ON THE VINERY. 



may be saved, as, in that case, a low wall in front 

 will answer equally as well. The shade of this 

 wall would be very injurious to the border, if the 

 Vines were to be forced early in the spring ; but 

 the meridian altitude of the sun, in the beginning of 

 summer, renders it noway prejudicial at that season. 

 Supposing a fined wall, twelve feet high, the 

 breadth of the border ten feet, and the height of 

 the upright glass frame, or wall, in front, three 

 feet, the roof will tben form an angle of about 

 forty-three degrees. Experience shows this to be 

 a proper pitch for Vines forced after the vernal 

 equinox. I mention this circumstance, because 

 some persons, who give designs for buildings of 

 this kind, lay so great a stress on this point, as to 

 pronounce a Vinery, or Peach-house, incapable of 

 answering the intended purpose, should the pitch 

 of the roof happen only to vary a degree or two 

 from their favourite angle. Indeed, if we suppose- 

 the sun's meridian altitude always the same, such 

 an objection would rest on a solid foundation ; but 

 we know that it not only varies daily, but many 

 degrees in a short space of time a ; so that if the 

 pitch of the roof depended on so nice a point, 

 what might be deemed right in the early part of 

 the spring, would certainly be wrong later in the 

 summer. 



a At London, latitude 51. 30. N. in the summer solstice, 

 (June 22.) the meridian attitude, or sun's place above the hori- 

 zon at noon-day, is 63£ degrees. But at the winter's solstice^ 

 (December 22.) it is only \6h degrees above the horizon. 



