a great part of the Day There has been added since some pretty high Buildings to both ends of the House which Buildings by their shade have intirely spoiled the said Vine so that it has been pulled up I felt the Bricks of that Slope one Day when the Sun shone almost perpendicularly upon them and they were exceeding hot But those Noble Persons to whom the House belonged thought the goodness of the Grapes might arise from the Soil and forgetting the Exposition they never tryed to recover their loss by another Sloping Wall for which the Ground would have afforded them abundance of convenient places And thus we have not only a notable Experience for us but we see also how easily and how cheap our Sloping Walls may be built without any danger of their tumbling down as our Garden-walls are apt to do But this being a very material Point and considering that most People may think it either very chargeable or very impracticable to build a Sloping Wall let us a little inlarge upon it I conceive then that the facing the Slope of Terrasse Walks either with a Brick-wall such as I just now described or else with a Wall twice or at most three or four times as thick is the best easiest and handsomest way of building our Inclining Walls Whose name ought not therefore to mislead one so far as to make him think that we would propose the building of a thick Wall sloping and incompassed on both sides with Air. The thicker Walls are properest when they are less sloping for so their strength may better serve to keep the Terrasses from breaking out It is not required we should lay the flat sides of the Bricks perpendicularly to the plane of our Wall but it will be more proper to lay them parallel to it So that each Bed or Floor of Bricks of which our Wall is composed may be only two or three Inches thick And thus the Joynts of the Bricks may be so disposed as to leave no room for Plants or Insects to come out of the Ground After having explained a better way 't is hardly worth our while to observe that the Roofs of long and low Buildings in the Country and even the Roofs of Houses in great Towns might also conveniently be made to serve for Sloping Walls especially if some regard were had to it in building So for instance in the Country the Roof of a long Building might on one side be brought as low as the very Ground And thus Trees and Vines especially the last might be made to grow against the Roof without spending their very strength in growing up to an immoderate height In Cities where they use sometimes to make one Roof to serve many Houses of one side the Street one might between the Garret Windows cut out in the Roof a rectangular Space of the same height and breadth with the Space the Windows take up and from within one might slide up to that Space a square Box full of Earth of a fit Figure and bigness to stand handsomly between the Windows This Box being supported at some height from the Floor one need not fear any inconveniency from the Water 's dropping out which in case it should do might be received in some Vessels It is so easie to prevent the Rain from running in between the Roof and the Box that it is to no purpose to inlarge upon it Out of these Boxes one might raise some excellent Trees and Vines and spread them upon some Frames disposed against the Roof And this besides the more substantial Advantage of yielding a considerable quantity of Fruit would also prove a delightful Ornament to that part of our Buildings which seems to want it most However at London the Smoak of Sea-coal is much to be feared since it both takes off the strength of the Sun and dos settle upon Trees where its great acrimony must needs be unnatural and pernicious But I must give over and leave the Application of this Doctrine to every body's Industry I need not mention that in the making our Bricks some holes may be made in them to receive Pegs of Wood to serve as necessity shall require unless you chuse rather to use those Frames the French call des Espaliers which indeed seem to be much better But it is worth observing that such Walls as these having no Foundation leave in the Earth more room for the Roots of our Trees and are cheaper built and less apt to fall If they be not made both exceeding heavy and little sloping I do not think that they will compress so much the Ground under them as to obstruct the growing and spreading of the Roots And thus much is sufficient as to the manner of building our Walls Let us now see as far as we can how we may chuse in any Latitude the properest Elevation for our South Wall and for the Fruit we design to raise In order then to determine what Slope is best to give in cold and temperate Countries to our South-wall I look for the Sun's Meridian Altitude at least ten Days or a Fortnight or three Weeks c. before the latter half of the Fruit of the Kind I design to have uses to be ripe and then I make the Complement of that Altitude to 90 Degrees the measure of the Elevation of the Wall above the Horizon However I would not be tyed by this Rule but that I might alter upon the least consideration the sloping of the Wall by several Degrees especially if one be afraid of taking in too much Heat And if the Sun's Declination belonging to the Meridian Altitude found by the Rule aforesaid should be otherwise I commonly reduce it so in our Northern Climates as to make it fall in the Space which is from the Equator to the Parallel that goes thrô the 16th or 20th Degree of North Latitude The longer the Fruit is a growing ripe and also the more distance of time there is between the first and the last ripe Fruit of the same