Octobor 23, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AUD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



311 



When the ground has been warmed by being under glass for a 

 few days, and the spot which is to receivo the Melon plants 

 turned over every evening so as to bury the heat, tlie plants, 

 which have been raised elsewhere, and which have been trained 

 to ft single stem, may be put in. A three-feet vinery might 

 possibly hold two plants abreast. If only one, the laterals 

 would have more room to ramble. The heat being economised 

 by early shutting-up and by nightly coverings, I think that in 

 ordinary seasons first-rate Melons might be obtained. — G. S. 



AMONG THE SCOTTISH BRAES, LOCHS, AND 

 MOUNTAINS.— No. 5. 



" It's the rheumatiz— gardeners always has it." So replied 

 a sinewj- man, over whom full seventy winters had passed, and 

 of whom I inquired what compelled him to walk down Melrose 

 high street leaning on two sticks. Now, it is true that gar- 

 deners are very commonly afflicted with rheumatism — sudden 

 transitions from the steamy air of hothouses to cold winds in 

 the open garden, are apt to induce the disease ; but the more 

 avoidable acts of trainiug wall trees during inclement weather, 

 and putting on, whilst hot from labour, coats and vests which 

 have been thrown carelessly on to wet ground, are far more in- 

 ducive of the disabling disease — a fine should be imposed upon 

 such thoughtless doings. 



Liable as gardeners are to rheumatism, they are long-lived 

 professionals. No other evidence need be adduced than the 

 lists of applicants for the pensions of the Gardeners' Benevo- 

 lent Institution. Each applicant's age is stated, and rarely is 

 there one who has not seen seve'uty years or more. But we 

 have other evidence of their longevity. Switzer, Philip Miller, 

 James Lee, and John Abercrombie each lived eighty years ; 

 William Speechley, eighty-six ; and a long list indeed would 

 he that which included the garden celebrities who lived to be 

 seventy. 



The four-scorers are indeed very many, and among them 

 were the parents of Itobert Burns. Side by side lie they in 

 Alloway kirkyard ; and it would have been more fitting if he 

 had rested also in that " God's acre " immortalised by his 

 verse rather than where he does rest — at Dumfries. And so 

 thought the old Ayrshire man who pointed out the very window 

 in the kirk's wall through which Tarn o' Shanter spierod at 

 Maggie with the shorten sark ! " He'd a lived langer had he 

 ne'er been a gauger," said my guide ; and may be he would, 

 and had followed his father's calling, for, as my old " rheuma- 

 tiz " acquaintance at Melrose concluded, " it's healthfu' ne'er- 

 theless." Perhaps Micbael Scott the wizard thought so too, 

 and, to keep his familiar in health as well as occupation, 

 handed him the spade to divide Eildon Hill into three equal 

 sections. The familiar was no geometrician, and had not suc- 

 ceeded even as late as August of the present year. 



The said Michael Scott is said to have written as follows : — 

 " To choose out a place fitting for the erection of a convenient 

 habitation, first single out a convenient place or soil where you 

 mean to erect your edifice, not far distant from some running 

 river, fountain, or other water, and bordering near some thicket, 

 or shadowed with Elms or other trees, for they are a very 

 delectable object to the eye ; for they many times besides 

 break the heat of the sun and the rage of the winds, and are 

 convenient both for shelter and sight. So you must be regard- 

 ful that the air be not corrupt and damp by the exhalations of 

 fogs, sucked up by the sun from fens and other low and rotten 

 ground. For the air is a great preserver or drawer-on of health 

 or sickness, and hath a powerful hand in the state of every 

 man's body, and is the cause of many dangerous diseases and 

 much continued health." 



If Michael Scott wrote that he was four centuries in advance 

 of his age, and no wonder he was suspected of wizardry. But 

 he was a man of taste also, for he adds, " Let the foundation 

 be upon dry and sand}' ground of some fit elevation, witli the 

 windows towards the sun's rising, except the prospect otherwise 

 persuade you. 



" All these things being effected, compass in a plot of ground 

 convenient for a garden, which, stored with a variety of sweet 

 herbs and flowers, yields much content and profit, both for the 

 pleasure and health of man." 



This extract is from " The Philosopher's Banquet, Newly 

 Furnished and Decked Forth." All authorities say it is a 

 translation of Michael Scott's work, and I bow to their de- 

 cision ; but the translation before me was made in 1033 by 

 " W. B., Esquire," " the third edition ;" and I opine my ex- 



tract savours of " the many several dishes that in the former 

 service were neglected," mentioned on the title-page. If the 

 dish I put before the readers of "our Journal" was really and 

 truly written by Michael Scott, then he him a wizard, for he 

 set down in legible MS. thoughts that first came into other 

 men's heads three centuries after he and his book of mystic 

 lore were entombed in Melrose Abbey. 



