100 
THE 
COTTAGE GARDENER AND 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 15, 1857. 
frolic, and am most glad that I did so; for we must now j 
clear up the matter. . 
“ About twenty years or so ago, I had the Esperione irom 
the gardens of the Horticultural'Society. This proved a most 
abundant bearer, and ripened well in the open air. Three or 
four years ago, I found that my old tree had died, and that | 
I had lost the stock. I inquired one day of Mr. Donald, of i 
Woking, if his father had grown the sort. He said, yes ; 
and that the stools were in the nursery. I had some plants, | 
and propagated them ; but, to my surprise, instead of dying ; 
off purple, as my old sort had done, the leaves were yellow to j 
the last, and exactly like the Hamburgh. I was dissatisfied, 
and felt sure that I had not got the true sort; and so, last 
sprino - , 1 wrote to the Messrs. Osbornes, of Fulham. They 
sent me some plants from tlipir old stools. From these came 
the plant from which I gathered the leaf tinged with purple, 
sent to you the other day. Those I have are only fifteen 
inches high, and yet nearly every bud is a fruit bud. Say, 
how could you think me so verdant as to send you a leaf of 
St. Peter's ? 
»«In my collection of about one hundred varieties, there are 
twenty that die off purple. I enclose a yellow leaf from a 
plant in a pot under glass, Donald’s stock, which I think un¬ 
true ; a purple leaf from Osborne’s stock, which I think true. 
Now’let us go to work, and clear up this matter. I am, this 
time, serious and seriously,'’—T iios. Liters. 
Here we have it in black and white, that the Horti¬ 
cultural Society sent a wrong Grape to Mr. Rivers 
twenty years back ; that Mr. Osborne, of Fulham, was 
in the same boat as late as last spring ; and that an 
old stool of the true Esperione existed in Mr. Donald’s 
nursery, at Woking, four years since ; also, that up 
to last October, Mr. Rivers'believed the purple-leaved 
kind to be the true JEsperione. To which I replied in 
ancient statistics from Downton Castle, Pitmaston, and 
my own once-celebrated plant; and all three, as clear 
as crystal, were from the JEsperione of George the 
Third, the first plant of the kind that ever was de¬ 
scribed. And it will be equally clear, from Mr. Rivers’ 
next letter, that I thus made a powerful impression ; 
that he “ also now doubts and it clearly shows that 
“ we” have two kinds of most excellent hardy Black 
Grapes, in general cultivation, under one name, 
certain. 
.“When I wrote my first jocular note to you it was just 
after reading your doubts about your JEsperione Grape ; now, 
as all my life (and you and I are no chickens), I had con¬ 
cluded the dying-off purple colour as the test of’the true sort. 
I felt amused at the doubts, but I, also, now doubt, my 
purple-leaved sort. I have always considered it as one of the 
most prolific and hardiest out-of-doors Grapes known, large 
bunches, round berries, much looser in the bunch than the 
Hamburgh; in fact quite a distinct variety. Now, which is the 
true sort ? Yours, which is like the Hamburgh , its leaves 
dying off yellow, or Osborne’s which is distinct, and dies off 
purple ? I am much interested in the question, and shall have 
much pleasure in sending you a bearing Vine of Donald’s sort, 
which I think is yours; and Osborne’s sort, which, I tliink 
the true. 
“I often wished last spring that I could show you two 
spring-flowering bedding plants—most charming things. 
Ahyssum gemonense , and Iberis corifolia. The first forming 
a dense mass of glorious golden (strictly) yellow; the other 
of pearly white. I received them from Belgium, when I 
used to collect such matters; fori had, and still have, a large 
collection of herbaceous plants.”— 1 Thos, Rivers. 
