810 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ AprU 2r, 1893. 
The West of Scotland Eosaeians’ Society. 
The Exhibition of the above Society will be held in the Victoria Hall, 
Helensburgh, on Friday, July 14th, and many of the classes are open to 
any growers in the United Kingdom. A good schedule has been pre¬ 
pared, the highest first prize offered being £3, or the Society’s gold 
medal for sixty blooms, distinct varieties. 
The Dean and the Duchess. 
It is not long since one of our Scottish contributors, the Rev. David R* 
Williamson of Kirkmaiden, in a letter to his friend the young Duchess 
of Sutherland, recommended Her Grace to read the Dean of Rochester’s 
book, assuring her that if she did so she would inevitably become, as 
hundreds have done after perusing the same volume, an ardent amateur 
rosarian. This prediction has been fulfilled, for since that period the 
Duchess has been assiduously engaged in establishing a Rose garden at 
her Lillieshall residence in Shropshire, with the assistance of Mr. 
Benjamin R. Cant, the Colchester rosarian. 
We also understand that Her Grace has given Mr. Williamson an 
invitation to Trentham and Lillieshall, that he may have the pleasure 
of visiting her Orchid bouse at the former, and her miniature rosarium 
at the latter mansion house. 
The Duchess of Sutherland, whose name is a valuable addition to the 
list of eminent amateur horticulturists, is a daughter of the late Earl of 
Rosslyn, and inherits her father’s poetical gifts. She is the authoress 
of a picturesque book entitled, “ How I Spent my Twentieth Year,” 
which has already passed through several editions. 
Roses and Rosakians. 
I AM much obliged to “ W. R. Eaillem” for the information he ha® 
given me on page 310. As he appears to be well-meaning and equally 
well informed, I am quite willing to accept all his statements as 
correct. 
The mistake regarding Madame Isaac Pereire was a trifling one, 
which I observed shortly after I had sent off for publication the article 
in which it occurred. If I rightly remember, “ D., Beal" whom I 
greatly respect, spoke simply of that Rose as “ Isaac Pereire.” But 
this probably was done for the sake of condensation, and not from lack 
of knowing that the Bourbon variety in question represented Isaac’s 
wife. It is, I find, included by Mr. Wm. Paul among Hybrid Perpetuals ; 
but he speaks of it also as a Perpetual Bourbon, and I think that most 
rosarians, whether amateur or professional, will bow to his decision, 
I may also say, while writing on this subject, that Mrs. Paul (I mean 
the Rose) is one of my most valued possessions. I have given her a 
commanding position in my garden, where she has the Lilium auratum 
(rubro-pictum) on the one side and the Duke of Edinburgh on the 
other, and I do not suppose she has ever received a better testimonial 
than I recently gave her in the Journal of Horticulture. So the great 
English, Scottish, and Irish rosarians are unanimous in pronouncing 
this magnificent Rose to be a pure Bourbon. I accept their verdict 
unquestioningly. 
When recording in recent articles contributed to your Journal the 
great services rendered to amateur rosarians by the Dean of Rochester, 
one of whose latest disciples is the young Duchess of Sutherland, it was 
my intention also to have spoken appreciatively of those of the Rev. 
H. D’Ombrain, who has done much for the popularising of French 
Roses in England. His services to the more famous British raisers of 
this most beautiful of flowers have also been very great. This fact is 
acknowledged, as I am in a position to testify, by several of the most 
eminent English rosarians. For this and many other reasons I am 
sincerely glad to remember that a superb Bourbon Rose, well worthy of 
that honour, has been inseparably associated with his distinguished name. 
Happy are they whose efforts are thus crowned with a floral immortality ! 
—David R. Williamson. 
NOTES FROM IRELAND. 
Carton, Maynooth. 
The princely and principal seat of the Duke of Leinster, situated in 
North Kildare on the borders of Meath, consists of a walled-in desmesne 
of 1000 acres, with four lodge entrances and an outer lodge at May¬ 
nooth giving entrance to a semi-private avenue leading to the desmesne 
proper. The world-famed college of St. Patrick faces the main street 
of Maynooth, whilst on the right are the massive ruins of its castle, 
with Ivy-clad keep some 80 feet high, bearing date 1180, a residence of 
the Earls of Kildare until Cromwell gained by treachery what his 
bombardment from Crew Hill failed to effect. Mementoes of the siege 
are to be seen at Carton in the iron cannon balls found about the old 
castle, together with a massive and curious stone table bearing a Latin 
inscription and date 1553, which, happily, has not suffered, and now 
stands in the centre of the Italian garden. 
The mansion, built of dressed limestone, ranks with the finest of the 
stately homes of Ireland, the southern front being very imposing, com¬ 
manding a view of the Dublin mountains some twenty miles distant. 
The reception rooms, in keeping with the stately exterior, contain some 
fine ceilings, that of the salon, executed in the early part of last century, 
being a chef d'ceuvre of Italian artists, whose names are commemorated 
on a brass plate. This room contains also a fine organ in a white and 
gold case, exquisitely designed by a member of the family. Generations 
who have passed away look down from the walls, and many heirlooms 
of the noble house of Fitzgerald are gathered here. 
