20 A YEAR IN A LANCASHIRE GARDEN. 



any Muscat a finer or more aromatic flavour ? It 

 was Sir William Temple who first introduced it, 

 and he speaks of it with pride as " the noblest of all 

 Grapes I ever ate in England." The Sweetwater 

 is of value in another way; it is of all Grapes the 

 most grateful and refreshing to an invalid. Only 

 the autumn before last I was asked by an old 

 friend whether anywhere in our neighbourhood the 

 Sweetwater was still grown. He had been very 

 ill, and was longing for Grapes, but the rich 

 luscious Muscats, with their highly-flavoured and 

 thickly-sugared juice, had been forbidden. He 

 had searched in vain among the vineries of many 

 great houses, where the Sweetwater has been long 

 discarded, and it was a pleasant surprise to find 

 that in my small vineries this once favourite old 

 Grape could still be found. . 



We are now bringing on our Strawberries ; the 

 Due de Malakoff and Sir Charles Napier are the 

 two we are forcing this year. Last year we had 

 Oscar as well, but we found it a bad hanger, 

 the first fruit damping away if it were not at 

 once gathered. We are forcing also French 

 Beans, Fulmer's Forcing, and Tomatos, the 

 Orangefield Dwarf. The prettiest thing in our 

 vinery is a large Orange-tree, laden with last year's 



