158 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ February 22, 1883. 
you there never was such a crop of Grapes at Longleat as you 
may see at Clovenfords now, and if you don’t go we shall know 
the reason why.” To be told that I should “ deserve thrashing ” 
if I did not go to one place and to be adjudged a coward if I did 
not go to the other was not quite pleasant, so I resolved to visit 
both. Of Clovenfords I had intended saying something long since, 
but opposing circumstances have been too powerful, and it has 
happened that, though Drumlanrig was visited last, it falls to be 
noticed first. Considering its magnitude and commanding impor¬ 
tance from a gardening point of view, this notice will be very 
brief—a few jottings from memory of the prominent features. 
Soon after leaving Thornhill station the Castle is seen standing 
in solitary grandeur on a spur in the bosom of a wildly beautiful 
valley surrounded with majestic hills. Viewed from a distance it 
is a picture of loneliness, and if old records express the truth this 
isolation was the means of its first owner uttering a more curious 
than terrible invocation, which might only have been meant to 
alarm the builders, but is capable of wider application. It has, 
however, no deterrent effect on visitors, who appear to have ready 
access, not even a gate from the main thoroughfares opposing the 
way. But to this curious invocation. It is thus embodied m an 
old gazetteer :—“ This great pile occupied ten years in building, 
and was finished in 1689, the year after the revolution. William I., 
Duke of Queensberry, celebrated in civil his'.ory as a statesman, 
and in the annals of the Covenanters as an abettor of persecution, 
planned and completed it, and he expended upon it such enormous 
sums of money, and during the only night of his residing within 
its walls was so exacerbated by the inaccessibility of medical ad¬ 
vice to relieve him from a temporary fit of illness, that he aban¬ 
doned it in disgust, and afterwards, in the unpolished language of 
the period, wrote upon the artificers’ bills for erecting it— 1 The 
deil pike out his een that looks herein.’ Drumlanrig Castle was 
the principal residence of the family of Queensberry, but on the 
death of Charles, the third Duke, in 1777, without male issue, it 
passed along with the Queensberry titles to William, Earl of March, 
and upon the death of the latter in 1810 it went by entail to the 
Duke of Buccleuch.” So much historically for this huge square 
pile and noble patrimony of some 250,000 acres, practically un¬ 
fenced, all being open, grand, and free. From the gardens, some 
fifty acres of pleasure grounds, and a paddock or two the deer 
are excluded, but that appears to be all in the way of restriction 
on thi great demesne. 
Yet in this wildness there is comfort for the Duke’s dependants, 
excellent dwellings being provided for all.. Typical of these is 
the gardener’s house (fig. 47), which is represented as a model 
of its kind ; and no one more hospitable is to be found than the 
accomplished gardener who has for so long dwelt there—Mr. 
David Thomson, the cordial welcome he extends to visitors being 
proverbial. This pretty cottage stands on the steep hill side of a 
lofty range that extends along the west side of the garden and 
dressed grounds, a commanding, almost a bird’s-eye view, being 
had of the former from the windows and terrace. At our feet is 
the herbaceous garden, gay with a variety of flowers in summer 
and rendered cheerful by neat shrubs in winter. On the right, 
forming the southern boundary of the garden, is the remarkable 
span-roofed fruit range exactly 498 feet in length without any 
division, and 18 feet wide. This house is as good as it is great, 
being neat in appearance, substantial, admirably adapted for its 
purpose, and excellently furnished with thriving trees of well- 
selected fruits. The trees are trained to wires 16 inches from 
the glass, and as viewed from the end this long tunnel-like arch 
has a remarkable appearance. The structure is, moreover, profit¬ 
able, as, being efficiently heated with 3000 feet of piping, heavy 
crops of fruit are insured, which could not be produced outdoors 
in this dull and wet locality. A broad cast-metal path runs 
down the centre of the house, and the side curbs act as metals 
for a railway waggon for conveying materials in and out of the 
house. The trees are planted in the side borders, and although 
they have only been there about four years they quite cover the 
trellises and bear heavy crops of splendid fruit—Figs, Peaches, 
Nectarines, Plums, and Pears. The Pears are mostly grown as 
cordons trained 2 feet apart, the others being fan-shaped. The 
Peaches consist chiefly of Dr. Hogg, Yiolette Hative, Stirling 
Castle, Sea Eagle, Bellegarde, Walburton Admirable, and Princess 
of Wales ; the Nectarines of Lord Napier, Elruge, Pitmaston 
Orange, Humboldt, Pine Apple, Prince of Wales, and Victoria. 
