286 
THE LADIES MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
be planted in a mixture of river-sand and leaf earth mould, kept tolerably 
warm, and after it has begun to sprout it should be planted in an open 
bed. It is propagated by seeds, which ripen quite well with us ; also by 
the young bulbs. It is much more tender in cultivation than Tigridia 
Pavonia.” —F. 0. 
THE EDITOR’S TOUR. 
(Continued from p. 264.) 
August 1st .—Corehouseto Peebles .—We were all sorry to leave Core¬ 
house, which, in the bright sunshine of the morning on which we departed, 
looked more beautiful than ever; and we saw very little in the towns of 
Lanark and Biggar to compensate for what we had left behind. In the 
town of Lanark we were shown the house in which Wallace lived when 
his wife was murdered by the English Governor; but even the recollec¬ 
tion of Miss Porter s Scottish Chiefs could not throw any poetry around 
the small, common-looking street house pointed out to us. In fact, the 
reality destroyed the charm ; and I would rather not have seen it. The 
sight of many other places mentioned in the Scottish Chiefs, produced the 
same effect upon my mind. I read the novel when I was a girl, and have 
never seen it since, so that all the most striking scenes in it w r ere enshrined 
in my memory as they appeared from Miss Porter’s vivid sketches to my 
youthful imagination; and it is not at all surprising that they were very 
different from the plain truth. The town of Biggar has nothing interest¬ 
ing about it but the hills by which it is surrounded. I w T as disappointed 
with New Posso, the next place we visited, probably because I heard a 
great deal about it before I saw it. It is finely situated among beautiful 
hills, and with the surface of the ground finely undulated ; and it has a 
beautiful stream running through it. I do not think, however, that art has 
lent any aid to nature ; on the contrary, the plantations and laying out of 
the grounds did not appear to me to harmonise with the general character 
of the place. The principal feature is an immense quantity of Rhododen¬ 
drons, Portugal laurels, and Laurustinus, disposed in groups all over the beau¬ 
tiful slopes; on the hills, and in the valleys, this gives a dotted, and at the 
same time a sombre air to the whole scene ; and, indeed, when I stood on 
one of the heights looking down into the valley below, I could not help think¬ 
ing the whole pleasure-ground looked like a vast cemetery, rather than a 
gentleman’s park. The house seemed very handsome, but we did not go 
into it; but I admired an architectural terrace round it, furnished with 
stone seats, &c., which had a remarkably fine effect. There w 7 as a hand- 