Tree the more Days would I allow backwards in the finding the Sun's Meridian Altitude and Declination Indeavouring by this to make for the most part the strongest Heat of all to fall something before the middle of the ripening time For the Degree of Heat that arises barely from the Exposition is during many Days sensibly the same and as it were at a stay when it is at the greatest And we must for the most part indeavour that when our Tree makes an end of yielding its Fruit especially if this be about the latter end of the Year the Sun may already by changing its Declination have been withdrawing it self some 5 or 10 or 15 Degrees from the Line perpendicular to our inclined Plane Thus all the while the Fruit is growing ripe it will injoy the greatest Heat But let us inquire more particularly after the Limits of the Elevations of South-walls so that we may resolve to keep
part of the Spring the Sun shines upon our Terrasses from the time it begins to be some few degrees high and by consequence soon after the Dew is fallen So that there will be no time at least in fair Weather without which we have commonly no Dews for much harm to be done Especially the Vapours or Steams that arise from the Ground being more like to disperse in the Air than to condense against our Trees as I shall explain hereafter However this inconveniency being already too much felt in ordinary Gardens the Remedies against it are found and well known at least by such as raise some early and tender Plants at the latter end of Winter Our Walls are also more exposed to Storms and Hail than ordinary Walls Yet this ought not to deter us For we shall not have this accident every Year at such times when we may fear it And if we should have it yet it is to be supposed that many of our Fruits will escape being spoiled Neither is it impossible to cover such Trees as are most precious when there is any prospect of a Storm I expect some will object also that the natural posture of Trees being to grow upright their leaning against a Bank will be like to disagree with their Vegetation But this Objection has not that strength in it which is in the former and might well have passed under silence For it is a common thing in our Gardens to force Trees into a Figure not at all natural to them And even Trees that grow in the open Air have some of their Branches bending downwards and most of them in a manner parallel to the Horizon It was ordered wisely for the beauty and stability of Trees but not for their fruitfulness that they should naturally grow upright Now these first considerations ceasing in an Inclined Wall I do not doubt but that as to the production of Fruit Vegetation will have there its ordinary course It has been twice objected to me that the dampness of the Ground would probably spoil the Fruits growing against our Sloping Walls Which makes me take notice of this Objection for otherwise I should have neglected to give it an answer I say then that either this inconvenience is not at all to be feared or if it be that the Remedies are obvious and easie I do not fear it in such Terrasses as those of the II III and XIth Figures especially when they are well exposed For I cannot see what mighty store of Dampness can come or be kept there since water naturally runs off of such heaps But as to the lower Terrasses of the first Figure if one or two beds of Bricks be not enough at least three or four such Beds and what else one pleases underneath will be sufficient to make the Wall remain dry at the outside Moreover it is not necessary that the Fruit should touch the very Wall But in case it should grow too close against it a thin Slate or a small Ring of any proper matter and shape will easily keep it from the Terrasse After all I think Experience to which I must appeal will add no strength to this Objection Some have urged against our Walls that our Fruit will be eaten up by Mice or by Ants c. Thô I might say that all other Trees are exposed to this very mischief for 't is known that those Mice and Ants can easily creep upon them yet to this and all other Objections I will give but one general Answer I ask whether the inconvenience that is objected be real necessary general and unavoidable or else whether it be not in a great measure imaginary I ask whether there be no Remedy left against it to our Care and Industry I ask when all is granted to the Objection that can be given it whether there will be nothing at all left for us but Trees without Fruit 'T is true that I ought by so much more to fear the resort of Insects to our Fruits as they are like to prove more excellent than others are But it is well for us that the first Inventers and Improvers of Arts have not at all been moved by such Objections as these Are they greater than such as may be made against a Countrey-man who would sow his Grounds How is he secured against the vexations of troublesom Neighbours against the Invasions of an Enemy the mischiefs of Civil Wars the unfaithfulness of Servants How can he depend upon fair and seasonable Weather without too much Drought or Rain without Hail and Storms and strong Winds May not his Seed be eaten up in the Fields may not his increase be stolen away from him or destroyed by numberless sorts of Insects What shall I say of the mischiefs of Fire What of Taxes and Tithes What of the price of Rents and Leases What of selling one's increase to such as will not or cannot pay their Debts What of all other fears and troubles that may come upon this poor Countrey-man Yet for all this our Fields are ploughed we are nourished and our Barns are filled with Grain Such