Thus a long succession of fruit of the first quality is provided ; 
and as in most cases a tree of each is planted on both sides of 
the house—north and south—the season of each is thus pro¬ 
longed. It is not necessary to dwell on the merits of all the 
varieties, as they are mostly well known ; but it may be stated 
that Lord Napier Nectarine is only really fine during a warm 
season—a hint that may be given to northern planters, and that 
Humboldt, judging by the splendid fruit and its high quality, ia 
not sufficiently known. Pine Apple was extremely fine, and the 
Sea Eagle Peach is esteemed as a late variety for its large size and 
excellent flavour. This imposing and most serviceable structure 
is one of the prominent features of this fine garden ; but there are 
other ranges of glass, and something in every house worthy of note. 
No pretence, however, will be made to particularise half of what 
was seen during a fine day in September. 
“ There is not so much glass at Drumlanrig as I expected to 
see,” observed a gardener, who evidently went with great ex¬ 
pectations, further remarking, “ there is a nice bit I grant, yet I 
looked for more, but the culture is first-rate.” Well, this “ nice 
bit ” of glass amounts to 51,000 superficial feet, 14,000 linear feet 
of piping being employed in heating. How many men are en¬ 
gaged in the houses I am not able to say ; but there are eighteen 
in the young gardeners’ rooms, the term “bothy” being quite 
inadequate to this excellent and very complete building. Every¬ 
thing appears to have been arranged for the comfort of the occu¬ 
pants—separate bedrooms, bath-room, &c.; in fact, the building 
resembles a small barracks of the most approved construction, 
and, convenient to the fires, a huge subterranean chamber, con¬ 
taining large cruciform boilers (Meiklejohn’s Improved), for heat¬ 
ing the various structures, the smoke being conducted to a shaft 
half a mile away among the tree-clad hills. 
Parallel with the fruit range above noticed, forming the southern 
boundary of the walled kitchen garden, an enclosure of six acres, 
is a large, broad, and lofty lean-to range on the north side, of the 
same length as the other, and of course facing the seuth. In this 
range there was much demanding notice ; but the Black Ham¬ 
burgh house was the great centre of attraction. The crop was 
wonderful alike by the size of the bunches, ranging from 4 to 
8 lbs., and the high finish of the berries. It is not too much to 
say—and I say it without hesitation, and in full consciousness that 
these notes will be read by some of the best judges of the matter— 
that fifty bunches of Black Hamburghs, and probably a hundred, 
could have been cut from this one house that would have sur¬ 
passed the best examples of the same kind that were staged at 
Edinburgh. Assuming that this assertion will not be contradicted, 
not another word is necessary to indicate that this was a splendid 
example of Grape culture. As evidence that I am not disposed 
to bestow indiscriminate and too fulsome praise on everything in 
this ducal establishment, I have next to say that many fitter crops 
of Muscats have been seen than in tha house adjoining, not that 
it was a bad crop, the bunches small and the berries faulty ; on 
the contrary, it was such as many gardeners would be proud to 
owd, but it was too near the Hamburghs to show to advantage. 
The soil would appear to be too cold and wet for Muscats ; at any 
rate they lacked the wonderful vigour of their black neighbours 
and of a Gros Colman in the Muscat house. The crop on this 
Vine was all that could be desired, and more than could have 
been expected a Vine could carry and finish so well, the rods being 
crowded with fine bunches and large berries covered with thick 
purple bloom. And what about the Duke ? A great part of the 
crop had been cut, but there was what may be termed a large 
sprinkling left—fine, regular, full bunches, with huge berries 
almost without spot or blemish. Wherever this, the most abused 
and most praised of Grapes may have failed, and failed it has in 
too many instances, it beyond doubt succeeds at Drumlanrig, and 
it cannot be seen and tasted as it is there produced without com¬ 
manding emphatic approval. It is, in truth, a magnificent Grape, 
and not a few who did not succeed in their first attempt at grow¬ 
ing it are now giving it another trial. I have more to say both 
about the Duke and Gros Colman in connection with their culture 
in the Tweed vineyards, and now pass on. 
A few Vines fruited in pots at Drumlanrig merit notice. They 
are grown for dinner-table decoration, and only on a table and in 
a room of more than ordinary size could such examples be 
appropriately placed. The Vines are grown in ordinary large 
pots ; but before starting the canes are drawn through 7-inch pots, 
which stand almost on the soil in the others, the surfaces of the 
smaller pots being covered with Selaginella. The smaller pots 
become filled with roots by the autumn ; the stem is severed from 
the original roots, the pot placed in a suitable receptacle, and the 
freshness of the Vine maintained as long as is needed. The canes 
of these Vines are not taken with a clean stem and twisted so as 
to form a hoop, from which the bunches depend. Such Vines are 
no doubt handsome, but here they are grown in the most natural 
manner possible, the cane being secured to a stake, and the laterals 
take their own course, being thinned and stopped at such distances 
as the cultivator deems best for attaining his object. When ready 
for table they are open pyramids about 5 feet high, and with 
a maximum diameter of about 2 feet. Each lateral bears a 
bunch of Grapes, and as there are eight or ten of them, fine, well- 
