August 23, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICTJLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



149 



or cheaper joint could not be had, as it has been in use for 

 more than a year, and is as good and free from leakage as 

 the day it was first put in. 



For fuel I use what are called gas cinders, which are the 

 burnt gas coal that is drawn from the retorts, and which can 

 be bought for about 5s. a-cartload. If a strong fire is desired, 

 it will yield that to perfection by giving draught, and on 

 the other hand nothing will smoulder so long with so little 

 air. As a proof of this I refer to my note-book, and find 

 that for fully more than a month my fire was never re- 

 kindled, and then it was only owing to my absence from 

 home that it went out. It may interest some to know how 

 this is done. You are aware that in these stoves of Eiddell's 

 the fuel is put in by a circular aperture (fitted with a cover and 

 made tight with silver sand), in the top of the stove. Now 

 so soon as I have the heat up, and a clear fire, I open the 

 cover, and fill up the stove nearly to the top with the 

 cinders, close the ash-pit and front doors (the latter used for 

 lighting), and then plaster these all over with wet ashes. 

 Perhaps some one may be able to explain better than I can 

 the reason why the fire burns at all. In the morning I open 

 the small front door, and with a bent piece of iron remove 

 all the burnt fuel till I see the clear fire. I then open the 

 top cover and press the unburnt fuel down to the furnace- 

 grate, and close up as formerly. If this is done I can 

 insure any one having little trouble in the management of 

 that class of stoves. I may add that this treatment will 

 not do with common coal, as it requires a fair supply of air 

 to yield the required heat, or even to smoulder. I can 

 speak from experience on this. 



My house is about 24 feet long, and about 8 wide, divided 

 into a stove and greenhouse. The sashes cost me, I think, 

 including all the wood I required, £3 10s. ; hot-water stove, 

 £4, 10s. ; pipes, .£1. I find common rain-water pipes answer 

 perfectly well, and being thinner than others heat more 

 rapidly. I coat them with common blacklead dissolved in 

 water to the consistency of paint, and laid on with a brush 

 or piece of flannel ; one pennyworth of blacklead will go a 

 long way. The joints of the pipes are filled in with hemp 

 and redlead. 



You will see the cost was £9, but, of course, my time was 

 a good deal occupied after business hours, but it was al- 

 together a labour of love on the part of— An Amateuk 

 Mechanic. 



[The smallness of the cost is entirely owing to the bargain 

 you made, obtaining the articles much below cost price, and 

 thus it hardly forms a guide for others. When all the ma- 

 terials have to be purchased at their fair value, the fixed 

 roof will always be the cheapest, and sashes will be dis- 

 pensed with; but then for tenants such houses are not 

 easily moveable. "We consider you deserve credit for the 

 way in which you have made the best of the materials. We 

 have no doubt that with personal attention you would have 

 succeeded in heating to your satisfaction, either with an 

 iron or a brick stove ; but all these matters require cara. 

 We are obliged by your experience of Eiddell's stove. It 

 will answer better for securing the requisite temperature in 

 the two divisions of your house. We believe every word 

 you say about the fuel. We presume that what yon call 

 gas cinders are not the burnt gas coal drawn from the 

 retorts ; but such, or coke, used again once for heating the 

 retorts, and then called cinders. Such are generally in 

 small pieces, possess good heating power in furnaces, and 

 emit little smoke. We are obliged by all your details.] 



HOTHOUSE NEAE THE SEA. 

 _ I am thinking of building a hothouse on the slope of a 

 hill, facing south-east, but the piece of ground is within 

 200 yards of the sea. and is exposed to winds coming from 

 the south and east. It is entirely sheltered from the 

 north by the hill. My object in having a hothouse is to 

 make it remunerative as well as pleasant. Now what per- 

 plexes me is, whether the sea breeze is much colder than the 

 land breeze, and whether the house would be very much 

 more expensive to heat on that account. I am living in 

 Jersey, where it happens that there is not one hothouse 

 built close to the shore, and therefore there is no one to give 

 me the results of his experience. Will you, therefore, kindly 



offer me a little advice on the subject ? It would be a serious 

 loss for me to build one, and then to find that the extra 

 expense for fuel would, in a great measure, swallow up all 

 the profits. Coke is 7s. a-load, coals 18s. per ton. — Per- 

 plexity. 



