Gardens and Country Residences in Surrey. 9 



After these general views, relatively to the subjects which 

 embraced our attention, we shall proceed to give the details 

 from which they originated, and commence in our next Number 

 with Brighton and Dieppe. 



{To be continued.) 



Art. II. RemarJis on some Gardens and Country Residences in 

 Surrey, By J. Gale, Esq. 



Sir, 

 The south-east angle of England, comprising the counties 

 of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, possesses the best climate to 

 be found in the island for the purpose of horticulture, and 

 accordingly there we find the best common gardens and 

 fi'uit orchards, hop gardens, and formerly vineyards. Having 

 lately visited those counties, I made enquiries respecting the 

 vineyard at Pains Hill, now overgrown by Scotch pine. It 

 was originally planted with white grapes, procured from the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, and a wine similar to champagne was 

 made by confining the must or juice of the fruit in strong 

 casks, bound round with cords, to prevent the force of the fer- 

 mentation from bursting the casks, until the cold of the autumn 

 frosts checked the fermentation. The soil was a poor sand, 

 with a stony subsoil, having the advantage of a southern ex- 

 posure on a steep slope. It appears to have been deficient in 

 depth and fertility, and it is quite evident, if vines were 

 to be cultivated in a vineyard in this climate, that every cir- 

 cumstance ought to be as favourable as possible. Pains Hill 

 vineyard enjoyed only two advantages — exposure and dry- 

 ness ; it wanted fertility, and a loose and more porous subsoil. 

 Claremont, the seat of Prince Leopold, has a magnificent 

 kitchen-garden, with good hot-houses, but the collection of 

 plants is not of the first order, as it seems that expense is 

 rather too much considered by the present proprietor. The 

 house is considered as the masterpiece of Brown, though, in 

 many respects, very full of faults. The entrance hall is in the 

 middle of the south front ; consequently, the two other rooms, 

 on right and left, having a south aspect, are separated by the 

 hall. Claremont seems, on the whole, to be a place adapted 

 for representation more than for comfort. The stables are too 

 distant, and it is quite without a farm, at least no arable land 

 is found within any reasonable distance. Oatlands has also 

 an excellent kitchen-garden, now let to a market-gardener. 



