510 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ December 29, 1870. 



expected to give the desired result to a mixed collection of ; fence, so that looking from the drawing-room windows towards 



bad-setting Grapes, because bad setting springs from ■various 

 causes. To illustrate this, take two well-known Grapes — B ack 

 Morocco and Canon Hall Muscat, two of the worst-setting 

 Grapes known. The cause of Black Morocco not setting is 

 that the anthers curl back at the moment the flower opens, 

 and it is a mere chance if it is self-impregnated ; but if yon 

 apply pollen artificially every berry will Eet. 'With the Canon 

 Hall Muscat the pistil appears in fault, the end always Eeems 

 wet; and even the pollen of other Grapes applied to it arti- 

 ficially has not with me always insured its setting. Now in 

 this case one can imagine a high temperature beneficial. Then, 

 again, I have seen Trentbam Black badly set in a warm house, 

 and every bunch perfect in a cold oi chard house. 



I have lately come to the conclusion that no treatment can 

 be the very best for each individual of a mixed collection of 

 Tines. Perhaps this is the reason why we find good gardeners 

 famous for the cultivation of particular kinds of Grapes, one 

 for his Muscats, another for his Hambnrghs, &c. Now where 

 great success has been attained, bow interesting it would be if 

 we could learn the treatment in each case ! What light might 

 not be thrown on the peculiarities of each variety ! With me 

 Mrs. Pince'B Muscat formed beautiful bunches, and set almost 

 every berry. It had plenty of air on sunny days, a good heat, 

 and the flowers were gently touched with a brush nearly as 

 thick as a wrist, made of camel's hair. The same treatment 

 gave me splendid bunches of my favourite Grape, Muscat 

 Hamburgh, weighing from 5 to 6 lbs., jet in the same house 

 Trentham Black set badly. I think Mrs. Pince will yet be a 

 favourite as a late-keeping Grape. It improves in flavour by 

 banging, and in a damp house full of Geraniums, where even 

 Lady Downe's rots badly, it is as perfect in appearance as it 

 was three months ago. 



Another fact, I think, is proved by my experiments ; it is 

 that every crossed seedling shows by its foliage it is crossed; 

 and I think I have also proved that to cross Tines is not quite 

 so easy as many people think. I look upon Golden Champion 

 as being an uncrossed seedling from Canon Hall Muscat, be- 

 cause no one can distinguish them by growth or foliage ; and 

 from the great similarity in everything but colour, I should 

 Eay the White Lady Downe's was also an uncrossed seedling 

 of the black Lady Downe's. It is well known colour in 

 seedling Grapes is quite accidental, white ones bringing black 

 ones, and vice versa. — J. E. Peaeson, Chilicell. 



^y" ELSHAM HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE. 



This, the seat of Colonel Astley, possesses amongst msny 

 others the advaatages of a double access by rail. From the 

 Brigg station it is approached by the uninteresting Nerth Boad, 

 which, skirting the "Cars" — rich low-hing alluvial flats — for 

 some thr6e miles, branches through the park, and by an avenue 

 of young Elms brings you eircoitously past the dairies and 

 aviaries to the Hall. From Barnetby station on the east, dis- 

 tant some two miles, one is brought through the village of 

 Elshsm, which nestles in a sheltered corner on the southern 

 declivity of the Wolds. Ail here, save the ancient church 

 (shortly, it is to be hoped, to participate in the general renova- 

 tion), speaks of prosperity and comfort ; the substantial houses 

 of wealthy fanners, and the cottages of the labourers with 

 their trim gardens, kept with a neatness and pride which does 

 them credit, indicate the interest of ft generous squire. Either 

 loute brii gs you to the Ha 1 door. Looking o the no th there 

 is an expanse of gia^s, covtitd in spring time with Crocuses, 

 Snowdrops, and Daff< dils, backed by a sheltering wood of 

 splendid Sycamores, Walnuts, Scotch Firs (one remarkable for 

 magnitude and beauty) Ocks, and Elms, in which the rooks, 

 which, doubtless, supplied the motto of the ancient Corbet 

 family, " Dtus ipascit corvoe" have for centuries reared their 



the east the eye wanders over an undulating park, stretching 

 far along the southern face of the Wolds, fringed entirely with 

 woods, and dotted here and there with venerable Ash and other 

 forest trees. In the foreground is a new geometrical garden, 

 designed and laid out with great skill, and planted with equal 

 taste, by Mr. Gardner, who takes B3 much interest as his 

 master in all the improvements and new beauties of the place. 