is the Profusion with which God Almighty provides for us that after all deductions made we have enough to bless his Munificence and to live with plenty Now having in some measure satisfied the curiosity and impatience of the Reader I may proeeed to shew how I calculate the proportion of Heat I gave before between a Perpendicular and a Sloping South Wall and treat at large of the Principles and Method upon which those and the like Calculations are grounded endeavouring to make our Doctrine as general and as exact as the Nature of the Subject will bear I begin with Calculating for the Parallel that lies one Degree North of London the proportion between the Actions of the Sun in the Summer Solstice upon a Perpendicular and upon an Inclined smooth Wall with an Elevation of 52¼ Degrees which is an Inclination very good there for the Fruits that are ripe in the Month of October or the latter end of September For other Fruits that Elevation is rather of the greatest The Circle PTEP described from the Center C represents the Celestial Sphere CH is the Horizon P the Pole CE the Equator IT a Parallel to the Equator as suppose here the Tropick of Cancer CIP is the Plane of the Inclined Wall Ci CM the Plane of the perpendicular Wall Cm. Upon the Circumference of the Parallel TI I suppose a right Cylindrical Surface elevated and prolonged of each side as far as is necessary Which I do in order to find upon it the proportion of the Sun's Heat Now it is easily known that the Quantity of Rays falling from the Sun upon any Plane is as the Sine of the Sun's Altitude on that Plane And that the Force of each Ray coming from the Sun upon a Plane is also as the Sine of the Sun's Altitude on that Plane From whence
South Wall being supposed of 100 Parts the Heat upon the Sloping Wall is already upon a consideration which is not at all subject to the Effects of the Atmosphere of 427 Parts Besides an additional Heat of 121 Parts that would raise it to 548 Parts were it not that from this Number 121 something is to be substracted because of the Effects of the Air. The last Column gives the middle Number 487 which we may suppose is not far from the real Heat upon the Sloping Wall And this is about 4⅚ times greater than the Heat upon the perpendicular Wall But if we go about to calculate the Heat upon the Sloping South Wall that passes thrô the lowest Point of the Polar Circle we shall find the Increase of Heat upon it to be yet much greater And in general a Sloping South Wall elevated at Paris upon the Horizon by so much as is the Height of the Pole wanting the whole Distance between the two Tropicks being much hotter in the Solstice than the Sloping South Wall that passes thrô the Pole it follows that any South Wall whatsoever whose Elevation upon the Horizon is there between 2 Degrees 50 Minutes and 49 Degrees 50 Minutes must be hotter also This comparing together of perpendicular and Sloping South Walls proceeds well enough for the same Climate whether it be often cloudy or often fair provided the Clouds do not use to come more at some certain hours of the Day than at others suppose more about Noon than in the Morning But we cannot from the Table determine safely the Proportion of Heat between the perpendicular and Sloping South Walls of several Countries the Interposition of the Air and especially the difference of Weathers being almost an insuperable Obstruction against it In the Tract of this Discourse I have in several places shewn some of the Advantages we get by using Sloping instead of perpendicular Walls I will now run over some other Advantages that are yet untouched or else not fully treated of Our Sloping Walls injoy much more the benefit of the Dew and Rain's falling than other Walls can do And the East Sloping Wall will not have as the perpendicular that great fault of keeping the Rain from its Trees The consequence of this will easily be perceived by those that complain so much of the Drought incident to their East Walls It is a common fault in all perpendicular Walls that the Ground being wet and transpiring much humidity this will stick upon the tender Blossoms and in cold weather cover them with Frost and destroy them If our Sloping Walls do not intirely prevent this they cannot but do it at least in a great measure the very sloping of the Tree turning it from those Steams and giving room for them to dissipate themselves in the Air. In like manner our Terrasses will have an advantage in reference to Frost occasioned by the cold Vapours in the Air driving with the Wind and sticking upon Trees For one Terrasse dos defend in a great measure the following Terrasses against this Accident By our Theory the Extent of those Places where several Fruits do grow will be much inlarged And not only two Zones of some Miles or perhaps of some Degrees round the whole Earth one of each side the Equator will be made able to produce for instance some good Grapes whereas they afforded before only some bad or indifferent ones But in Countries where Vines do grow plentifully if you mark upon the Hills or Mountains those Limits where Vines do begin to be but bad or indifferent even against Walls built after the ordinary way you may often take in yet a great deal more of Ground with several Country Houses and Towns in it and have there some excellent Vines by the help of Sloping Walls What is here said of Vines is in like manner easily understood of other Trees So then whereas every Climate in Europe begins to lose some sorts of Fruits for want of Heat and Time to ripen them we may every where open our Gardens to receive those Fruits which