OCTOBER. 
291 
readers give us any information relative to soot as a preventive, when 
applied as a top-dressing? We have found it a most effectual destroyer 
and preventive of a nearly similar disease, which for these two years 
past has attacked our pot Strawberries, which otherwise would have 
been destroyed ; but we have no proof beyond this single case of 
its acting as a preventive to the spread of the disease in the Potato, 
though we hope to try it extensively another year. Lastly, early in 
the history of this visitation, peat soils were supposed to afford an 
immunity from disease. I looked over a plot the other day on this 
description of soil, but nearly all were gone. 
CASTLE COMBE, WILTSHIRE. 
THE SEAT OF GEORGE POULETT SCROPE, ESQ., M.P. 
"The village of Castle Combe, together with the associations connected 
with its ancient barony and the noble family of “ Scrope,” who have 
possessed the manor from the close of the thirteenth century to the 
present time, in direct succession, though well known to the antiquary 
and historian, and equally so to the scientific world of the present 
day, of which the present proprietor is an accomplished member, has 
scarcely been mentioned in reference to the beauty of its natural 
scenery; nor yet, so far as we are aware, to the improvements lately 
made by Mr. Scrope in the flower-garden, which have so very con¬ 
siderably increased the attractions of the place, that we venture giving 
a brief description of it to our readers. 
The situation of Castle Combe is well described in the following 
passage from a recent work* :—“ The village is situated in the extreme 
north-east angle of the county of Wilts, adjoining to Gloucestershire, 
and chiefly built in the bottom of one of those crack-like valleys which 
drain the western ridge of the Cotswold. A rapid stream runs through 
it, which joins the Avon just below Box, a mile above Bath. * * * 
The place is at present chiefly noted only for its romantic natural 
scenery, the steep sides of the winding valley being clothed with a 
pleasing intermixture of grass and wood ; the hill on which stood 
the castle, now reduced to mere mounds of rubbish, forming a 
conspicuous object, and with the very handsome church-tower and 
picturesque manor-house composing an agreeable scene, to which* the 
old market-cross adds another interesting feature.” 
The approach to the mansion is directly from the village; the valley 
contracting at this point and having been well planted up, nothing is 
seen of the house for some distance after having passed the entrance 
lodge. As we proceed the glade widens, and extends itself into a 
crescent-shaped valley traversed by the river, and surrounded by steep 
hills clothed with wood, and gradually narrowing at the upper part, 
where it appears to lose itself beneath the overhanging trees occupying 
the slope of the castle-hill. The mansion is an ancient manorial edifice 
* “ The Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe. By G. Poulett 
Scrope, Esq., M.P. Printed for private circulation.” 
