JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
240 
[ March 22, 1883. 
as we will look on now in all its pastoral beauty and rugged 
grandeur. 
We are on the ramparts of Stirling Castle, a fortress so old that 
its early history is lost in obscurity, and remarkable alike by its 
position and associations, for here kings have been born, im¬ 
prisoned, and died, and the fortress has been won and lost after 
long and desperate struggles more times than I can remember. 
But the period of turmoil is over ; and the English, dreaded once, 
and repulsed many times, are welcomed now, for Stirling is a 
great centre for tourists, and he must be hard to please who leaves 
the town dissatisfied with either the inhabitants or their beautiful 
district. 
Those readers of these notes, and they must be many, who 
have visited this romantic locality, will know that the castle rock 
rises abruptly to a height of some 300 or 400 feet from a level 
plain, and they will agree that those who have not seen it can 
form but a slight conception of its appearance and magnificent sur¬ 
roundings. It is pleasant to read of the delight that a visit to some 
fine old country seat affords ; its park and lake, woodlands, lawns, 
and gardens, are described in a manner to which they are j ustly 
entitled ; but from our standpoint a scene far grander than that 
from the most imposing of domestic terraces is spread out before 
us, and in which some half-dozen homes of the great are seen as the 
smallest features in the landscape. McNeil did not exaggerate 
when he penned the following lines on “ The Links of Forth: ”— 
“ O ! grander far than Windsor’s brow 1 
And richer, too, the vale below I 
Whar Forth’s unrivall’d windings flow 
Through varied graine, 
Brightening, I ween, in glittering glow 
Sterlina’s plain. 
There raptured trace (enthroned on hie) 
The landscape stretching on the ee 
Frae Grampian heights down to the sea— 
A dazzling view I 
Corn, meadow, mansion, water, tree 
In varying hue.” 
That is a literally accurate description of the view before us. 
From one side we see the field of Bannockburn, where some four 
and a half centuries ago thirty thousand English troops were slain, 
and the statue of the conqueror Bruce, near which we stand, looks 
over the scene of his great victory. Entering by the drawbridge 
and passing through a pretty garden we look down from an almost 
dazzling height to the king’s park and garden below, now used 
as a recreation ground, and on the wooded heights in the distance 
is Polmaise Castle, the seat of Col. Murray. Looking towards the 
Garvan hills the eye rests on another ponderous rock, Abbey 
Craig, surmounted with the Wallace monument—an imposing 
tower, completed in 1869 in honour of the Scottish patriot, Sir 
William Wallace. This is a favourite place of public resort, and, 
to strangers especially, is not less interesting, as they have a view 
of no less than six battlefields, in two of which both Wallace and 
Bruce displayed their prowess. Surely this is a sufficiently out-of- 
the-way circumstance to entitle me to claim for these notes, as 
suggested, an “ out-of-the-way ” character. 
The tower of Cambuskenneth Abbey arrests notice ; it is very 
ancient, records pertaining to it nearly 1700 years ago still exist- 
ing. Also within easy range of the vision are Airthrey Castle, the 
seat of Lord Abercrombie of Aboukir ; Keir, described on page 550 
last volume ; Drummond House, the seat of Charles Home Drum¬ 
mond Moray, Esq., of Blair Drummond ; Touch House, the seat of 
Sir Henry Seton Stewart, Bart. Still nearer the rugged eminence 
of Craigforth, while at our feet is the picturesque cemetery grounds 
which were purchased and laid out by that great benefactor and 
good man the late Mr. William Drummond, who further invested 
a sum of money for keeping them in order. It will be granted 
now our standpoint is commanding, and dwarfs by comparison 
the panoramas which are spread before mansions we are apt, and 
not unfairly, to call “ great.” Only one of the seats above men¬ 
tioned I had an opportunity of visiting, and am happy, therefore, 
in having an excuse to go to Stirling again ; but there was one 
little spot down in the carse below, and apparently not more 
than a mile distant, that I left behind even more reluctantly than 
all—the snug home of the famed octogenarian Auricula grower, 
Mr. Meiklejohn ; but the exigencies of Fleet Street permitted no 
delay, and for the same reason I was denied the anticipated pleasure 
of a gardener’s grasp with the “ Northern Amateur,” who writes 
so entertainingly on gardens and flowers in the north, and grows 
them so well but a few miles distant. Quite naturally, and almost 
unconsciously, I have glided into gardening. It is the usual re¬ 
sult. Start from whence I may I somehow “land” in a garden. 
And now for a violent plunge from battle fields to Orchids. 
Bn. PATERSON’S GARDEN. 
