530 Horticultural Tour through 



&' 



but they are to be renewed and improved next year. On each 

 side of the carriage drive to the house are some of the plant- 

 ations formed by Mr. Gilpin, the outlines of which are most 

 laboriously twisted and turned about. The same interesting 

 ■views are to be had here as at Grangemoor. The gardener 

 hei^e was from home, and consequently our stay was short. 

 Leaving Balcaskie, the admirer of 



" Nature's hills and woods, 

 Her sweeping vales, and foaming floods," 



has a most interesting scene before him : the castellated tower of 

 Balcarres, appearing like a ruin among the trees ; the lofty spire 

 of Kilconquhar church ; the neat little village of Collinsburgh ; 

 the mansion house of Pitcorthie, glimmering through the trees ; 

 the stately Law [hill] of Largo, clothed with verdure to the top; 

 and, beyond all, the spacious Forth, with numerous gentlemen's 

 seats upon its banks, &c, are truly noble materials for the painter. 

 Having reached Balcarres, the seat of Lieutenant-Colonel James 

 Lindsay, we found Mr. Brewster, the gardener, immersed in the 

 variety of business in which a large garden like this often neces- 

 sarily involves its conductor. We entered the garden from the 

 gardener's house, which is a very commodious one of two stories. 

 In the hot-houses (three in number) the crops of grapes were 

 good, with some very superior bunches of Black Hamburgh. 

 These houses were formerly on the hanging trellis system in- 

 vented by Mr. Reid, formerly gardener here; but it is now 

 removed, and a trellis of wires parallel with the glass substituted 

 in its stead. We next passed through a newly laid out kitchen- 

 garden, in excellent order. In the corner of this is a small 

 green-house containing some large specimens of Epiphyllum 

 speciosum, Cereus speciosissimus, and many other succulent 

 plants. From this we entered a large fruit-garden with no spade 

 culture except on the wall-tree borders ; and Mr. Brewster does 

 not condemn the practice. The wall trees are beautifully trained 

 in the fan manner ; and the centre of the garden is wholly 

 planted with standard fruit trees and gooseberry bushes. The 

 broad centre grass walk is planted on each side with georginas 

 and an immense variety of heartsease. With such an assemblage 

 of colours before us, these lines of the poet stole slowly through 

 our minds : — 



" Who can paint 



Like Nature ? Can Imagination boast, 

 Amid its gay creation, hues like hers ? 

 Or can it mix them with that matchless skill, 

 And lose them in each other, as appears 

 In every bud that blows ? " 



In the peach house were good crops of peaches and nectarines, 

 trained on a hanging and table trellis, and on the back wall, in 