 The individual beds are beyond a brief description ; suffice it 

 to say they encircle an elegant fountain, amply supplied with 

 the brightest water from the northern hills. Looking to the 

 south, a mass of huge Sycamore trees conceals the stables, 

 kennels, home-farm buildings, workshops, i'C, and fringes the 

 one side of a small lake; the opposite is adorned with a long 

 terrace, decked with variegated Ivies, Jasmine, Cotoneasteis, 

 Honeysuckles, and EoEes, which droop to the water's edge, 

 whilst from scores of vases huge Searlet Geraniums seemed to 

 pour a blaze of light. This is one of the prettiest views I 

 know. Standing on the lawn the eye is cariied down the lake : 

 on the left hand a gentle slope of grass dotted with the Syca- 

 mores, on the right the long line of terraced flowers, whilst an 

 island at the end partially intercepts the view, which, resting 

 awhile on a second lake, dies away in the distant park. 



To reach the kitchen garden we cross the little brook at the 

 head of the lake, and skirt its western side along a trim gravel 

 path leading to a garden embowered in trees, open only to the 

 south-east — a large grass plot with beds of varied shape, eui- 

 rounded by a gravel path ; a comfortable summer-house at the 

 more northern end, a rustic bridge at the other. In this gar- 

 den, beyond everything being very good of its kind, there was 

 nothing remaikable, save one circular bed, the centre being 

 Prtlma-Christi,',7 feet high, surroundtd by Canna grandis, this 

 again by Teronica Andersoni variegata, edged with Prince of 

 Orange Calceolaria, foimirg altogether a dome of foliage and 

 flowers which I have not seen surpassed. 



Crossing the bridge, which partly iotms a boathouse, we stand 

 upon the terrace, some 150 yards in length. Here the walk 

 diverges right and left. On the left is the long terrace on the 

 lake, in the centre a lawn cut into suitable beds, filled with 

 bedding plants and other flowers, perfect in vigour and har- 

 mony of colour ; on the right the other path is flanked by a 

 ribbon border, and a wall extending on one side of the kitchen 

 garden covered with well-trained fruit trees — Figs and Pears. 

 In the middle of this wall there is an arched stone gateway and 

 a beautifully wrought-iron gate, corresponding well with the 

 scrolls and wreaths of Eoses remarkably well carved in Ancaster 

 ttone. 



'lhis brings us to the central walk of the kitchen garden 

 opposite, to the right and left being the rows of houses, forcing- 

 pits, frames, &c. This garden is nearly square, surrounded 

 by walls — such walls ! 15 feet high, 2J feet thick, coped with 

 Yorkshire flags 3i feet wide and 4 inches thick. These 

 walls are covered with fruit trees, well trained and in full 

 bearing, the southern inside wall mostly with Peach trees, 

 protected with one long length of frigi-dcmo, and I quite 

 envied the facility with which a man ascended a ladder, walked 

 along the coping, and raised the protector. A wide south 

 border is lightly cropped with early vegetables, which are yet 

 further coaxed by means of "cloches," an invention of which 

 Mr. Gardner certainly approves for particular purposes. The 

 potting houses, fruit rooms, &c, are at the north side of a 

 wall. 



Against its opposite side leans, in melancholy decrepitude, 

 the ancestral vinery : paint, putty, and wood seem to have 

 long since struck work. The Ttnes appear to have been 

 trained on the "anyhow" system, yet even hero skill and 

 attention have educed a fair crop of Grapes, despite constant 

 drip and uncontrollable ventilation. What a change when we 

 pass hence to the Peach house and new range of vineries ! 

 Perfect houses and perfect trees ; wood of equal growth and 



young. The mansion belongs to that period of architecture j vigour, short and well-ripened, full of those delightful triple 



when hcuseB were built to live in and not to look at. It is re 

 markable for hospitality without humbug, as being one of the 

 few country houses where they brew their own beer, and one of 

 the fewer still where they biew it good. 



We pass on to the gaidens. On the east and south of ths 

 mansion there is a broad expanse of beautifully-kept lawn, re- 

 lieved here and there wiib forest trees and the deep foliage of 

 the Tew, separated from that on the north by an oaken rustic 

 fence, profusely covered with creepers, extending frcm the 

 north-east angle of the house to the orangery. The whole of 



buds. In bloom and in fruit I saw them equally beautiful. 

 The new vineries, 90 feet long, heated by a tubular boiler, were 

 erected by Gray, of Chelsea, in three compartments, and have 

 outside and inside aerated borders, with a space outEide and in, 

 to be filled up as the Tines require it. As at Garston, the bottom 

 of the border is level with the surface of the garden ; total 

 width 21 feet, 4 feet thick, with a fall of 15 inches. The 

 Tines are but young, and look as well as possible. The forcing 

 house, Melon and Cucumber houses, and a range of raised 

 pits, all heated by one saddle boiler, were well occupied, and 



the lawn is separated from the park by a semicircular sunk 1 extremely clean and tidy. A new Mushroom house was being 



