JS''oticc of the Royal Victoria Grape Vine. 425 



I have seen no description, in your Magazine, or, indeed, 

 elsewhere, of the conservatory recently erected under the 

 direction of Mr. Paxton,* (so well known for his beautiful 

 work on botany,) on the estate of the Duke of Devonshire, 

 at Chatsworth, and which is on a magnificent scale. It is 

 finished, except as to the gateway leading to it: the cost is 

 about fifty thousand pounds sterling, or two hundred and fifty 

 thousand dollars. The length of the building is two hundred 

 and seventy-five feet, its width one hundred and thirty feet, 

 and the height sixty-five feet. It is of stout glass from the 

 ground, and on all its surface. A palm tree, brought from a 

 distance, and between thirty and forty feet high, is now flour- 

 ishing in it: it was given to the Duke by Lord Tankerville, 

 and the removal and expense in planting cost the Duke up- 

 wards of four hundred pounds. 



The house is heated by warm water, and the chimneys com- 

 municating with the furnaces are not seen when at the conser- 

 vatory, the smoke being conveyed by horizontal iron pipes, 

 some hundred feet distant, and is lost in the forest. A piece 

 of rock-work, more than twenty feet high, and which is 

 ascended by a flight of stone steps, is at one end of the house; 

 it is covered by orchideous plants, and from it is a fine view 

 of the disposition of the plants which adorn the parterre be- 

 low. There is a gallery quite round the house, and from it 

 by opening a valve, water is thrown quite over the house. 

 The house is stocked with the most choice exotics from all 

 the habitable globe, aud it is, in fact, the ne plus ultra of con- 

 servatories. 



The mansion of the Duke, the paintings, furniture — among 

 which are the coronation chairs from the time of the first 

 George — gateway and park, water-works, are all in keeping 

 with the structure spoken of. 



The grape, peach, and pine-houses, (the garden being twelve 

 acres in extent,) are at a distance from the residence of the 

 Duke, and in the centre of which is Mr. Paxton's house, and 

 which is all that could be wanted for a private gentleman. 



Your obedient servant, rj. j^ Perkins. 



Brookline^ Oct. 1, 1841. 



* A very short account of it was copied into our pages, (Vol. VI., 

 p. 69,) from the Gard. Mag.—Ed. 



VOL. VII. — NO. XI. 54 



