In the autumn of last year the writer of the following sketches was called upon to contribute some account of London Gardening for insertion in a general Guide Book to the Metropolis. Finding, however, that the subject was too large to be satisfactorily dealt with in the narrow compass necessarily devoted to it in that volume, it was determined that the present fuller and more detailed description should be prepared, and issued separately; the Editor of the larger work condensing into its pages a portion of the materials comprised in this.<br><br>No other book of the kind here attempted being yet in existence, it has been thought that the numerous admirers of gardening who visit the metropolis would be glad to possess a manual like the present, which professes to indicate what is most worth seeing around London in the way of landscape features, horticulture, and the various useful and ornamental structures which fall within the province of the garden architect. The whole of the information now conveyed is drawn either from actual observation, or from the most authentic sources. And the author wishes gratefully to acknowledge the liberality with which he has, in every case, been permitted to inspect the gardens described. The necessity for preventing a book of this sort from becoming too voluminous has alone deterred him from noticing many other places with which he is familiar, and from giving a wider range to his researches.<br><br>Whatever may be the omissions of the book, and the brevity with which some of the places are referred to, it is hoped that it will present a tolerable correct and comprehensive view of the gardening of the present day, in all its more remarkable characteristics. To do full justice to such a theme would of course demand a work equal in bulk to a modern cyclopœdia.