Excerpt from La Mortola: A Short Description of the Garden of Thomas Hanbury, Esq.

Which - here 5 31 feet above the sea-level - turns round a well wooded ledge of rocks and leads into a narrow chasm in the nummulitic limestone, rising on the other side to the village of Mortola. Below, on the coast - line, the nummulitic rock stretches forward as a sharp-jagged ridge into the sea, and forms the farther side of the east bay of Mentone. The valley above the bridge cuts through the property of Mr. Thomas Hanbury, who has built the schoolhouse mentioned above for the villages of Mortola, Ciotti, and Grimaldi. The road passes by the entrance-gate of this gentleman's property just below the graceful little church Of La Mortola, whose campanile may be seen from a great distance. From the entrance-gate - 338 feet above the level Of the sea the gardens lead down an incline of about 19 3 feet to the Palazzo Orengo, and then again in a gentle slope to the sea. Along the coast there are few practicable paths, and these are frequented only by smugglers and coast-guardsmen. This property be longed in former times to the noble family Orengo of Venti miglia, the palazzo being then a modest edifice built on stony ground and surrounded by a thin growth Of Olives the position, however, being always a splendid one. The present owner has made it his study since the year 1867 to collect an endless number of plants, and without changing the former characteristics of the landscape he has made for himself an original and unique garden. He who looks for fountains, curiously-cut hedges, kiosques, art fully-formed paths, grottoes, and gay ribbon gardening, will be dis appointed; but the garden is rich in stately groups of trees, and in wonderful and lovely flowers and foliage. It is a peculiarly interesting study to find out which plants will flourish best in this dry climate, and in a soil which is anything but fertile. Mr. Han bury and his clever gardeners have managed, by means of their widespread connections, to carry on a series of experiments with plants from all parts of the world. The surface of the garden covers about forty-nine acres. From the Cross of La Mortola on the Corniche road down to the rocks on the sea-coast, and from the Old Roman road (via Julia Augusta)1 up to the eastern slopes of the property, the ground is so diverse in character that a total description of the whole can hardly be given.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.