338 
ON CERTAIN GARDENS AT A HIGH ELEVATION IN 
DURHAM AND NORTHUMBERLAND. 
By J, G. Baker, Esq. 
/ 
During a recent visit to tlie upland portions of tlie counties of Dur- 
ham and Northumberland, in company with the Eev. W, W. Newbould, 
to collect information for a new Flora of the two counties just named, 
which is projected by the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, we visited 
the lead-mining tracts of the dales of the East and "West Allen, princi- 
pally for the pui^ose of making notes upon the altitudinal range of the 
wild plants of the district. The village of AUenheads, well known as 
the centre of the raining industry of the south-west of Northumberland, 
and one of the residences of its principal lauded proprietor, W. B. 
Beaumont, Esq., M.P., is situated at a height above sea-level of from 
1350 to 1400 feet. This is in East Allendale, and immediately be- 
neath the gritstone peak of Kilhope Law (2200 feet in height) the 
loftiest summit in Northumberland south of the Cheviot range. At 
the head of the parallel valley of West Allendale stands Coalclough, 
which is probably the highest village in England, as it ranges from 
1650 to 1700 feet in altitude. At 16S0 feet there is a tolerably fair 
specimen of such a garden as is often to be seen in the upland country 
villages in the north ; the only remarkable point about it being the 
great height above sea-level of the situation. In the eastern dale also 
there are two gardens attached to high isolated farmhouses, at a height, 
as measured by aneroid barometer, taking the floor of the mining office 
at Allenheads as a starting-point, of 1665 feet and 1640 feet re- 
spectively. There is so little information, so far as I know, attain- 
able anywhere in print, about the height to which, in different parts 
of Britain, the various kinds of grain and garden produce are cul- 
tivated, that I have thought it worth while to send you a full list 
of what these three gardens contain. The highest house with which 
I am acquainted in the north of England, which is regularly inhabited 
all the year round, is a farmhouse near the lead-mhie of Grasshill, at 
the head of the stream (Harwood beck) which falls into the Tees a 
short distance above the High force, in the county of Durham. This 
is just 2000 feet above the sea-level, as measured by the aneroid in 
comparison with the adjacent peak called Highfield, which is 300 feet 
