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NOTES ON CELEBRATED VINES. 



" On receipt of your letter, I went and examined another large 

 vine at Sillwood Park, Sunningdale, near Ascot. It was planted 

 about fifty years ago. The house it is in is 123 feet long, with a 

 rafter 12 feet long. The vine is planted in the centre of the house 

 its girth at the surface of the soil is 2 feet 4 inches. It branches 

 into eight laterals on each side, right and left, which run the whole 

 length of the house, occupying an area of nearly 1500 feet. It 

 produces annually about 800 lb. of grapes. The border is the length 

 of the house, and 29 yards wide, and has not been cropped of recent 

 years." 



From my knowledge of the habits of the vine, I am certain that 

 the feeding roots of these celebrated vines have gone in search of 

 food far beyond the bounds of the borders assigned to them ; and I 

 have little doubt that if they could be traced they would be found 

 running in drains and sewers, absorbing the fluids therein contained. 



In a letter I recently received from Mr John Watson, gardener 

 to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., at his seat, the Campagna Lammemun, 

 near Geneva, he refers to three very large old vines in his neigh- 

 bourhood. He writes : " I have ascertained from family documents 

 that they were fine large vines a hundred years ago. The diameters 

 of their stems near the ground is an average of 1 foot 6 inches, 

 equal to a girth of 4 feet 6 inches. The finest of them grows on the 

 slope of Mount Salne ; the other two on the flat plain that at one 

 time probably formed part of the Lake of Geneva. The soil they 

 are growing in is pan chalk, which, when dug up in autumn, looks 

 more like a turnpike road than a vine-border ; yet these vines are 

 in great vigour, and last autumn, owing to the hot summer, yielded 

 more wine, and of higher quality, than usual. The Lake of Geneva 

 is forty miles long ; on both sides it is planted with vines ; and during 

 the autumn, hundreds of invalids come from all parts of the world 

 to undergo what is termed the ' Grape cure ' here. They begin by 

 eating J lb. of grapes a-day, and increase the quantity till it reaches 

 13 lb., when they as gradually diminish it. By this means, I have 

 known many remarkable cures effected, even of cancer, which had 

 baffled the best medical skill." 



There is a famous old Muscat vine at Harewood, near Leeds. Mr 

 Fowler, in reply to questions I addressed to him about it, writes : 

 "It was planted in the year 1783, the girth of the stem 1 foot 

 from the ground is 20 inches. It branches into two leaders, each 

 of which is 17 inches in girth. In October 1857 I lifted its roots 

 and laid them in fresh soil, the ripe grapes still hanging on it. I 

 found the soil it was gTowing in in a very bad state, and without 

 drainage. I covered the roots carefully with mats ; I gave the 