By these presents, therefore, be it known to all 
whom it may concern, that I have thanked Mr. Rivers 
before now privately, and now', not privately", thank 
him again for plants of these two good hardy Yines, 
and for four more hardy rare kinds; also for lots of 
the “ charming spring flowers.” Moreover, be it also 
known, &c., that I must, sooner or later, apply to the 
“ British Bornological Society ” to send me down a fit 
and proper person to superintend a British vineyard 
at Surbiton, if the Horticultural Society do not, in the 
meantime, pay more attention to hardy Avail Grapes 
than they have done in times gone past.. ' 
Mr. Rivers having expressed “ much interest in the 
question,” I sent out letters to all parts of the country 
where I thought a stone could be turned ; and from a 
natural predilection to w itchcraft, derived from the 
lineage of Ossian, I sent a special messenger to the 
oracle at Delphi, who confirmed my OAvn experience. 
But Mr. Rivers, being more of a practical man, sends 
up to the Horticultural Society at once ; and Mr. 
McEwen returns a leaf, and says to Mr. Rivers, “the 
true JEsperione dies off purple, as you see by the en¬ 
closed leaf from our plant.” Being thus “ supported” 
by the “ right wing ” of the Horticultural, the gallant 
commander charged like a whirlwind, and shook all my 
bastions to the very foundation. The contest, on both 
sides, was beautifully sustained at this momentous 
“ crisis ;” but, recollecting the Roman adage that 
“ fortune favours the bra\ r e,” I replied, that the whole 
weight of the Horticultural • Society w r as with me as 
a feather in the balance against the evidence of my 
owm senses ; that “my foot was on my native heath, 
and my name was McGregor; ” that I rested my 
claim entirely on one single fact—that of my having 
grown the JEsperione from the very plant which Mr. 
Aiton first described, but that my information respect¬ 
ing the kind being a seedling at Kensington was in¬ 
correct ; that I had traced it to the first planting of 
the “vineyard” at Hammersmith by the Messrs. Lee 
and Kennedy, goodness know's liow r far back; that it 
w as Ho. 12 in their list of 129 kinds of Vines ; that it 
was also in the Brompton Park Nursery in the year 
1783; and that it Avas “ as old as the hills,” for it is 
mentioned by Langley, who gives a plate of it, wuth- 
out describing it, but says that it ripened on a south¬ 
west wall by the 20th of September, 1727, just 130 
years since ; although no one attempted a description 
of it till Mr. Aiton had it fourteen years under his 
eye in the Royal Gardens, and then made out a full 
description for the Transactions of the Horticultural 
Society. To all this, and much of w'hat is incidental 
during “ troublesome times,” a passage from the next 
letter is all that is wanted to connect the narrative of 
the engagement. 
“I have looked into Langley: my edition is 1729. Sure 
enough the JEsperione is figured there — the bunch exactly 
like the sort I am fighting for—with looser shoulders than 
the Hamburgh; and the leaf exactly like in its lobes and 
serature. Nearly 130 years are far beyond Aiton and any of 
our other authorities. Miller does not give it. Could the 
purple be Langley’s Esp>erioneV ’—T. Rivers. 
As to which was Langley’s JEsperione it is needless 
now r to surmise, as he did not describe it. Mr. Aiton’s 
description is the original one, and, therefore, the 
lawful; but ILoare describes it better than Aiton: 
“ Bunches and berries closely resemble, in size and 
shape, the JBlacic Hamburgh. The leaves die upon 
the Vine of a rich orange hue.” Hoare had a nursery 
for hardy Yines on Surbiton Hill; and, according to a 
doctor here, Hoare had the JEsperione from Mr. Aiton, 
through a clergyman, in 1819 or 1820; and he (the 
doctor), believes that Hoare sold hundreds of the 
JEsperione to amateurs. Who Avill be the first to send 
me an eye from Hoare’s Esperione that has not passed 
through a second hand? I have no faith in any Vine, 
which I cannot have from the original, without proving 
it myself. Who can say that the late Mr. Donald, of 
Woking, was more fortunate than the Horticultural 
Society, who sent a purple-leaved kind to Mr. Rivers 
for it? Ho doubt, both are very good hardy kinds, 
and the best way is to call them the yellow-leaf and 
the purple-leaf Esperione ; that is to say, w'hen we are 
certain that w'e have the true yellow r kind. Is there 
