Augnst 28, 187S. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



157 



ham, a Scotch gardener originally — a farm of i-.H acres with- 

 out a tree or hedge, and though such a state of things may be 

 eminently unpicturesque, it must also be admitted it is emi- 

 nently practical, and in this age of dear food and dear labour 

 every inch of ground must be made productive, and man and 

 horse power must be economised to the utmost. The day is 

 coming when much of the labour of our farms will be done by 

 eteam, and for the profitable application of this fields will 

 have to be made larger, hedgerows and pollards fewer. We 

 should be sorry to see our picturesfine winding country lanes 

 give place to hard straight lines and wire fence?, but there is 

 many a stragghng division between fields, choked with weeds 

 and brambles, and useful neither as a fence nor shelter, which 

 will have to be improved off the face of the earth. We omitted 

 to mention in connection with the Conifers in the park that the 

 largest Pinus insignis is 4.5 feet high ; this escaped the severe 

 frosts of the winter of 1860-61, but seventy-five trees of the 

 same species were killed. 



The old Chestnut to which we have already referred still 

 exists, and though it has thrown-up a number of offshoots, it 

 is, as may readily be supposed from its great age, in a very 

 dilapidated condition. We were informed that there are his- 



torical records of it as early as the middle of the eighth century, 

 and Gilpin says that tradition relates that it was a lioundary 

 tree even as long since as the reign of King Stephen — that is, 

 in the first half of the twelfth century, and if so, it must have 

 been old even then, for saplings are not selected as boundary 

 marks. When Gilpin saw it in 180M, Lord Ducie had lately 

 released it from the garden-wall which pressed iipon it, and 

 enlivened it by the application of fresh earth to its roots. 

 Even as late as 1788 it had produced great quantities of Chest- 

 nuts, small, but sweet and well-flavoured. Large as is this 

 tree, it is far inferior in size to that upon Mount Etna, called 

 the " Castagna de Cento Cavalli," or " The Chestnut tree of a 

 hundred horses." It was 204 feet in girth, whilst that at 

 Tortworth is not recorded to have exceeded (10 feet. Atkyns, 

 historian of Gloucestershire, writing in 1721, says there is a 

 remarkable Chestnut tree growing in the garden of the 

 manor-house, which tradition says was there in the reign of 

 King John. In 1721 it was 19 yards in circumference, and 

 seemed to be several trees incorporated, but this is not the fact„ 

 with other young growing-up. The ancient manor-house was 

 near the church. Mr. Strutt (" Sylva Britannica"), gives an 

 account of this tree which substantially agrees with the^au- 



THE TORTWORTH CHESTNDT. 



thorities we have quoted, together with an illustration which 

 we reproduce, as it conveys a tolerably accurate idea of the 

 tree at the present day. 



The fruit and kitchen garden, including a walled orchard of 

 three acres, covers between nine and ten acres, and is a model 

 of good keeping, while the trees, both on the walls and in the 

 borders, are healthy and fruitful, neither over-luxuriant on the 

 one hand, nor, on the other, presenting those signs of decrepitude 

 and premature old age so frequently seen in gardens of this 

 description. There are about seventy kinds of Apples, dessert 

 and cnlinary, most of them trained in a bush form, branching 

 at a yard from the ground. Nothing could be better than 

 their appearance and that of the Pear trees, of which the 

 varieties grown are equally numerous. Mr. Cramb has paid 

 great attention to the selection of varieties suitable to the soil 

 and locality, and as soon as it is discovered that any kind, 

 whether new or old, is unsatisfactory, it has to give place to 

 another. The result has been that we have here a choice and 

 well-approved collection. The Pears, Plums, Cherries, and 

 other wall trees, it need hardly be said, are excellently managed. 

 In the open quarters standard Plum trees are also grown in 

 rows between Currants and Gooseberries, whilst the borders by 

 the side of the kitchen garden walks opposite the walls are 

 occupied with bush Pears and Plums. On one of the walls are 



a number of Mr. Rivers' new Peaches and Nectarines on trial ; 

 and in connection with these Mr. Cramb mentions that for 

 ^ears he had been much troubled with black fly, and that he 

 had found Pooley's tobacco powder the only effectual remedy. 

 The Apricot wall has a south-west aspect, but owing to the 

 excessive rains from the Bristol Channel the crop proved un- 

 satisfactory ; a glass coping was then put up, but the result was 

 no better, and now a hundred-feet run has been covered with a. 

 glass case 6 feet wide and 11 feet high at back, and a crop has 

 been secured, as well as the certainty of others in the future. 



In the two Peach houses and five vineries there are splendid 

 crops. Mr. Cramb has worked Lady Downe's and West's St. 

 Peter's on the Black Hamburgh stock, and finds that thus 

 treated the berries of the former are not so liable to scald 

 as when the Vine is on its own roots. Ho has likewise simi- 

 larly worked the Muscat of Alexandria. There are, besides, 

 two Fig houses, an orchard house, Melon and Cucumber houses, 

 a Pine stove, and several plant houses and pits well filled and 

 cared for. Mr. Cramb's house, in front of which is a small 

 geometric flower garden, offers a marked contrast to the small, 

 ill-ventilated dwellings which are still often found squeezed 

 into some obscure corner of the garden, though happily their 

 number is now growing fewer. It is spacious, with largo rooms 

 and plenty of them, and provided with evei^ requisite accom- 



