The worst thing about Gunnersbury is the kitchen-garden. The soil is thin, on a gravelly bottom, and the compartments are interspersed with fruit trees, which neither bear fruit nor permit the soil beneath to bear good crops of well-flavoured vegetables. In consequence of the compartments being thus occupied, the wall borders are obliged to be cropped, and the trees, consequently, are rendered little better than useless. All these matters, however, are undergoing substantial reforms by Mr. Mills, well known to be one of the best practical gardeners of the day. In the course of the twelve or thirteen months which he has been here, he has not only brought the place into good general order, but has effected most extensive permanent improvements. The gardener's house is very properly placed in the kitchen-garden, detached, in a high and dry situation, and not surrounded by trees or shrubs, as is too often the case: it has a kitchen, back kitchen, and parlour on the ground floor, and three good bed-rooms over. Nine gardener's houses in ten are rendered unhealthy by being placed behind the hot-houses in damp situations; by being, when detached, closely surrounded by trees or shrubs; or by having the bed-rooms on the ground floor. Nothing can be a greater mistake on the part of masters, than to suppose that servants can do their duty when not rendered thoroughly comfortable. A Villa between Gunnersbury and Brentford has a kitchen-garden which faces the road. The coping to the walls of this garden is formed by a vine trained along the upper edge of the wall in the manner which Mr. Gorrie (p. 464.) recommends to be done with the Ayrshire rose.
