Dalhousie Castle. 585 



Dalhousie Castle; the Earl of Dalhousie. The castle has 

 much of appropriate character, and, indeed, is one of the best 

 habitable really old castles which we have seen in Scotland. 

 Here the gateway, formerly shut with a portcullis, comes in as a 

 feature with admirable effect. As the gardens and grounds 

 are described and illustrated by engravings in our first Volume, 

 we shall say little about them. The finest part of the place is 

 the walk along the banks of the river to the kitchen-garden, and 

 the walk back again on the other side through a wood. The 

 late earl was much attached to this place, and greatly improved 

 it, and his lady, it is well known, was an excellent botanist. 

 Many American trees and shrubs were sent over by the earl 

 whilst he was governor of Canada, only some of which are in a 

 thriving state, owing to the poverty and humidity of the soil, 

 and the proximity of more robust-growing trees. The best we 

 saw was Pinus Banksidna, 14 ft. high. A hedge of evergreen 

 hollies, the main stems of which have been cut at 3 ft., in order 

 to throw vigour into the lateral branches, and cause them to 

 spread out, forms the separation of the river walk from the 

 kitchen-garden, and is decidedly the finest thing of the kind we 

 have ever seen. The great variety of ground outline formed by 

 the extension of the branches over the lawn, and of the outline 

 against the sky from the different heights to which their extre- 

 mities have turned up, the different kinds of variegation, and the 

 different degrees of vigour, are sources of endless variety; while, 

 all the plants being of the same species, the principle of unity is 

 not interfered with. A most picturesque and beautiful screen is 

 thus produced in a very limited space. No part of this hedge 

 is above 7 ft. high, and many parts of it not more than 3 ft., and 

 it varies from 6 ft. to 18 ft. in width. The line of these varie- 

 gated hollies is indicated in the plan in our first Volume, p. 252. 

 The silver firs on this estate were all killed a few years ago, when 

 they were between 30 and 40 ft. high, by the mealy bug. A plant 

 of HerzLclewn asperrimum was 1 1 ft. high, with the radical leaves 

 covering a space 12 ft. in diameter. 



The road from Dalkeith to Edinburgh is broad, kept in ex- 

 cellent repair, and passes through a country so much altered from 

 what it was in 1806, when we last saw it, that we should never 

 have recognised it to be the same territory. Every farmyard 

 has now a high, and often handsome, chimney for its steam- 



served, was fixed, and incapable of opening to give air. There was no back 

 door, and no opening either in the roof or walls for ventilation, except the 

 entrance door and the chimney. There was no appendage, or garden ground 

 of any sort, behind these cottages; but, across the road, in front of them was 

 a narrow strip of ground, divided so as to allow one fall (36 yds. square) to 

 each cottage. In these gardens there was no structure of any kind." 



