190 



FRUITS. 



[chap. 



against a wall, nothing is more easy than to cover it over with a 

 mat nailed to the wall ; and a standard tree is covered completely 

 by a couple of good new mats, well joined together and closely 

 drawn round at the bottom, and fastened round the stem of the 

 tree. Trees, however, subject to this discipline do not bear so 

 well the next year. The sorts of gooseberries are very numerous. 

 The following is the list cultivated in the King's gardens : Clarety 

 Early Li?icobi, Golden Drop, Goliah, Green-gage, Imperial, 

 Keens Seedling, Lomaxs Victory, Old Briton, Pope,Rumhullion, 

 Warrington. The Keen's Seedling, raised by Mr. Keen at 

 Islington, is valued very much on account of its tliorns, which are 

 so numerous and so sharp and so well placed as to keep the small 

 birds from the buds and the young fruit. To this list I will add 

 a list of the best Lancashire gooseberries, which I have obtained, 

 through the kindness of a friend, from Lancashire this summer 

 (1832) ; Green, Defiance, Fair-play, Glorious, Walnut, Memy- 

 man, Moses, Xo-hribery, Grove. Yellow, Good-intent, Golden- 

 globe, Golden-meal, Tim Bobbin, Sir Charles Wolsley. White, 

 Ambush, Bonny-lass, Counsellor Brougham, Diana, Empress, 

 Fair-lady, Lovely-lass. Red, Red-walnut, Chance, Grand Turk, 

 Nonsuch, Sizer, Tarragon, Earl Grosvenor , Lancashire Lad. For 

 many years it has been the fashion to give the preference to goose- 

 berries of a large size, and the people of Lancashire (chiefly the 

 weavers) have been famous for their success in this way ; but, as 

 quality is far preferable to size, 1 regret the almost total disap- 

 pearance of the little smooth black gooseberry, and of the little 

 hairy red gooseberry, both of which have very thin skins, and are 

 of flavour delicious. The big gooseberries are nearly all skin, 

 and the pulp is of a veiy mean flavour. For several years I have 

 not seen a black gooseberry-tree in any garden except that of 

 some old farm-house ; but I would earnestly recommend to the 

 reader to obtain these two sorts, if he can. 



272. GRAPE.— See VINE. 



273. HUCKLEBERRY.— I do not recommend the cultivation 

 of this in a garden ; though two or three rods of ground may very 

 well be bestowed upon it. It grows wild in the heaths of Surrey, 

 Sussex, and Kent, and in many other parts of the kingdom, and is 

 a very good fruit for tarts, when mixed with currants, and by no 

 means bad to eat in its raw state. The benefit of cultivation 

 w ould doubtless make the fruit larger and of finer flavour. 



