ISO HOllTICULTURAL TOUR. 



We spent most part of this day in a general desultory 

 survey of Rotterdam. 



We were rather surprised to find that the fruit-sJiops 

 were few, and but ill supplied. Apples and Pears were in- 

 deed cheap and common ; but the apples were not in gene- 

 ral ripe, the kinds chiefly cultivated in the farmers"' orchards 

 being late or winter fruit ; and the pears were of indifferent 

 quality. The sugar-pear was perhaps the most common, 

 and it was uniformly mealy and tasteless. The Plums did 

 not merit attention. All the finer kinds of fruit were ra- 

 ther scarce and high-priced, being solely furnished from 

 private gardens ; none of them appeared to be of superior 

 quality. We had some recollection of the way in which 

 Mrs lladcliffe disparages Dutch gardens and fruits *, and 

 began to suspect that it was not to be ascribed merely to 

 her desire of turning a period in the Johnsonian style, 

 but was better founded than we had supposed. Making 

 a morning call at Mr Ballingars, however, we were pre- 

 sented with a basket of Mulberries, the produce of a Rot- 

 terdam garden, which must be excepted from the general 

 censure ; for, both in size and flavour, they could scarce- 

 ly have been surpassed ; and we were told that very fine 

 Peaches are produced in many of the gardens of the prin- 

 cipal merchants. 



In the book-shops we were unsuccessful in procuring any 

 work whatever on the gardening of Holland ; and we were 

 told, that no publication on any branch of horticulture has 

 of late years issued from the Dutch press. 



" The- passage alluded to occurs in her Journey, &c. p. 18. " By the 

 effects of soil and climate, Dutch gardens are deprived of value : for the 

 moisture is no disproportioned to the heat, that the verdure, though bright, 

 fragrance, and the fruit, at its utmost size, scarcely any flavour." 



