668 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



der the floors of their apartments. 

 Mr. Lysons found the flues, and 

 the fire-place from whence they 

 received heat, in the Roman villa 

 he has described in Gloucester- 

 shire ; in the baths, also, which 

 no good house could be without, 

 flues were used to communicate a 

 large proportion of heat for their 

 sudatories, or sweating apart- 

 ments. 



The article with which their 

 windows were glazed, if the terra 

 may be used, was talk, or what 

 we may call Muscovy glass (lapis 

 specularis ) . At Rome, the apart- 

 ments of the bettermost classes 

 were furnished with curtains ( vela) 

 to keep away the sun ; and win- 

 dows (specularia) to resist cold; 

 so common was the use of this 

 material for windows, that the 

 glazier, or person who fitted the 

 panes, had a name, and was called 

 specularius. 



On the epigrams the following 

 I'emarks present themselves. The 

 first in all probability described a 

 peach-house, the word pale, which 

 IS meant as a ridicule upon the 

 practice, gives reason for this 

 supposition ; we all know, that 

 peaches grown under glass cannot 

 be endowed either with colour or 

 with flavour, unless they are ex- 

 posed by the removal of the lights, 

 from the time of their taking their 

 second swell, after stoning, to the 

 direct rays of the sun : if this is 

 not done, the best sorts are pale 

 green when ripe, and not better 

 than turnips in point of flavour ; 

 but it is not likely that a Roman 

 hot-house should, in the infancy 

 of the invention, be furnished with 

 moveable lights as ours are. The 

 Romans had peaches in plenty, 



both hard and melting. The flesh 

 of the hard peaches adhered to 

 the stones as ours do, and were 

 preferred in point of flavour to the 

 soft ones. 



The second epigram refers most 

 plainly to a grape-house, but it 

 does not seem to have been calcu- 

 lated to force the crop at an earlier 

 period than the natural one ; it is 

 more likely to have been contrived 

 for the purpose of securing a late 

 crop, which may have been ma- 

 naged by destroying the first set 

 of bloom, and encouraging the 

 vines to produce a second. The 

 last line of the epigram, which 

 states the oflice of the house to 

 be that of compelling the winter 

 to produce autumnal fruits, leads 

 much to this opinion. 



Hot-houses seem to have been 

 little used in England, if at all, 

 in the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury. Lady Mary Wcrtley Mon- 

 tagu, on her journey to Constanti- 

 nople, in the year 1716, remarks 

 the circumstance of pine-apples 

 being served up in the dessert, at 

 the electoral table at Hanover, as 

 a thing she had never before seen 

 or heard of. See her Letters- Had 

 pines been then grown in Eng- 

 land, her ladyship, who moved in 

 the highest circles, could not have 

 been ignorant of the fact. The 

 public have still much to learn on 

 the subject of hot-houses, of 

 course the Horticultural Society 

 have much to teach. 



They have hitherto been too 

 frequently misapplied, under the 

 name of forcing-houses, to the 

 vain and ostentatious purpose of 

 hurrying fruits to maturity, at a 

 season of the year when the sun 

 has not the power of endowing 



