The kitchen garden and the orchard should be in the rear of the house.  The former should not be too visible from the windows and the latter is on many accounts better at the extremity of the grounds than close to the house, as we too often find it.  A native of high rank should keep as much out of sight as possible every thing that would remind a visitor that any portion of the ground was intended rather for pecuniary profit than the immediate pleasure of the owner.  The people of India do not seem to be sufficiently aware that any sign of parsimony in the management of a large park or pleasure ground produces in the mind of the visitor an unfavorable impression of the character of the owner.  I have seen in Calcutta vast mansions of which every little niche and corner towards the street was let out to very small traders at a few annas a month.  What would the people of England think of an opulent English Nobleman who should try to squeeze a few pence from the poor by dividing the street front of his palace into little pigeon-sheds of petty shops for the retail of petty wares?  Oh!  Princes of India “reform this altogether.”  This sordid saving, this widely published parsimony, is not only not princely, it is not only not decorous, it is positively disgusting to every passer-by who himself possesses any right thought or feeling.

The Natives seem every day more and more inclined to imitate European fashions, and there are few European fashions, which could be borrowed by the highest or lowest of the people of this country with a more humanizing and delightful effect than that attention to the exterior elegance and neatness of the dwelling-house, and that tasteful garniture of the contiguous ground, which in England is a taste common to the prince and the peasant, and which has made that noble country so full of those beautiful homes which surprize and enchant its foreign visitors.

The climate and soil of this country are peculiarly favorable to the cultivation of trees and shrubs and flowers; and the garden here is at no season of the year without its ornaments.

The example of the Horticultural Society of India, and the attractions of the Company’s Botanic Garden ought to have created a more general taste amongst us for the culture of flowers.  Bishop Heber tells us that the Botanic Garden here reminded hint more of Milton’s description of the Garden of Eden than any other public garden, that he had ever seen.[126]

There is a Botanic Garden at Serampore.  In 1813 it was in charge of Dr. Roxburgh.  Subsequently came the amiable and able Dr. Wallich; then the venerable Dr. Carey was for a time the Officiating Superintendent.  Dr. Voigt followed and then one of the greatest of our Anglo-Indian botanists, Dr. Griffiths.  After him came Dr. McLelland, who is at this present time counting the teak trees in the forests of Pegu.  He was succeeded by Dr. Falconer who left this country but a few months ago.  The garden is now in charge of Dr. Thomson who is said to be an enthusiast in his profession.  He explored the region beyond the snowy range I think with Captain Cunningham, some years ago.  With the exceptions of Voigt and Carey, all who have had charge of the garden at Serampore have held at the same time the more important appointment of Superintendent of the Company’s Botanic Garden at Garden Beach.