MONTEBELLO. -Ji 



terrace-walls, of Bath stone, have an elegant appeai'ance. A walk 

 ascends from bottom to top, through the centre of these terraced 

 gardens, with the exception of one, which has lately been taken 

 in from, or ratlier quarried out of, a part of the hill, whith lies 

 on the other side of the road, leading from Bath to Claverton. 



The houses are new, and fitted up in first-rate stjde. Full 

 command of heat is insured by abundance of hot-water pipes. 

 One Vmery, for early forcing, had three 4-inch pipes in front, 

 and four laid backwards and forwards along the floor. This 

 Vinery is 13 or 14 feet wide, and Vines planted two months had 

 reached in that time to the topt of the house ; and the wood was 

 such as to be fit for bearing next season. A very high tempera- 

 ture was, of course, maintained, but the house being light, the 

 foliage was sufficiently robust. 



Melons are here grown exceedingly well. The gardener, Mr. 

 Grant, was the raiser of the Victoiy of Bath Melon, with which 

 he has taken many prizes at various Exhibitions. He grows it 

 in a Melon-house in pots. Some of this sort was sown in the 

 beginning of September, 1852; planted the 5th of October; 

 commenced cutting fruit April 14th, and successively till Sep- 

 tember 11th, 1853, when I tasted one of them, white-fleshed, 

 juicy, sugary, and rich. The Melon plants are grown in 19- 

 incli pots, which are plunged nearly to their rims in sand, in a 

 bottom heat of 85 degrees. The soil in the pots is all loam, but 

 pervious, so that manure water can be supplied to the roots as 

 required. Tlie plants are trained with an upright stem till they 

 reach a trellis near the glass. Every leaf, it should be observed, 

 is encouraged on the upright stem until it reaches the trellis, 

 and then they are gradually dispensed with. The bed in which 

 the pots are plunged is 36 feet in length and 6 feet wide, and in 

 this 20 plants are grown, one row of pots being plunged along the 

 front and another along the back. 



There is an Orchid-house, 64 feet in length and 16 feet wide ; 

 and in this there was a very fine collection of pei'haps the 

 healthiest plants of the kind any where to be found. On the 

 whole, this place, from its peculiar situation, and the excellent 

 arrangements for forcing, is becoming very interesting to horti- 

 culturists. 



