1870.] GARDEN RECORDS. 409 



grown are the Brown Turkey and the White Marseilles. There are other varie- 

 ties, but they are not so much relied on as these. This house, in the early part 

 of the summer especially, is a great treat to the visitors at Gunnersby. 



The Peach-wall is 140 yards in length, and is covered with a lean-to range of 

 glass 10 feet in height at the back by 5 in width. Here a gathering is always 

 made by the last week in May or the first week in June. The leading Peaches 

 are Grosse Mignonne, Bellegarde, Violet Hative, and others ; of Nectarines, 

 Elruge, Roman, and Violette Hative. Enormous crops of fine fruit have been 

 the order this season. 



There are two nice Cucumber -houses, one for summer and one for winter 

 work, and from these fruit can be cut each day in the year. For winter work, 

 a good variety, known as Volunteer, is a great favourite. Melons are not 

 largely grown, as this fruit is not very highly esteemed on the Baron's table. 

 The new Burghley Park green flesh appears to be a good variety. 



The kitchen-garden is in keeping in all its general features with such a place. 

 The Plum wall is a fine feature, and includes a good number of varieties ; the 

 leading kinds are Green Gage, Golden Drop, and Jeffersons. Pear-trees can be 

 seen in great numbers, trained in the pyramidal form, but with the branches 

 brought down in a pendant form, as is common in some of the French gardens. 

 The large collection comprises all the leading kinds, and some three years ago Mr 

 Forsyth cut down something like 200 fine old standard Hazel Pear trees, and 

 grafted on them the best sorts obtainable at the Royal Horticultural Gardens 

 at Chiswick ; so there will be no lack of Pears by-and-by. 



Varied collections of plants are grown at Gunnersby, and there are several 

 houses for their cultivation ; but they are used for furnishing the residence 

 here and the London mansions. Exceptions to this are seen in a small but 

 very choice collection of Orchids in excellent health — a house of stove and hand- 

 some foliaged plants, and two span-roofed houses for the same. Among the hitter 

 are many kinds of Coleus, especially of the golden-leaved varieties, which prove 

 of great value for furnishing purposes. There is a span-roofed house for the cul- 

 ture of Pelargoniums ; and there is another house of similar construction divided 

 by a partition into two parts ; the roof of one of these is entirely covered by a 

 fiue plant of Stephanotis floribunda, which produces a vast number of flowers. 

 On the 16th of June last Mr Forsyth sent to the Baron's residence in Piccadilly 

 200 trusses of blooms, and vast numbers are cut during the blooming time. In 

 the other division Lapagerias were planted out ; a fine plant of the red variety 

 was in full bloom, and the beautiful white variety was rapidly opening its flowers. 

 They are both planted out in pit-beds 6 feet in length, in a soil composed of 

 rough peat mixed with charcoal, and plenty of drainage underneath. They have 

 an abundance of water, but the nature of the soil, and the drainage beneath, 

 causes it to pass away from the roots very freely. There is also grown here a 

 very fine collection of Azaleas for house-decoration in London, and the supply of 

 cut flowers for the same purpose is something enormous. Every morning a cart 

 is despatched to London with plants, vegetables, flowers, and fruit. 



The flower-gardens and pleasure-grounds are charming in the extreme ; and 

 the former are so disposed that only glimpses of them can be gained from the 

 front terrace of the house. The grounds are finely wooded ; magnificent Elms 

 tower up aloft with the growth of many years in their majestic proportions. 

 Thorns, Sycamores, and Beech bear them company, and some grand Cedars of 

 Lebanon spread out enormous spreading branches from colossal trunks ; and 

 underneath the Cedars and other trees are verdant carpets of evergreen Ivy. 

 Dotted about are fine specimen coniferous plants, Magnolias, and other trees, 



