Retrospective Criticism. II7 



allow me to say, that it is thought by many gardeners and others, readers 

 of your very useful miscellany here, that such a communication, to say the 

 least of it, comes with very bad grace from him ; for this reason, amono-st 

 others, that he, whose feelings he means to wound by his puny arrows 

 had, a considerable time previously to the date of his communication, been 

 called upon to render in his account at the bar of Heaven. He, perhaps, 

 may say he was ignorant of such an event having taken place, at the time 

 he wrote ; still, he had plenty of time to prevent its publication, had he 

 been actuated by a generous feeling for the memory of the deceased ; or 

 had it been written and published previous to such an event, then he could 

 not be charged with any other motive, but that of a desire to benefit 

 society. With far different feelings will the public, and more particularly 

 those acquainted with the parties, now view the conduct of him, who, 

 there is no doubt, was indebted to Mr. Stewart for many valuable 

 instructions, and who could thus attack his character after his death. I 

 would advise your correspondent to remove the beam out of his own eye, 

 before he again attempts to pull the mote out of those of his neighbours. 

 He would then see that it is not attacking men's opinions after they are 

 dead, and, consequently, cannot defend themselves, that will gain for him 

 the character of a sincere and honest horticultural writer. He has not 

 favoured us with the date of Mr. Stewart's return to the old system from 

 necessity. I can assert, upon good authority, and without fear of contra- 

 diction, that, for five years previous to Mr. Stewart's death, he had as good 

 pines as were to be seen in any place in Scotland ; Envilles which weighed 

 from 7 to 8 lbs., and queens from 4 to 3 lbs. Now, I question'if ever your 

 correspondent had pines of such a size. I can also assert, that there are 

 few men in Mr. Stewart's situation in life who could be more generally 

 respected than he was, not only by the family in which he served for 

 upwards of twenty years, and by his professional brethren, but also by the 

 whole neighbourhood round where he lived. — A Constant Reader. Perth- 

 shire, Nov. 27. 1832. 



The Results of Mr. Cottavi^s Apparatus for heating hy hot Water, at the 

 Earl ofEgremonfs, at Petworth. [Vol. VHI. p. 148.] — Sir, As the system 

 of heating by water has been for some time, and is still, occupying a con- 

 siderable share of the attention of horticulturists, any information concerning 

 its results under any given circumstances naturally attracts attention. In 

 your Number for April last, your readers were favoured with a tabular 

 statement of the results of an apparatus at the Earl of Egremont's, at 

 Petworth. On the first glance at this table, I experienced sensations at 

 once of pleasure and regret : the former, that the results at Petworth are 

 so very satisfactory ; and the latter, that the like results are not expe- 

 rienced here. The table would have been more perfect, had it given, in an 

 additional column, the quantity of fuel consumed nightly : however, I am 

 perfectly satisfied that much less is consumed than was formerly the case 

 with flues. On looking a little more closely to the table, however, in 

 connection with the preceding statement, I could not resist a doubt creep- 

 ing over the mind as to its accuracy. Ts is stated that upwards of 20° 

 more heat could have been kept up, if necessary : now, on looking at the 

 table, the reader will find, on every evening, from the 14th to the 19th of 

 January inclusive, the temperature of the water in the boiler 212° : from 

 whence, then, was the obtainable 20° to be derived ? Assuredly not from 

 the water, which was then at its maximum. Further, there appeared to me 

 some degree of discrepancy in the figures, as given in the table, which I 

 could not very well reconcile : for instance, Jan. 16., at ten p.m., we have, 

 external temperature^ 32°; internal ditto, 59°; water 212°; and on the fol- 

 lowing morning at seven, external temperature, 32° ; internal ditto, 64° ; 

 water, 168°. It will here be remarked, that v.hile the external temperature 



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