1870.] ORCHARD-HOUSE AT CHISWICK. 391 



of his attached friend Mr Thomas Moore, to which we are indebted 

 for a few of the circumstances herein narrated. Ingenio stat sine morte 

 decus — The honours of genius are eternal. 



THE ORCHARD-HOUSE AT CHISWICK. 



This house is just now an object of considerable interest to fruit-culti- 

 vators, and its condition demands that a notice of it should be given 

 in this form. It stands like an oasis amid the dismantled and wrecked 

 appearances around it, caused by the recent abandonment of a portion 

 of the ground ; and Mr A. F. Barron, the superintendent of the Chis- 

 wick Gardens, deserves much praise for preserving some of the glories 

 of the past of these famed gardens in such a cheering aspect as this 

 house presents. 



The house is a light, commodious, and somewhat new erection, 

 about 100 feet in length from north to south by 30 feet in width, the 

 height corresponding to the latter. It is of a broad span form, with a 

 walk 5 feet in width down the centre, and two side-walks running 

 parallel with it, which are continued round the house. On either side 

 of the main walk are broad borders in which the trees are planted out, 

 and round the house is another border 5 feet in width. A series of 

 wooden uprights, placed at intervals along the outside verge of the 

 two central borders, serve to support the roof, without in any way giving 

 the interior of the house a heavy appearance, or obstructing the view. 

 The usually monotonous appearance of the interior of many of our 

 large fruit-houses is in this instance admirably neutralised by means 

 of narrow bands of pale-blue paint running in an upward direction on 

 the main supports and rafters of the building : just enough to give the 

 house a light and elegant appearance. Ventilation is provided for in 

 the ridge of the roof, by means of a wooden fiat on either side which 

 opens outwards in a raised form not unlike the outspread wings of a 

 bird. This is worked by a simple and easily-managed contrivance, 

 which, without being elaborate and expensive, answers admirably, and 

 is both cheap and good. The outside walls are composed of one-half 

 boarding and one-half glazed lights, and when an abundance of air is 

 required, all or any of these can be opened outwards at the bottom, 

 being fixed by hinges at the top. So much, then, for the structural 

 arrangements of this house. 



On the main borders all the trees are planted out. There is a line 

 of standard Peaches and Plums on 6-foot stems, planted along the middle 

 10 feet apart, the Peaches predominating; and on either side of these 



