254 



Dalhousie Gardens. 



same defect complained of, and generally the cause assigned 

 is that of allowing too weighty a crop ; this, however, I may 

 venture to say I have disproved. I understand that some vines 

 have lately been treated in nearly the same way at Colzean 

 Castle, the seat of the Earl of Cassilis, but I have not heard 

 the result. 



Connected with the above subject, I have taken the liberty 

 of sending you a sketch of a circular vinery, which I designed 

 for General Durham of Largo, in Fife, (Jig. 47. ) It is similar 



47 



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to one in Mr. Robert Fletcher's commercial garden at Bonny- 

 rigg, near Dalhousie, invented by himself. He is an old 

 man, of very eccentric habits. In this case he was his own 

 architect, bricklayer, carpenter, glazier, painter, &c, having 

 executed all the work with his own hands. I have witnessed 

 for many years excellent crops in this house, and, as a proof 

 that the grapes are of a superior quality, he has invariably 

 obtained the highest market price. The kinds he cultivates 

 are confined to black Hamburgh, black Lombardy, and white 

 sweet-water. The soil round the vinery is only from one foot 

 to thirteen inches deep, and the subsoil is a hard impervious 

 clay. He has repeatedly told me, that in preparing the 

 border, before planting the vines, he merely dunged and dug 

 the ground, as if for a crop of cabbages or potatoes, neither 

 has it ever been manured or turned over since ; and is now 

 trodden as firm and hard as any old beaten path. He is by 

 no means particular about giving air, the temperature being 

 often above 100° of Fahrenheit in the Summer months, and 

 whenever air is admitted, it is merely by the door-way, and 

 a small hole at top, all the sashes being fixed. For several 

 years at first he raised very good crops of grapes without fire 

 heat ; but in one particularly backward season, the wood not 

 being properly ripened, he set about building a furnace and 

 Hues. General Durham has informed me that his grape-house 

 of this construction (Jig. 44.) has succeeded admirably. 



