East Combe, near Blackheath; Dowager Countess of Buckinghamshire. - June 16. This is one of the most delightful places in the neighbourhood of London, though but little known. The house stands only a few yards from the public road, but the grounds are extensive and extremely varied. A very steep bank descends from the house, in the form of a beautiful lawn, varied, first, by flower-beds, next by groups of rare trees and shrubs, then an apparently dense mass of wood, beyond which is seen the windings of the Thames, continually varied by shipping. The Thames is sufficiently near to give the idea of its belonging to the place, and forming its boundary, and the bends of the river are seen lengthwise, rather than directly across. Such is the view from the principal garden front. The other view looks on a level lawn, varied by flowers, and terminating in fine old trees. A walk leads in this direction to a shady but airy avenue, on a level, an admirable place for recreation during the hottest weather of summer, and to a terrace walk which forms the circuit of the place. The taste of the owner is advantageously displayed on the lawn by the small size of the beds, circular or roundish, and their disposition into groups or constellations, which, as may easily be conceived, form a new combination with every change of the spectator. This is by far the most effective way to display flowers on a lawn, whether on a large scale or a small one. The little circles of flowers ought to be considered as trees and shrubs, and distributed over the surface, exactly on the same principle as trees are distributed over the surface of a park. The kitchen-garden we found well cropped, and the whole place in good order. Strawberries planted on a surface sloping to the south, at an angle of 45ﾦ; the soil being loamy, and the surface covered with flat tiles, ripen three weeks earlier than on a flat surface. Fig trees and morello cherries against walls are found to produce most fruit when only the main branches are laid in, and the small fruit-bearing shoots of the past year allowed to stand out from the wall. The paradise apple is here raised by cuttings, and the plants, treated like gooseberry bushes, produce enormous quantities of fruit, which, though not fit for the dessert, is useful for culinary purposes. Agapanthus umbellatus attains an extraordinary size in pots, which the gardener, Mr. Cockburn, attributes to his shifting the plants once a year, shaking off all the soil, removing the offsets, and replacing the plants in light rich soil quite loose, neither firming it with the hand nor by the pressure of water poured from a pot held as high as a man can reach. Annual flower seeds, and also potatoes, salading, and other articles, are raised on dung beds without sashes, mats being thrown over them, supported by hoops, only when extraordinary cold nights are anticipated. The Kew pine strawberry is here found to bear almost as well as Keen's seedling.