The desmesne is bisected by the Eye, a tributary of the Liffey, mid¬ 
way expanding into a lake of considerable dimensions, with several 
islands planted with Laburnums and scarlet Thorns. The Golden Elder 
is also conspicuous by the fine tone of colour it obtains in summer ; 
while in winter very rich is the purple-red Dogwood fringing both 
islands and lake. Neither in England nor Ireland have I seen it so 
bright and effective as here. As with that, so with the golden and red 
Willows. The lake abounds with wild duck, and its smaller but more 
graceful cousin, the pochard, makes an annual visit from its Norwegian 
home. Herons and otters find here food to their liking. 
At the south end of the lake is the cottage and grounds—outside 
a low, quaint, picturesque building; inside a bit of fairyland, walls and 
roof sparkling with shells and rock crystal, the work of a former 
Duchess of Leinster. The cottage is also a museum of Irish antiquities 
and curios from foreign lands collected by members of the family. The 
undulating grounds are pretty and interesting, containing some fine 
Coniferas, including good specimens of the feathery Hemlock Spruce. 
Near the cottage is the rare, sweet, white Fringe Tree, Chionanthus 
virginicus. West of the cottage Snowdrops grow hie et ubique, and the 
river banks are clothed with at least an acre of Omphalodes verna, 
happy on the limestone, as is the double form of Saxifraga granulata. 
In a small enclosed garden for the use of the caretaker the old walls 
are cushioned with the modest Erinus alpinus, very beautiful in its 
deep purple glow, hidden from the outer world. 
The river, after skirting the cottage grounds, flows partly through a 
natural rocky gorge. The Foetid Hellebore is abundant, and sheets of 
Hypericum calycinum drape the limestone ; while the Spindle Wood 
(Euonymus) hangs out its coral decorations in early winter. Crossing 
the Black Bridges, on which grow the Ceterach and Asplenium 
trichomanes, the upper road is reached by the Queen’s Pass, a steep 
carriage way, cut in the rock by Augustus Frederick, third Duke, and 
first used by Her Majesty, who visited Carton in 1849. Passing a fine 
plantation of Lilacs the Bogwoods are reached. Alterations (improve¬ 
ments perhaps) were made in the days of “ Capability Brown ” from 
designs furnished by him. If any vestiges of his work remain they are 
probably to be found here in some splendid Silver Firs, remains of 
avenues, which can still be traced. The green glades of the Bogwoods 
are lined with Syringa and Rhododendrons. Moygaddy, the northern 
part of the desmesne, is planted largely with Spruce and Silver Firs ; 
here the finest Rhododendrons are found. That venerable horticulturist, 
the late Mr. Geo. Cunningham of Liverpool, told me he had many years 
since received a personal order from the Duke for some thousands ; here 
they are, but he has passed away so quietly and unobstrusively, yet so 
strong a link connecting gardening past and present, that I may be 
pardoned this digression. When I first saw him on his annual Irish trip 
he said, “ For forty consecutive years I have visited Carton, each time 
dining in the gardener’s house.” I need hardly say he continued to do so 
while I was there, nor how much I enjoyed the anecdotes of this gentle¬ 
man, gardener, and scholar, who saw the death of Huskesson at the 
opening of the first railroad, and had dined with Paxton in the 
gardener’s house at Chatsworth. 
From the gardens facing the mansion a broad walk through a 
shrubbery leads to the kitchen garden. Midway on the right is a 
sequestered nook with some fine Tulip Trees, and large bushes of the 
Snowdrop Tree, Halesia tetraptera. Cedars in variety are plentiful; 
several trees of C. Libani are grand, but the Beech is par excellence the 
timber tree of Carton. Here in this shrubbery are giants sending far up 
their clean silvery grey boles, some with pendulous branches again 
sweeping down, the whole forming a beautiful avenue. In the autumn 
of that year of phenomenal sunsets early frosts had minted the foliage 
into old gold. One evening is indelibly impressed on my memory, when 
that weird after glow had relighted the dying day. The effect was magical. 
In stillness unbroken by the whisper of a leaf I feasted on this 
enchanting scene of Nature till night’s curtain shut it out. Ere morning 
a gust of wind had brought the golden glory to the ground, where it 
lay, alas I nothing but leaves. “ Sic transit gloria mundi." 
The kitchen garden, 10 acres of which is enclosed by a lofty and sub¬ 
stantial wall, was formerly more than double the size, being then con¬ 
tinued to the boundary wall of the desmesne. Entering the garden 
the head gardener’s house, old-fashioned, roomy, and comfortable, lays 
in a sunny nook. A long range of fruit houses bisect the garden trans¬ 
versely, behind these lay the plant houses and ranges of pits. Beautiful 
Yew hedges clipped into solid walls of green give good shelter. Pears 
do remarkably well on the walls, some very old but fine specimens of 
horizontal training tell of the long ago. As at Straffan on the Liffey, so 
here, spring frosts are troublesome. A long sheet of water bounding the 
garden on one side and continued into the shrubbery has been suspected, 
and probably is guilty of lowering the temperature, in which a few 
degrees either side of freezing point means so much with fruit trees 
in blossom. 
Near the mansion is a small secluded plot of consecrated ground 
selected by the late Duke as his last resting place ; and here, when a 
