October 4, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
307 
be placed with the sound ones, but should be stored by themselves 
for immediate use. If stored with the others they will soon do 
much damage, and the whole may become diseased. 
All Potatoes should now be lifted without delay when the 
ground is in good order and the tubers come out clean, which 
enables it to be seen which are diseased and which are not. Out of 
seven early and second early sorts grown here Myatt’s Ashleaf and 
Yeitch's Improved Ashleaf have been the worst diseased. Beauty 
of Hebron showed signs of the malady first, but the haulms were at 
once pulled up, and when lifted about three weeks after scarcely a 
diseased tuber was to be seen. Main Crop Kidney has turned out 
well with us ; only two or three diseased Potatoes could be found. 
The tubers are of even size, and when cooked are very good. 
Sutton’s Abundance and Adirondack are two first-class main crop 
Potatoes that I can strongly recommend. They are heavy croppers 
and are not much affected with disease, are of excellent flavour 
when cooked, and keep well to May and June — G. Hilton. 
GROS MAROC AND COOPER’S LATE GRAPES. 
More than once the distinctness of the above varieties has been 
questioned in this Journal, and having two canes of each variety 
planted side by side about two years ago they were fruited this 
year for the first time, and I lave paid them particular attention 
from the time that the Vines started growing until now, when 
the crop is ripe, and I consider them quite distinct varieties. 
Their growth and foliage are alike, except that Gros Maroc is a 
ittle darker in the foliage before coming into flower, but in this 
early stage of growth the most marked difference is at the thinning 
stage. The bunches of Cooper’s Late when ready to thin is very 
like a Black Hamburgh, the berries all drooping down with long 
footstalks, whereas the bunches of Gros Maroc are more like Gros 
Colman, with berries quite stiff and horizontal. Passing to their 
present stage we have the two varieties ripe covered with a fine 
bloom, but if anything Gros Maroc is the better in this respect, 
but in shape of bunch and size of berry they show quite a 
distinct character. The bunches of Cooper’s Late are longer and 
more tapering than Gros Maroc, with smaller and rounder berries. 
The following will clearly explain. YU the bunches of the two 
varieties were thinned alike, and I now find that Gros Maroc was 
left too thick, as some of the berries are quite jammed, while the 
bunches of Cooper’s Late are rather loose, and a few more berries 
left at thinning would be an improvement. I may say that I 
secured the eyes of Cooper’s Late from Mr. Lees when gardener at 
Hillsborough Castle, and who used to show it so well at the Edin¬ 
burgh autumn shows.— David Murray, Culzean Castle, Maybole. 
BERKELEY CASTLE. 
There are few of the “historic homes of England” to which a 
deeper interest, and none to which a more tragic one attaches itself, than 
that which surrounds the ancient homes of the Fitzhardinges, for it was 
here that the weak and unhappy King Edward II. was “ done to death,” 
after suffering a series of prolonged humiliations and miseries, which 
covered his enemies with shame, and has left their name to be abhorred 
by ail succeeding generations of Englishmen. It had long been my 
I desire to visit this fine old baronial castle, and an opportunity having pre- 
| sented itself during a late visit to Gloucestershire, I gladly availed myself 
of it. To visit a place is one thing, but to visit it in pleasant company 
I is another, and as a curious incident in one’s life, I may be pardoned if I 
allude to it. Forty-nine years ago a very merry party went over in a 
yacht to see that magnificent pageant the Eglinton Tournament. We 
were thirteen in number, most of us young. Of all the number all had 
passed away except two, and those two had never met since then until 
the Gloucester Rose Show, when a lady found me out there and made 
herself known to me. At first I failed to remember, but when she 
mentioned the Eglinton Tournament all came back fresh to my memory. 
! At her request I visited her at her husband’s pleasant vicarage near 
Gloucester, and he very kindly arranged the party which on a bright 
and pleasant day—of which we have had so few this year—we made to 
Berkeley Castle. How much changed from those early days all was! and 
i yet I am thankful to say we did most heartily enjoy ourselves, and were 
i able to be thankful that after so many many years we were permitted 
i ‘ta meet again. 
I have said that much mournful interest attaches to Berkeley Castle, 
and, like most of our ancient castles, it has a long and interesting 
history ; and, as is so often the case, totally different families, but 
. assuming the same name, were successively owners of the estate. The 
I Be Berkeleys who originally held it were of an old Saxon family, who 
i took their name from the manor of which they became possessed, and 
lived there until the male line became extinct in the reign of Stephen 
I in 1382. In the wars of Stephen’s reign the Empress Matilda received 
money and assistance from the Bristol merchants, amongst whom was 
& Robert Harding or Fitz Harding ; for this assistance he was rewarded 
by the gift from Prince Henry of the Manor of Berkeley, expelling 
therefrom Roger de Berkeley. However matters were smoothed over by 
wbat was often an expedient in those days—a marriage-and thus 
Robert Fitzhardinge obtained quiet possession of the Royal manor of 
Berkeley, and in his family it has remained with one short exception 
up to the present time. The lords of Berkeley have played no un¬ 
important part in English history. One of them was amongst the 
Barons who won Magna Charta from King John, and the Castle was one 
of their meeting places. They were engaged in the war which reduced 
Wales, and also in the Scotch wars against Wallace and Bruce. They 
crossed the sea and fought at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. The 
meeting between Henry of Lancaster and the Duke of York, which 
led to the downfall of Richard II., was held at the Castle. They took 
no active part in the wars of the Roses, having a nice little quarrel of 
their own to settle, during which the Castle was taken and retaken 
several times. Berkeley suffered during the Parliamentarian wars, but 
less so than many places ; while in recent years the lords of Berkeley 
have been remarkable for their love of sport, and a fine pack of hounds 
testifies to the present earl’s love and encouragement of sport. 
