We first went to see the kitchen-garden, which is upwards of a mile from the house. On our way to it, we descended to a hollow surface, and passed through scenery of a more open and varied description than that of the Berkhampstead approach. The timber trees were, if possible, grander than before: both oaks and beeches had straight clean trunks, often, we have little doubt, 50 ft. or 60 ft. high. The garden is situated on a steep bank, facing the south-east; the walls appear to have been built between forty and fifty years; but the hot-houses and pits seem of more recent construction. We found the head kitchen-gardener, Mr. Torbron, advantageously known at Kew, and by a paper on forcing cherries in the London Horticultural Society's Transactions, busily occupied in milking up that day's supply for the kitchen and the dessert. A large sheet of paper has a printed column down the left-hand margin, enumerating every description of kitchen-garden product, each article having a line ruled across the page; then there is a vertical column for every day in the month, headed as in the table below, with the days of the week. Fifty-two of these printed sheets are required for the year. The first thing the gardener does, is to enter in the table, under the day of the month, and day of the week, the articles he is about to send off; noting such things as are sent by weight or measure, by inserting their weight or measure after them; but simply inserting the number in figures when the articles are sent by number: thus: - The items being filled into the table, the next thing is to copy off on a slip of paper, the names and quantities of the articles sent, which paper is delivered as a bill of parcels by the man with the donkey-cart to the clerk of the kitchen. A similar plan is pursued in some other great places; but, instead of entering them in a table, they are entered in a journal, which is sent to the kitchen along with the articles, and brought back again to the gardener. If nothing is said or written by the clerk or cook, it is concluded that every thing entered for that day has been received safe, and is of a satisfactory quality.
