GHENT. 63 



especially where the houses are of small dimensions, neces- 

 sarily prove injurious to the trees planted against the back- 

 w.ill, by cramping their roots, which would otherwise have 

 the liberty of pasturing on the space occupied by the pits. 



The Orangery, or principal green-house, is very large ; 

 it is completely in the old style, with upright glass and a 

 slated roof. We saw it to great disadvantage ; it seems* 

 at this time, to be used as a temporary barn, being filled 

 with unthrashed rye, and bundles of straw. 



The walls of the garden are extensive : they are of 

 brick, very well built, and have a coping of tiles. Like al- 

 most all the other fruit-walls which we have hitherto seen, 

 they are furnished with coarse wooden treillages, to which 

 the branches are tied by means of strands of different sub- 

 stances. They are in general high, perhaps from 15 to 18 

 feet, particularly on the north and the west. One part is 

 appropriated to vines, which have seen many years, and still 

 appear healthy ; but, this year, they shew little fruit. Ano- 

 ther part is dedicated to peach, nectarine, and apricot trees. 

 These are much too crowded on the wall, and they do not 

 in general appear healthy ; the soil indeed seems rather 

 unpropitious to peach-trees, of which we did not ob- 

 serve one in a flourishing state. Some of these are of 

 considerable age, but have very little new or bearing wood : 

 many more are young trees of small size ; for it seems to 

 be a rule among Continental gardeners frequently to re- 

 new the peach-trees. Here and all around Ghent, the 

 soil is too light and sandy for pear-trees ; and it is an un- 

 doubted fact, that far larger and better specimens of 

 the finer French pear-trees (Crasanne, Colmar, St Ger- 

 main, &c.) may be seen trained against walls in old gardens 

 in Scotland, than are to be found in the neighbourhood of 

 Ghent. 



