Gardens -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; Parks -- England -- London
On the vine trellis is a curious old vine
with strongly scented flowers. All the plants which thrive in London
are well grown in the charming formal garden and along the old wall,
which is covered with delicious climbing plants. So luxuriously will
some flowers grow, that the hollyhocks from this garden took the prize
at the horticultural show held in the grounds of Holland House, in a
competition open to all the gardens in the Kingdom.
At Fulham there is a charming garden, with trees which would be
remarkable anywhere, and appear still more beautiful from their
proximity to London. These trees in the grounds of Broom House have
fared on the whole better than those at Fulham Palace, hard by. It is
separated from the Palace by the grounds now attached to the club of
Hurlingham. Of Hurlingham there is not much early history. Faulkner,
the authority for this district, writes in 1813: “Hurlingham Field is
now the property of the Earl of Ranelagh and the site of his house. It
was here that great numbers of people were buried during the Plague.”
The same authority mentions: “The Dowager Countess of Lonsdale has
an elegant house and gardens here in full view of the Thames,” and
Broom House is shown on Rocque’s map of 1757. The estate was bought
by Mr. Sulivan from the Nepean family in 1824, and his daughter, Miss
Sulivan, keeps up the garden with the utmost good taste and knowledge
of horticulture. The ailanthus, with a trunk 10 feet 4 inches in girth
at 4 feet from the ground, is probably one of the finest specimens in
England. The one in Fulham Palace garden is exactly the same girth, but
does not appear to be so lofty. The liquidamber is also a magnificent
tree, and the false acacia is quite as fine as the one in Fulham
Palace, and was probably planted at the same time. There are still
two cedars left, although the finest was blown down some years ago,
and the timber afforded panelling for a large room and many pieces of
furniture. Perhaps the most beautiful of the trees is the copper or
purple beech. Not only is it very tall and has a massive trunk (14 feet
6 inches at 2 feet from the ground), but the shape is quite perfect,
and its branches are furnished evenly all round. There are also good
evergreen oaks, elms, chestnuts and Scotch firs. There is a large
collection of flowering shrubs, which are in no way affected by the
smoky air. Standard magnolias, grandiflora, conspicua and stellata,
many varieties of the delightful autumn-flowering plant, the _Hibiscus
syriacus_, known to older gardeners as _Althæa frutex_, and recommended
under that name by Fairchild in 1722 as suited to London, _Cratægus
pyracantha_, _Choysia_, _Pyrus spectabilis_, and many other equally
delightful shrubs all appear most flourishing. These, together with
herbaceous plants and ornamental trees, well grouped in a garden of
good design, with the river flowing at the foot of it, make the grounds
of Broom House rank among the most attractive about London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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