107 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
Lettuce, Beaus, and fruit blossom, were about as forward 
as iu exposed places in Hertfordshire. A favourable 
position will thus often counterbalance the unfavourable¬ 
ness of several degrees of northern latitude. The win¬ 
ters are, no doubt, colder, but the summer days are 
longer ; and in the eastern and midland districts of the 
north of our island the atmosphere is clearer and drier. 
Hence I have found, by correspondence, that many 
things unassisted could be gathered as early near Inver¬ 
ness as in this neighbourhood; and every year the 
newspapers record early productions of vegetables aud 
fruit in Edinburgh and Perth before we can gather 
similar things here in the open air. 
The hothouses are placed uear the bottom of the slope, 
are chiefly on the old lean-to principle, are heated by 
flues, and glazed with small squares, with rather open 
laps, so that the soot and smoke from the chimneys had 
found a resting-place on the foliage of Vines showing 
heavy crops. I recollect, when working among Vines so 
situated, it was hardly possible escaping having the 
face aud hands of a blackamoor. The large squares, 
and carrying the smoke to a distance by improved modes 
of heating, will banish this annoyance. 
Piero the Peaches, as at Scone, were trained along the 
back-wall, and on trellises across the house, with a low, 
upright trellis iu front. The spaces between the cross 
trellises were supplied with dwarf trees of Peaches, 
Apricots, &c., in pots, and also with early crops of Let¬ 
tuces, and other salading. In such late houses I have 
seen Bishop's Dwarf Pea brought forward very early; 
aud also Fench Beans in pots, and planted out. The 
Pines were planted out in Pine stoves, the bottom-heat 
supplied by a flue; though it was also possible to throw 
in some bottom-heat, by means of a dung lining beneath 
the back-path. Several of the houses had this conve¬ 
nience, the manure being thrown iu aud taken out by 
the doorway. There can be no question of the utility 
of such fermenting matter in starting Vines, &c.;— 
though using it as an assistant in forcing, after the buds 
are burst, involves a great amount of labour and 
watchful care. The latter of which will be of great fu¬ 
ture importance to the young gardener who successfully 
passes through such an ordeal. 
Strawberries were growing in great luxuriance, some 
iu pots, others in oblong boxes, three or four feet in 
length, and wide enough to hold two plants across. For 
late Strawberries in houses, and for amateurs who cannot 
give close attention, the system is a good one, as the 
plants do not suffer so easily from too much or too little 
water, as when iu separate pots and saucers. Even in 
early forcing, when the fruit is set, I frequently place the 
plant with its pot into narrow boxes used for holding 
bedding-stuff; aud as the roots run through into rich 
soil at the bottom of the hox, and the sides of it so far 
! shade the pot from the sun, the labour of attendance is 
so far abridged, and extra strength given to the swelling 
| of the fruit. 
To the north-west of the kitchen-garden, on an elevated 
I plateau, a massive pile of stables and offices has been 
erected, and a rough, rugged bank in front is now being 
levelled and smoothed, so as to bring it within the 
dressed and ornamental ground. The lawn at the back 
of the mansion, and in front, facing the Tay—the 
queen of British streams—is of the richest green. 
The short approach to the house, and the landing 
square of gravel, exhibit good taste in the graceful aud 
easy curves, and first-rate management and skill in 
their construction. The approach is of good width, 
pretty well rounded, and almost as smooth and firm as 
| a slab of marble. The carriage had passed to the house, 
and it required sharp eyes to discover a trace of wheels 
or foot-marks. Mr. Henderson, the enthusiastic gar¬ 
dener, a worthy scion from the old stock at Helvine, 
told us that he excavated the soil to a great depth, be- 
GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— June 3, 1850. 
cause it was very good, and filled the space with rough 
boulders and large stones, because they were more 
plentiful than such good soil. On such a foundation 
repeated layers of gravel were put, terminating with 
material rather fine, and these layers were repeatedly 
rolled, when very wet, with a very heavy roller. A j 
smooth, firm surface has thus been obtained, and all 
that was necessary to keep it in such fine order was an ^ 
occasional switch with a light broom, and a pass over 
with a light roller. Much ot the same principle seems 
to have been followed as was adopted by Mr. Beaton at 
Shrublaud. 
Near to the house, aud surrounded by the dressed 
grounds, is the old cathedral, massive in its ruins, 
though wanting its roof; one end, the choir, beiug trans¬ 
formed into a parish church, without at all interfering 
with the gothic Norman style of the building. Anti- i 
quaries associate the building with the days of the 
Pictish Kings. Many of its bishops, as Gavin Douglas j 
aud William Sinclair, were renowned for literature and i 
warlike bravery. Here the Cameronians nobly defended j 
themselves in the reign of the Prince of Orange, as j 
graphically described by Macaulay. The ground close 
to the walls being used for many generations as a place 
of sepulture, the soil had risen considerably against 
the walls. Mr. Henderson has managed to get that 
ground lowered, leaving the groves as before, to the j 
great advantage of the building. Much tact must have ; 
been shown in surmounting prejudices, for generally ! 
the last resting-place of the departed is held sacred and I 
inviolate, in proportion to the antiquity of the race, and ’ 
the seclusion in which they had entrenched themselves. ' 
Near to the cathedral stand the two famous Larches, 
first planted in this country in 1738, and which, in 
1851, at three feet from the ground, measured fifteen 
feet five inches in circumference, were ninety-eight feet 
six inches iu height, and contained four hundred and 
twelve cubic feet of timber. A tape-line verified these 
dimensions; and, on measuring the circumference of 
one near the ground, where the base swells out, we 
found it to be twenty-four feet six inches in circumfer- j 
ence. The diseases and casualties attending the Larch | 
have lately occupied a great share of public attention. 
Poor, alpine positions have been recommended as a 
remedy. These fine specimens—now becoming bonnet¬ 
headed from age—grow in seemingly rich, alluvial soil, j 
in a low position, near the banks of the river. Splendid ' 
specimens may be seen at Kenwood, in rich and shel 
tered positions. A new disease—the blister —destroying 
the bark in lavge patches, and the wood beneath it, is 
attacking the Larch in many places. Insects, squirrels, 
poverty from thick planting, are variously assigned as 
the cause. An inveterate obstacle now to the rearing 
of young plantations is the extra superabundance of 
rabbits—an evil which can only be remedied when gentle¬ 
men will have less pleasure in shooting than in looking 
on fine, young plantations. 
Patent Besom.— Much of the lawn here, as in most i 
large places, is mowed with a horse-machine; but still 
there are many places to which such a machine cannot 1 
have access. We all know how such places are cleaned 
up. The width of a swath is sweeped from side to side | 
by the common birch-broom, and then the lines so 
formed are swept up separately, or a light broom is 
fixed to a long handle, and standing in the centre of 
two swaths, the operator, sweeping right and left, clears 
the space of two swaths at once. Now, the common 
broom is too clumsy and heavy for the first purpose, 
and the lighter broom is apt to come oft'its handle, and 
though tied out somewhat in peacock-tail fashion, it is 
apt, especially when wet, to bulge together like a com¬ 
mon broom; thus doing less work, and greatly in¬ 
creasing the labour to the operator. Mr. Henderson 
I is taking out a patent which will apply to all these 
I 
