeping for perhaps twelve hours in an unchanged volume of air, while we think it necessary to have the air in the atmosphere in which we breathe during the other twelve hours of the twenty-four changed continually. Surely this changing of the air must be as necessary during the night as during the day. These observations do not apply more to the house at Pepper Harrow than they do to most other gentlemen's seats, and probably not so much so to it, as they would to many others; but still we make them here as they here arose in our mind, and we think they may be useful. No style of finishing in a room will ever compensate us for the want of ample dimensions. There are some remarkably fine trees in Pepper Harrow Park, a number of which, with the permission of Lord Midleton, and the assistance of his gardener, Mr. Giddings, we measured and noted down. There are a great many large old cedars, which, however, have chiefly taken the character of bushes. One of these is 73 ft. high; the diameter of the trunk at a foot from the ground is upwards of 6 ft., and of the space covered by its branches, 84 ft. Another is 75 ft. high; the trunk 7 ft. in diameter; and the diameter of the space covered by its branches is 102 ft. A larch lately cut down was 73 ft. high, and 4 ft. in diameter. There are red cedars from 30 ft. to 40 ft. high, and a holly from 65 ft. to 70 ft. high. The sweet-scented crab (Pyrus coronaria) thrives remarkably well, and has sown itself in abundance throughout the plantations. There are a liquidambar 50 ft. high, hemlock spruces about the same height, and a Quercus Phellos 65 ft. high; Turkey oaks 80 ft. high, bladder nut 35 ft. high, Cratï¾µgus punctata 33 ft. high; and a number of other large trees, including common oaks, elms, and beeches, which will be found duly registered in our Arboretum Britannicum. The kitchen-garden and flower-garden we found in excellent order, and all the crops good. The pines were particularly so; and also the grapes. In the pinery, four very large plants of Gloriosa superba were in seed; and some other ornamental plants were very finely grown. The system of watering practised in the kitchen-gardens here is worthy of notice. There are tanks distributed over the gardens, communicating with one another and with a head reservoir of liquid manure at the stables, and another near it of clean water, in such a manner as that every tank can be filled either with pure water, or liquid manure, or with a mixture of these, at pleasure. The pond at the stable, and the supply of pure water, are at the highest points, and all the tanks are on somewhat lower levels. The communication between the tanks is by underground pipes. From each tank, the water or liquid manure is either taken out with watering-pots, and distributed in the usual manner, or it is raised by a portable pump into a gutter formed of loose tiles, whence it is distributed over the surface of the garden in the manner done in irrigating grass lands. Two peach borders, extending along two sides of the garden, were in the act of being watered in this manner while we were there. We cannot help remarking here on the order and neatness which we observed in the walks, the edgings, the lawn, the back sheds, and, indeed, in every part of what was under the care of Mr. Giddings. [Peper Harow, Godalming, Surrey]
