204 Gilpin's forest scenery. 



pounds a year of tlie grapes; and fhe same 

 gentleman, wlio was curious, inquired of tlie fruit 

 dealers, wlio told him that, in some years, they 

 supposed the profits might have amounted to three 

 hundred pounds. This does not contradict Mr. 

 Eden's account, who said that the utmost he ever 

 made of it (that is, I suppose, Avhen the grapes 

 sold at four shillings a pound in June) was eighty- 

 four pounds. At the lowest calculation, the profits 

 were prodigious. The stem of this Yine was, in 

 the year 1789, thirteen inches in circumference. 



We learn from Mr William Earley — a considerable 

 authority on all matters horticultural — that the remark- 

 able vine referred to in the preceding paragraph is still 

 living. Its prolific stem, which, ninety years ago, was 

 ' thirteen inclies in circumference,'' is now dead ; but it has 

 given place to two '' canes,' which, annually, up to and 

 including the past season, bore excellent crops of remark- 

 ably well-flavoured fruit. Mr. Earley adds to his very 

 interesting communication, — ' So popular did this large 

 vine ' (the one mentioned by Gilpin) ' become, that cut- 

 tings of it were taken far and wide ; ' and he states, further, 

 that an enormous grape vine known as the ' Hampton 

 Court ' vine, ' a prodigy of its kind,' has been grown from 

 a cutting from the old vine at Valentine House. — Ed. 



