The Country House. 271 



from such I must beg leave to differ, and for this reason. For several years I 

 was taught to beheve that, in order to have good melons, it was necessary to 

 watch the roots in their progress through the hills, after each earthing, till the 

 frames were filled with soil; and many a time have I had to place fresh layers and 

 beat it firm, and at last, when full, to get in and tread it firm, thereby rendering 

 it so hard that the portion of water allowed could not get down, and the 

 little heat remaining by the time the earthing was done could not get up ; the 

 consequence of which was, that the atmosphere at top must be cold and damp, 

 and very unlikely to produce a good crop of melons : but my present plan 

 will be free from these objections, as, by leaving the space in front and back of 

 the frame uncovered, there will always be a warm moist atmosphere produced, 

 so long as watering is necessary ; and wiien the cold nights and gloomy clays 

 of autumn come on, the dung of which the beds are composed having become 

 dry will, if linings are necessar}', afford a warm dry atmosphere to ripen the 

 fruit. But perhaps some one will be ready to say. Will not the dry mouldy 

 kind of dung very much harbour insects which will eat the melons, especially 

 such as are commonly known by the name of sow bugs ? To this I reply, I 

 have never been injured by them to any extent ; for, if I find many of them in 

 the frames, I merely put a little hay into a few flower-pots, turn them upside 

 down, sprinkle the frame round, and next morning, soon after uncovering, 

 examine the pots, when most of them will be found concealed above the dry 

 hay in the pot. There should never be sufficient hay in the pot for any por- 

 tion of it to touch the bed, otherwise the insects will remain on the dung in- 

 stead of climbing the pots. But, in order more safely to guard against these 

 depredators, my plan is, after a melon is set, to raise it on a flower-pot in- 

 verted, with a piece of glass on the top, larger than the flower-pot, so that if 

 they crawl up to the glass they will crawl down again, instead of continuing 

 their course on the under side of the glass, which is the only way they can 

 get to the fruit, except by the stem on which it grows, and being a consider- 

 able distance from the ground I never knew them succeed by this route. 



I believe I have now stated all that is necessary, except that I had melons 

 from these beds from August till late in November, and that I never prune 

 melon plants if possible to avoid it, as I have often seen a good crop spoiled 

 by it ; and, if melons are kept continually swelling in succession, the plants 

 will generally have enough to do to support them, without producing too 

 much vine. 



Middlesex, April, 1843. 



REVIEWS. 



Art, I. The Country House (loitli Designs). Edited by Lady Mary 

 Fox. 4to, pp. QB, with 5 lithographic plates, and many vignette 

 woodcuts. London, 1843. 



The idea of this book is good. A gentleman is about to build a house, and 

 he enters previously into the discussion of the subject with his architect, who 

 residing at a distance, the discussion is naturally carried on by letter. The 

 letters of the gentleman intending to build are signed H. B. (understood to 

 be Henry Bellenden Ker), and the architect is M. de Chateauneuf of Ham- 

 burg, the author oi Archiledura Domestica (reviewed in our Volume for 1839, 

 p. 703.). In addition to the letters of the architect and nis supposed em- 

 ployer, there is a valuable one by Mr. Eastlake, the eminent artist, on the 

 principles of interior decoration. We shall endeavour to abstract what we 



T 2 