The garden at Berkeley Castle is not what is called a show garden. 
You see no such stately houses as at Chats worth, nor the long range of 
structures as at Drumlanrig, nor the grand gardens of Trentham. In 
these and other places the individual taste of the owner favours the 
operations of the gardener. But Lord Fitzhardinge has no love for 
flowers. If he walks through the gardens he takes but little interest in 
them, and hence they are more utilitarian than ornamental. Plants are 
grown in them, and grown well, by Mr. Shore, who unfortunately was 
absent at the time of my visit; but they were plants mostly used for 
the ornamentation of the house, whether as plants or cut flowers. 
Nowhere have I seen better plants of Eucharis grandiflora all in good 
and healthy condition. Here, too, one found well-grown examples of a fine 
stove plant, too often neglected, but wherever grown always welcomed, 
Strelitzia reginas, while the small conservatory was gay with Begonias, 
Pelargoniums, and well-managed plants of Campanula pyramidalis, 
which is exceedingly effective when well done at this time of the year. 
Then the houses devoted to fruit were in excellent order ; a fine crop of 
Peaches and Grapes had been gathered, and others were in course of 
coming on, and so all through everything was well done. 
But I think the chief feature at Berkeley is the terrace garden. 
This is situated at the south side of the Castle and against its walls. It 
is thus in a sunny and favourable aspect for growing many things, 
especially in the sheltered position that Berkeley occupies. Against the 
walls Magnolias, Roses, Ceanothus, Myrtles, and other flowering shrubs 
occupy places which were doubtless in former times filled with various 
means of defence, which it became needful to use, exposed as it was to 
the incursions of the Welsh. On the terrace itself are beds of various 
flowers, such as Salpiglossis, Carnations, and other old-fashioned flowers, 
the sunn}' aspect of the terrace being peculiarly adapted for their early 
development. Then in another part is the neatly kept bowling green, 
surrounded by shrubs of various kinds, and then what grand trees and 
what abundant foliage there is about the place ! how splendid are the 
Elms, which rejoice in their rich deep soil 1 and what a grand view is 
obtained from these terraces, or better still from the tower called 
Thorpes Tower 1 Here the eye may roam over a view unsurpassed in its 
way for loveliness and beauty. North and south runs the rich vale of 
Berkeley, with its verdant pasture and splendid foliage. Turning to the 
east and south-east the Cotswolds are seen rising up here and there 
through the dense mass of Beech groves which clothe their sides into 
the bare chalky downs in which their summits end, and then you see 
deeply wooded valleys running into them, where doubtless many a 
scene of beauty can be enjoyed. On the west side the Severn flows, 
while beyond it are the woods of the Forest of Dean, suggestive of much 
coal and iron, of collieries and smelting works, while close at hand the 
town lies, as in so many cases of these old castles, nestling for shelter, 
and as in Arundel, Alnwick, and other places, and, indeed, as it was 
needful, for as the inhabitants were all in some way connected with the 
Castle, they needed to be protected when the lords of Berkeley had to 
defend themselves. 
Before concluding this brief notice of Berkeley Castle, let me say 
that although the gardening presents no grand features it does present 
that which is often wanting in more pretentious places, extreme neat¬ 
ness and tidiness. Nowhere inside the houses or out of doors were there 
the slightest marks of slovenliness. I have been to places from whence 
the most magnificent plants were sent to the chief shows in the kingdom, 
and one had to go through a series of dung heaps to see them, and except 
in the houses themselves dirt and confusion ruled supreme. Here both 
garden and pleasure ground were pleasant to see, and did much credit 
to Mr. Shore, under whose management they have been for some years. 
—D., Beal. _ 
A USEFUL PEACH CASE. 
Peach-growing, as most gardeners know, is very uncertain out on 
the open walls, and the genial rector of Welbourn, the Rev. F. Leslie 
Melville, and his family, who are fond of good Peaches, found trusting 
to trees on a south wail was very disappointing. An elaborate Peach 
house heated with hot water was not wanted, but sufficient shelter to 
protect the trees when in bloom ; also something that would help to 
ripen the fruit and wood for the following year. That this has been 
accomplished may be judged from the fact that trees are loaded with 
fruits. I counted seventy-eight beautiful fruit on one tree of Grosse 
Mignonne Peach, 9 feet 6 inches by 7 feet, and several others were 
cropped in the same way. The trees are well supplied with liquid 