Sir Walter Scott, though ho never saw what he commends, 

 tells us to see that abbey by the " pale mo >nli lit," and I did 

 so see it ; and I fixed, to my own satisfaction at least, where 

 " the herbary and kale garden" were,» and pictured its white- 

 robed monks sending from the walls " red Pears of Busie," in 

 return for the trout just received from their cowled brethren of 

 Dryburgh, for a famous stream had they. Those Pears and 

 some others were thus noted by one who knew them well: — 



"During the monkish ages the greater part of our Apples 

 and Pears were introduced to Scotland from France and the 

 Netherlands, and cultivated near the abbeys by the ecclesias- 

 tics; and, from the old trees to be met with at such places, it 

 appears that the Charuock or Drummond, the Crawford, the 

 Christie, and the Longueville (a French Pear), were favourites 

 with the ghostly fathers. It is also not improbable that the 

 art of raising fruit trees from seed was at that period known 

 and practised. This conjecture is strengthened by the fact, 

 that in almost every very old orchard one or tsvo trees are to 

 be met with which are to be found nowhere else, except where 

 the merit of the fruit has attracted the attention of nursery- 

 men, by whose means they have been transfern d in later times 

 to other orchards ; for instance, the Bed Pear of Busie, a beauti- 

 ful, small, and good early Pear, is enly found on young trees, 

 except in the orchard at Busie, about a mile north of Perth, 

 where the original tree is still standing, though in a state of 

 much decay. The Benvie is more extensively cultivated ; the 

 original tree, or rather a part of its remains, is still alive in a 

 small orchard on a farm of that name, to the east of Rossie 

 Priory, in the Carse of Gowrie. Pear Duncan, a beautiful Pear, 

 little known, till very lately was only to be found at Gourdie 

 Hill, the seat of Patrick Mathew, Esq.. in the parish of Errol; 

 that gentleman has given it deserved celebrity; it takes its 

 name of Duncan from a former proprietor of Gourdie Hill. 

 The Flower of Monorgan is found nowhere but in the extensive 

 orchard of that name. The Black Pear of Bog Mill is only 

 found in the orchard there; and the Busked Lady, and Pow 

 Meg, are peculiar to the orchard of Port Allan, on the north 

 bank of the Tay, opposite to Newburgh. The Elcho Pear seems 

 to be an accidental seedling, now cultivated at the old castle of 

 Elcho. And many varieties of inferior value are to be found in 

 almost every very old orchard, whose qualities have not pro- 

 cured for them any culture beyond the precincts of their original 

 habitation. Every orchard of long standing has its own Pear 

 Diel, and no one Diel is like another ; neither docs any orchard- 

 ist covet the Diel of his neighbour." 



I followed the path round the base of the Eildon Hills, along 

 which doubtless many such interchanges as I have noted were 

 made ; and I crossed by the ford that they crossed, and on the 

 hillside beyond, on an arched gateway, lead gladly this in- 

 scription : — 



" Hoc pomarium, sua manu, satnm parentibus suis optimis sac. d. s. 

 Buchania? comes." 



Such an orchard, for it is well stocked with thriving Apple and 

 Pear trees, is a goodly testimony to Earl Buchan. 



Dryburgh Abbey is but " a bittock " from thence ; and I pon- 

 dered there over the epitaphs of that Earl's ancestors, and 

 thought the orchard a better memorial ; and of the Earls of 

 Mar, and of those of wider and worthier fame— Sir Walter 

 Scott, and some of those dearest to him. One of those, now 

 resting by his side, I had met in a more torrid clime, and 

 could tell of adventures there : but 1 must drop my pen. 



Next day I recrossed the border, and saw no more of what 

 Scott has briefly described as 



" Land of brown Heath and Bhaggy wood, 

 Laud of the mountain and the flood." 

 — G. 



Picea Nordmansiana. — I have a Picea Nordmanniana in my 

 pinetum 26 feet high ; breadth of branches, 13 feet 9 inches ; 

 girth of trunk, at 2 feet from the ground, 24 inches ; and it is 

 well furnished with cones. It is much admired by all who 

 have seen it. — R. Hanbouy, Poles, Ware. 



* The entire garden was walled, and a mile in circumference. 



