AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 105 



her grandfather, John Luscombe, Esq., that it was more 

 than a century old when he became the possessor of the place. 

 The Citron trees often produce enormous fruit, several 

 having attained seventeen, eighteen, and even nineteen 

 inches in circumference. The Shaddocks, Lemons, and 

 Limes are fine in proportion. 



No permanent injury has ever been done to the trees 

 by the severest winters, except in 1859-60, when a vigorous 

 Bergamot Lemon was killed, which at the time bore a 

 fine crop of fruit, averaging twelve inches in circumference. 

 A magnificent basket of Citrus fruit was in 1850 presented 

 to the Queen, who, through Sir Charles Phipps, graciously 

 expressed her surprise and admiration of their size and 

 beauty, and sent Mr. Toward from Osborne to inspect the 

 trees. The Orangery, or, as it might more justly be 

 entitled, the Citrusry, for it includes the best fruit-bearers 

 of the genus, is on the side of the valley, has nearly a 

 southern aspect, and is a recessed wall. * * * The 

 recesses are all eleven feet high, but vary in width. That 

 in which the Lemon is growing is fifteen feet, that of the 

 Citron sixteen feet, and the six other recesses are twelve 

 feet : aU of them are fifteen inches deep. The occupants 

 of these eight recesses are the Lemon, Bergamot, Citron, 

 Seville Orange, Shaddock, Orange, Lime, and Mandarin 

 Orange. Although the thermometer fell to zero last winter 

 no injury was caused to any one of the trees, although 

 their only protection was reed panels. When we saw them, 

 ripening fruit was on all of them, and the healthy 

 luxuriance of their foliage was most striking. Anyone 

 about to erect such recesses for the culture of the Citrus 

 genus would do well to have each eighteen feet wide, for 

 the need to prune back the branches in the Combe Royal 