This is quite of an out-of-the-way character, but is not in an 
out-of-the-way place, for Bridge of Allan is very accessible, being 
the first station from Stirling on the highland route, and within 
two miles from the town. Of this village the local chronicler, 
Mr. Shearer (whose “ Guide ” all visitors should obtain), applies 
Goldsmith’s familiar lines as a “ word painting”— 
“ Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain ; ” 
and it is certainly charmingly situated, admirably sheltered, and 
salubrious. Dr. Paterson is an old and honoured resident of this 
popular watering place, and is famed for much more than Orchids ; 
but it is with these we have more immediately to deal. 
After seeing the splendid specimens from the Fernfield 
collection that were sold in Edinburgh in September, and 
w’hich realised some £800, and then visiting the houses in which 
they were grown a week afterwards and finding them yet well 
furnished, a stranger could not fail to be struck with astonish¬ 
ment. He would be excused even if he declared it impossible 
that such plants could have been grown in the small structures 
in the doctor’s villa garden ; but they were grown there, 
and hundreds still remain of great value and in superb 
health. If there are any individuals remaining who are deeply 
impressed with the idea that Orchid culture is difficult and 
costly, that expensive structures of some special design are requi¬ 
site, and that fuel must be consumed at an extravagant rate to 
maintain a high temperature, let them visit Fernfield, and all such 
notions will be dissipated in an hour. For gaining a lesson on 
Orchid culture made easy it would be a task to find a more com¬ 
petent tutor than Dr. Paterson. Long experience has shown that 
great results can be achieved with small conveniences and simple 
methods. Common sense and moderate temperatures appear to 
be the governing principles here. If the house is in any sense 
uncomfortable to the owner—too “ stuffy ” and oppressive—it is 
deemed unsuitable for the plants. Fresh air without draughts, a 
sweet genial atmosphere, and a temperature in which a person 
may remain for an hour with his coat on, is fairly characteristic 
of the doctor’s Orchid house, where Cattleyas, Vandas, Phalm- 
nopsids, and other forms flourish that are so often found languish¬ 
ing in excessive heat. Similar results may be seen in Mr. Smee’s 
rapidly growing collection of upwards of four hundred species at 
Wallington, where interesting experiments are being made, testing 
the effects of climatic influences on various plants. “ Admit air 
freely” is Dr. Paterson’s axiom, but (an important “but” this is) 
“always on the leeward side of the house.” Even with a door 
open on certain days there is no draught then, but a moist yet 
buoyant atmosphere can at the same time be maintained. Dry 
floors and houses with driving currents of air—always opening the 
ventilators on the same side of a house from whichever quarter 
the wind may be blowing—will ruin almost any Orchids, even 
“ cool house ” kinds ; while no amount of heat applied to tropical 
kinds can atone for that initial mistake. Such mistakes are never 
made by the doctor, and the still lingering dictum that high 
temperatures are indispensable for Orchids is emphatically dis¬ 
pelled by the admirable condition of his plants. 
And now as to the costliness of culture, the evidence of the 
sale referred to may be adduced. A grand example of Cattleya 
labiata Warneri with seventy-nine bulbs and sixty leaves realised 
forty-five guineas; C. labiata and C. Trianse Symei thirty-nine 
guineas each, and C. Mendeli twenty-seven guineas ; Dendrobium 
thyrsiflorum Walkerianum thirty-seven guineas ; Ltelia anceps 
Barkeri twenty-six guineas; Aerides Fieldingi twenty-five 
guineas ; Vanda tricolor Patersoni twenty-one guineas; An- 
graecum sesquipedale eighteen guineas, and so on, until the 
above-named total of £800 was reached ; and this out of three 
small houses in which scores of pounds worth were left behind, 
one house being, perhaps, 15 feet square, the other two collectively 
about 30 feet long by 12 feet wide, plain span-roofs, such as are 
usually devoted to Pelargoniums and Fuchsias, Coleuses, Bego¬ 
nias, and Balsams. So far from Orchid culture being costly, the 
“ weight of evidence ” tends to show that it is, when well con¬ 
ducted, decidedly profitable, for on the debtor side we have only 
to enter the doctor’s leisure hours in potting and watering, 
assisted by a woman labourer for sponging the plants and keeping 
the houses clean, and the fuel. This is a comparatively small item 
where the temperature by fire heat ranges from 50° to 60°, and the 
position is sheltered, as it is in this case, by the Orchids on the 
east and well-wooded rising ground on the north. It is a simple 
fact that no more costfis incurred here in growing plants of such 
great value than is usually involved in the culture of ordinary 
stove and greenhouse plants. 
These small Orchid houses must have been densely crowded 
before the sale, seeing that they are full now ; the plants, how¬ 
ever, being smaller are arranged on stages, while previously the 
large specimens were stood on the ash-covered floor. Instead of 
