the Eastern Part of Fife. 527 



sheltered with narrow slips of plantation ; and in each is a neat- 

 shed, for the protection of the cattle in stormy weather. The 

 grounds have a gentle declivity towards the sea; and in the 

 park there are several undulations, and a few detached trees and 

 groups, &c, with the carriage drive winding gracefully among 

 them ; though, in our opinion, it approaches too straight in front 

 of the house. From our view of the house, it appeared to form 

 the two sides of a square, with a semicircle in the centre. It has 

 a fine lofty appearance, with the larger trees at a reasonable dis- 

 tance from it. Entering the garden by the north entrance, we 

 at once perceived it to be a natural garden, that is, the surface 

 of the ground in its natural form, with a small brook running 

 through the centre, over which are several neat cast-iron bridges. 

 In the hot-houses were fair crops of grapes ; but in the black 

 grapes there was a great deficiency of colouring, notwithstanding 

 Mr. Falconer's giving strong fire and sun heat. This is a 

 general complaint this season; and we, in the hot-houses under 

 our own management, are not exempt from it. In another part 

 of the garden is the peach house, without fire, with trees trained 

 on the front sashes, with openings between, to admit light for 

 those on the back wall. In this house were good crops of 

 peaches and nectarines. Mr. Falconer has raised seven kinds 

 of nectarines from seed, and has them all budded and bearing 

 on one tree. We gave him a lecture for not bringing them into 

 notice through the medium of the Horticultural Society of Edin- 

 burgh. Here are two fine ranges of melon pits, with covered-in 

 linings, and surrounded by a rockwork. Mr. Falconer is very 

 successful in the culture of early melons ; but, as far as we 

 could learn, his practice does not differ from that of others. The 

 flower-garden is small, but neat, and contains some fine speci- 

 mens of rare plants. The kitchen-garden produces all sorts of 

 fruits and vegetables ; but, for a country garden, our opinion is, 

 that its best features are lost by such a monotony of shrubs. 

 We very much object to shrubs, yea, even standard fruit trees, 

 within the walls of a garden at all. 



On leaving the beautiful grounds of Cambo, the country 

 again begins to look bare, and especially towards the extreme 

 point of land called the East Nook. We now pass the town of 

 Crail, which we did not enter, but turned eastward along the 

 north bank of the Forth. The country now assumes a fine ap- 

 pearance in the low grounds ; but the hills in the distance are 

 like Agronome's fine-dressed lady, wanting the head-dress ; that 

 is, not in unison with the country below. 



Passing Kilrenny, we next come to Anstruther, an ancient- 

 looking town, famous for being the scene of the famed ballad of 

 Maggy Lauder. Passing through a most ruinous street, all in 

 a confusion of repairing, we observed, on a new house, a most 



P p 2 



