418 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 29. 
There is in these gardens a splendid Vinery, one 
hundred feet long and eighteen feet wide. The Vines 
are planted inside, the front-wall being on pillars to 
allow the roots to run outside into the border. This 
plan of inside-planting is by far the best, and no 
vineries ought to be erected without provision being 
made for that purpose. I may mention, that at the 
Royal Gardens, at Frogmore, the Vines are planted 
inside. 
When I was at Badorgan, the Grapes in this house 
were nearly ripe. Standing at one end, and looking the 
whole length, the clustering Grapes and healthy, foliage 
had a most beautiful appearance. Amongst them, I 
was much gratified to see the Millhill Grape, a fine, 
large, black fruit—good bearer aud good llavour; it is a 
desirable variety. The Pineries here are not, strictly 
speaking, bouses, but very wide pits ; the back-wall of 
which is about three feet high. Though not quite so 
convenient as the low Pine-stove, with a wall behind, 
yet, with good management, these pits produce excellent 
fruit. 
Mr. Ewing excels in the pot-culture of the Vine. One 
house was filled with plants preparing for next year. 
They were planted in square, sixteen-inch boxes, placed 
on a platform close to the front-wall, and trained straight 
up close to the roof; most of them raised from eyes, 
last February, in a hotbed, potted once or twice as they 
required, and finally planted in the boxes. They were 
moderately strong when I saw them in June, and will 
make line-beai'ing trees early in the autumn, ready for 
early forcing ; supplying good fruit early in the season, 
and so preventing the necessity of distressing the Vines 
planted out in the borders. Pot-culture of the Vine has 
of late years become better understood ; and no family, 
where there is convenience, need be without Grapes all 
the year round. A late house, filled with the West's 
St. Peter, or the Barharossa Grapes, will furnish fruit 
till those in pots are ready. 
The noble glass-covered wall, three hundred feet long, 
which I described fully in a former paper, was furnished, 
in part, with some Peach-trees, with stems as thick as a 
man’s arm. These had been carefully taken up during 
last winter, and this summer are bearing a fair crop of 
fruit, which, under the genial influence of glass, pro¬ 
mised to come to perfection. These large old trees are 
only placed there for the sake of obtaining some fruit 
till the youug trees come into bearing. 
The flower-garden here occupies a considerable space. 
I noted several beds of dwarf Roses, oue variety in 
each bed. The Rose Duchess of Sutherland was parti¬ 
cularly fine, and also the Geant des Batailes and Souvenir 
dc Malmaison, together with the dark and blush China 
monthly Roses. They were all very healthy, and bloom¬ 
ing profusely. The rest of the beds were filled with the 
usual bedding-out plants. Scarlet Geraniums, edged 
with Mangles’s silver-edged ditto, were particularly 
effective. There was also a bed of the Dahlia Zelinda, 
a very dwarf one of a purple colour. I am much 
surprised this useful bedding variety is not more grown. 
In large masses it shows off well, llowering most pro¬ 
fusely through the autumn months. 
In one part of the woods there is a considerable 
length of natural rock. This is to be formed into a 
habitation for hardy Ferns, which, when finished and 
planted, will be a very interesting feature. 
T. Applehy. 
PENRHYN CASTLE, NEAR BANGOR, 
The Seat of Tiie Honourable Douolas Pennant. 
Slate Walls. —It is well known that this gentleman 
possesses the largest Welsh slate quarries in the country. 
Mr. Burn, his gardener, procured some eight or nine 
feet long and two-feet-and-a-half wide. These he has 
had put up as a fruit-wall; they are kept upright aud 
together with plates of iron (two inches wide, aud as 
long as the slates are high), one on each side, held 
together with screws; these plates are placed just 
where the slates meet, covering the joint; on the top, 
a narrow coping of slate is affixed. This slate-wall 
being of a dark colour, aud that colour, as is well-known, 
absorbing heat, Mr. Burn anticipates that it will answer 
well as a Peach-wall, the trees to be trained to a trellis; 
and, as the slates are little more than half-an inch thick, 
the heat of the sun will penetrate through it, and ripen 
Morello Cherries much better than a solid, thick brick- 
wall. It is but fair, however, to state, that this is but 
an experiment, the result of which may, or may not, be 
successful. 
Penrhyn Castle gardens are, like the rest of the 
gardens I have seen in North Wales, fa'vourably situated 
near the sea, and have, consequently, a mild climate. 
The late frosts, that cut off the fruits in more inland 
gardens, have scarcely affected them here. Pears, and 
Plums, and Apples, whether on the walls, or on espaliers, 
or on standards in the open garden, had plenty of 
fruit on them; and also the Peaches, Nectarines, and 
Apricots, on the open walls, were loaded with fruit. 
Such crops of bush-fruit I never saw. 
Walking along the vegetable garden, my attention 1 
was drawn to a row of early Peas, named Forward Lee i 
Pea. In the middle of June they were ripening for 
seed. It is a fortnight earlier than any other, crops 
abundantly, with seven or eight Peas in a pod, and, I 
was assured, was of excellent flavour. I believe it came 
from Messrs. Lawson, the great seedsmen at Edinburgh. 
It is certainly the earliest and most prolific Pea in 
cultivation, and is worthy of being inquired for aud 
generally cultivated. 
The hothouse fruits here are particularly well 
managed. The Pine-Apple is grown in pits, and, when ! 
a sufficient size, is planted out to fruit in some almost 
flat-roofed, low houses, with walks on the north side. 
The air in these houses is kept full-charged with 
moisture, which causes the fruit to swell to an extra¬ 
ordinary size. I am confident the constantly keeping 
up a moist atmosphere is more favourable to' the Pine ! 
than abundance of water at the root. More young, 
tender roots are destroyed by excess of moisture than 
by anything else, excepting excessive bottom-heat. 
The Vineries here were, as usual, full of excellent 
Grapes. The Muscat house, especially, was quite a 
marvel. Mr. Burn told me that he had not left nearly so 1 
many on has he had the previous year, and did not 
intend ever to have such a quantity again. In this I 
think he is right, for wherever there is an excessive 
quantity they are sure to be of inferior quality. In the \ 
same range as the Vinery there was, last year, a Peach- 
house. This is altered now into a Vinery for late crops, 
and new Peach-houses are to be erected. 
The plant-houses are very properly placed in the 
flower-garden, a considerable distance from the fruit 
and vegetable gardens. This garden is well protected 
from the winds by trees. The ground slopes very much, 
and is formed by the sheltering trees into a half-circle, 
the straight side of which is formed into a broad terrace, 
the plant-houses occupying the centre, with spacious 
gravel-walks in front. There is a row of formal beds on 
this terrace, several of which were thickly planted with 
dwarf Box, forming an evergreen bed; these were 
unique in their way. The walls on each side of the 
houses are planted with choice creepers, such as the 
best Roses, Clematises, Honeysuckles, Jasmines, &c. 
The beds in front of terrace are all on turf, and 
irregularly placed, and of no particular form. Amongst 
them are some line choice Conifers, such as Araucarias, 
Deodars, &c. These break the flat slope surface of the 
