'712 Queries and Ansuiers. 



making a great quantity of valuable manure, and that out of the refuse of the 

 garden, a great part of which pigs will not eat. I use no other manure than 

 rabbits' dung, and the water which I collect in a cesspool from the drain of 

 the house; and my garden produces good crops of all sorts of vegetables. 1 

 should be glad to know if any of your readers have tried rabbits in the same 

 manner as I have done, and what has been the result, — J. F. Drury. 

 Churchlands, Cheshimt, Nov. 19. 1836. 



Do Sheep eat aromatic Plants ? — In the Gentleman^ Magazine for 1764 

 (vol. xxxiv. p. 270.), it is stated that the merinos of Spain " greedily devour 

 henbane, hemlock, glaucium, and other nauseous weeds," and, at the same 

 time, "reject the aromatic plants, such as Lavandula *S'toe^chas, rosemary, 

 thyme, &c., which cover the ground in abundance." How is this to be recon- 

 ciled with the practice of sowing thyme in sheep pastures ? — John Wilson. 

 Salisbury, Feb. 1835. 



Apse Court, near Walton on Thames. — Here there are 145 acres, 1 rood, 

 17 perches, enclosed by a brick wall covered with fruit trees, which, with a 

 border round it, are let to a gardener; the land in the middle being occupied 

 as fields. (^Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. ii. p. 755.) Does this garden 

 still exist ? — T. W. Hampstead, Feb. 1835. 



A Garden in a Burial- Ground.— A garden is said to have been laid out in 

 a burial-ground in Clerkenwell, in 1704, and filled with flowering shrubs, with 

 the exception of a part, planted with garden-stuiF, for the use of the occupier. 

 {Gentleman^ Magazine, vol. xxxiv. p. 245.) Can any of your readers inform 

 me where this garden was situated, and whether it still exists ? — Henry W. 

 Thompson, Jun. Aldersgate Street, Dec. 1834. 



Miller, Gardener to the Earl of Orford, at Chelsea. — In the Gentleman^s 

 Magazine, vol. xix., there is the confession of one John Vicars, a gardener; 

 who, after serving his apprenticeship at Holklan, and afterwards working 

 under Mr. Bridgman at Kensington Palace, " was employed in the Earl of 

 Orford's gardens at Chelsea, under Mr. Miller, where he stayed one year; and 

 afterwards worked at Robert Mann's, Esq., of Linton, near Maidstone," &c. 

 Can any of your readers inform me if this Miller, gardener to the Earl of 

 Orford some years previously to 1749, was the celebrated Philip Miller; and 

 also where the Earl of Orford's gardens were situated ? — T. S. Feb. 1834. 



Walter Clarke, an ancient Florist, much favoured by the Earl and Countess 

 of Harcourt, and who has a monument in the flower-garden of Newnham 

 Courtney, is said to have been honoured with a poetical tribute by Horace 

 Walpole, {Beauties of England, &ic. Oxfordshire, p. 281.) Are there any 

 of the descendants of this worthy man still alive ? and, if there are, where and 

 what are they? — John Clarke, Godmanchester, Jan. 2. 1835. 



The Grapes at Kinmel Park. (p. 487.) — The statement of the correspond- 

 ent of the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald is correct about the length and 

 breadth of the bunches of grapes that he saw growing at Kinmel Park. It 

 may be necessary, however, for the information of J. H. R.., to say that the 

 grapes were of the kind called the white Nice ; a variety which sometimes 

 grows to an enormous size ; and, when the shoulders are tied up, they will 

 measure 2 ft., and often 3 ft. each way. The weight of those spoken of by 

 the correspondent of the newspaper does not exceed 7ilb. The black 

 Hamburgh grapes with us this year have been pai'ticularly fine. We have cut 

 several bunches weighing 41b. each, the berries of which measured from SJin. 

 to 4i in. in circumference, and all well coloured. — T. FoiTcst. Kinmel Park, 

 Oct. 17. 1836. 



Large Black Hamburgh Grapes, — Mr. Wild, fruiterer, of Bury St. Ed- 

 munds, has had some extraordinary specimens of the black Hamburgh grape, 

 produced, from a peculiar method of training, by Mr. John Fletcher, miller, 

 of Ej'ke. The berries measured 4 in. in circumference, and some were even 

 larger ; and their flavour was remarkably fine. They were grown in a green- 

 house, without artificial heat. (^Suffolk Chronicle, Oct. 15. 1836.) We should 



