IN THE HIGHLANDS 255 



keen on fruit, and had made their dessert off wild 

 raspberries, and that the eating and digestion of the 

 fruit had not prevented the seeds from germinating. 

 This is the case nowadays with the seeds of Berheris 

 Darwinii, which the birds swallow and then distribute 

 all over the place. There were no signs of any wild 

 raspberries about here at that time, but the sight of 

 them encouraged me greatly, and I thought that where 

 wild rasps, as we call them, once grew, tame rasps could 

 be made to grow. My expectations in this respect have 

 been fully justified. I think I may say that my garden, 

 which took me three or four years to make, has most 

 thoroughly rewarded me for all the trouble and expense 

 incurred. 



In good years, as many of my friends can testify, I 

 grew Bon Chretien pears on standards which are as 

 luscious as any that could be bought in Covent Garden 

 Market. Curiously, they were always better on the 

 standards than on the walls. Alas ! last year, which 

 was the very worst year I have experienced since my 

 garden was made, they were, as my gardener expressed 

 it, not equal to a good swede turnip. I have had 

 excellent Doyenne de Comice pears and Cox's Orange 

 Pippin apples on my walls, and masses of plums of all 

 sorts both on the walls and on standards. There is one 

 thing I may mention, which I hardly suppose even my 

 friends in the south can boast of — viz., that I have 

 never yet, in over forty years, failed to have a crop of 

 apples, and, I might almost add, pears and plums as 

 well, though the quality varies a good deal. Really our 

 difficulty is that we have not force sufficient to get them 