[We should not like to advise you in the circumstances 

 without knowing how far the sea vapours and spray may be 

 carried in your exposed position. It would be a serious thing 

 to build a house for profit in such an exposed position, and 

 some stormy night or day to find the salt spray coming into 

 your house. Of course much might be done to prevent that, 

 by close glazing, and ventilating chiefly on the northern side, 

 or that not exposed from the sea. This would be our chief 

 reason for delaying and making some experiments. The cost 

 of the fuel need form no drawback— that is if you can take 

 it easily to the place. The sea breeze in the position will 

 be warm rather than otherwise. We have known hothouses 

 do well at a shorter distance from the sea than you are, but 

 then a bluff headland intercepted the spray, whilst you seem 

 fully exposed.] 



VISITS TO GARDENS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. 



CAMXIN, THE SEAT OF JOHN TBEDENNICK, ESQ. 



On the banks of the river Erne (which from its issuing 

 from the lake of the same name at Beleek to its entrance 

 into the Atlantic has a fall of about 170 feet in about five or 

 six miles), stands a house which from my earliest days I 

 recollect to have heard of as one where gardening was dili- 

 gently carried out, and successfully too ; and I was the more 

 anxious to see it, inasmuch as the old-fashioned notions of hor- 

 ticulture were still cherished there, and everything had not 

 been made subservient to one modern innovation — an advan- 

 tage of which I think few can estimate the importance when 

 climatic influences have to be combated. I have oftentimes 

 seen in Ireland gardens which are perhaps very foreign to 

 modern notions, but which always gave and do give me the 

 notion of great enjoyment — well and abundantly stocked 

 with fruit of all kinds, with an abundant supply of vege- 

 tables, and then a green sward with a shrubbery at one side 

 or in the centre, with beautiful shaded walks of Yews, 

 Laurels, or even deciduous trees, inviting to meditation, 

 and suggestive of comfort and ease in the sultry days which 

 sometimes visit these northern regions. Of course, all this 

 is most heterodox in the eyes of those who consider that 

 everything ought to be en regie, and that uniformity (beds 

 matching beds, colour, and height, and shape all alike), is 

 that alone after which we ought to strive. But just look at 

 the advantage in such a season as this. What are grass 

 gardens now ? I have seen many a one lately, and, as might 

 be expected, green is the very last colour one sees in them. 

 Many of the beds are only half filled with flowers ; and in 

 these bright glaring days the brilliant reds and yellows are 

 anything but pleasing to the eye. In fact, for those who 

 have been advocating a mixture of the old and modern 

 systems of gardening this has been a most opportune season, 

 affording them many a fulcrum by which they may move 

 their object. 



The gardens at Camlin may be divided into three portions, 

 of which the walled-in one contained as magnificent a crop 

 of fruit and as fine a collection of vegetables as are to be 

 found anywhere. And here let me say I was very much 

 surprised to find how very little difference there was in the 

 state of forwardness between the north-west portion of Ire- 

 land and my own extreme south-eastern portion of England. 

 Strawberries were all, or nearly all, over ; Gooseberries and 

 Currants ripe ; Cherries, the later sorts still to be had ; 

 Apples and Pears, &c, in much about the same condition ; 

 and yet we certainly have a much larger share of sun and 

 warm weather than they have, although the variations of 

 temperature are not so great : and this is probably the 

 reason of their productions not being so much retarded as 

 their position would lead one to imagine they would be. 

 There is but one large vinery where Grapes are forced, and 

 well too. (And talking of Grapes, I forgot to mention in 

 my account of the Eockville Gardens that Mr. Bewley enter- 

 tains the notion that in order to obtain flavour and colour 

 a different system should be adopted. He consequently 

 keeps his house closed even during intense sun, running up 