hitherto we have been unable to have thô our near Neighbours Southwards did raise them with no extraordinary trouble And not only the Places for the growing of Fruits are inlarged but so are the Times also in which we may injoy them This advantage arising from our Walls giving probably their Fruits a Week or perhaps a Fortnight sooner than we could have them otherwise For since at Paris the Fruits of good Espaliers are something sooner ripe than those of Standard Trees and these last are sooner ripe than those of Dwarf Trees And among the Espaliers those of the South and of the East begin to give some ripe Fruits about eight or ten Days sooner than those of the West and about at least fifteen or twenty Days sooner than those of the North is it not easie from thence to conclude that our Sloping South Walls and East Walls will give their Fruits considerably sooner than ordinary Walls can do The Certainty of our latter Fruits coming to Ripeness is also much greater since by our having them early we need not fear so much the beginnings of cold and wet Weather that might hinder them from coming to Perfection Walls may not only be so exposed and so inclined as to make several sorts of Trees growing against them to bear early some excellent Fruits but according to the same Idea the Ground it self may be so shaped into Slopes and Terrasses as to bring early some of the smallest sorts of Plants as Strawberries Sallets c. And as for such Plants as cast a pretty deal of Shade thô the same Sloping Ground might serve very well for them yet one might also use with some more advantage a main Slope cut by Stories into several small ones faced with Bricks as you see in the fifteenth Figure In the like manner we might easily so shape the large Furrows of our Fields or the Surface of our other Grounds as to have them exposed to the Sun with the same Obliquity as the level Ground of any Country not above 10 or 15 Degrees more to the South or North than we are our selves For instance in the Latitude of London the Ground will have the same Exposition to the Sun as the level Ground in the Latitude of 45 Degrees if going from South to North you make suppose for five Yards together your Ground to rise by an Angle of 6½ Degrees in a Slope exposed exactly to the South and then you make your Ground to fall as much towards the North by a Slope as steep as it can conveniently be suppose of 35 or 40 Degrees and then you begin again another long and gentle Slope towards the South for five Yards together to be followed as before by a short and steeper Slope towards the North and so on See the eighteenth Figure Thô we do not by
Objection from Monsieur La Quintinye's English Translation solved p. 68 Account of an Amphitheater with Sloping Walls ibid. And of some Melons and other Fruits heated with Convex Glasses p. 69 The Fault of Vines that are commonly made to grow against a Roof or the Coping of a Wall ibid. Judgement of those and all other such Tryals in order to make the most of the Sun's Heat p. 70 Caution against too much Heat Sloping Walls are like to procure ibid. Frames called Espaliers by the French recommended to take off some of the Sun's Heat and to give more liberty to Trees p. 71 A Method for chusing the Elevation of a Sloping Wall in any Exposition whatsoever p. 72 The Heat sensibly the same upon a South or upon a North Sloping Wall thô a little declining from the true North or South p. 75 A singular sort of Maximums and Minimums very different from those that are commonly considered ibid. The same in some measure already observed by others ibid. The Ground of the foregoing Method p. 76 Experience must also be consulted ibid. Of Walls that are not smooth ibid. There can be no such thing as a Wall giving the Heat proportional to the Sine of the Sun's Elevation upon it ibid. But if there was the Method of calculating the Heat upon it would be easie p. 77 And Sloping Walls would be yet very advantagious even in that Supposition thô less than before p. 77 Of a Wall giving a mean proportional Heat between such a Wall as this and a Plane Wall ibid. A smooth Wall compared with a rough Wall p. 78 How to make a Brick Wall smooth ibid. Of a Sloping Wall with Semi-cylindrical Furrows upon it p. 79 These Furrows compared with a plane Wall of the same breadth with them ibid. Measure of the Heat upon a Semi-cylindrical Space p. 81 An Account of a Table giving from 40 to 67 Degrees Latitude the proportion of the Sun's Heat in the Solstice upon a perpendicular and a Sloping South Wall ibid. The use of Sloping Walls in very hot Countries in such Situations as being high are naturally temperate or cold ibid. The Table it self and its Explication p. 82 The Vse of the Table Example for Paris p. 84 Of South Walls that are more inclined to the Horizon than the Wall that passes thrô the Pole of the World p. 85 Perpendicular and Sloping South Walls may be well compared together in the same but not in different Climates ibid. Of some other Advantages of Sloping Walls p. 86 In reference to Dew and Rain especially as to the East Wall ibid. In reference to Frost occasioned by the Earth's transpiring some moisture p. 87 Or by the cold Vapours in the Air driving with the Wind and sticking upon Trees ibid. The growing of Fruits extended to more Countries and Places ibid. And the time of their Ripeness and Vse for Men to more Days in the Year p. 88 Ordinary Walls compared among themselves and with Sloping Walls as to the Forwardness of their Fruits ibid. The Certainty made greater of our Latter Fruits coming to Perfection p. 89 Slopes of Earth for smaller Plants ibid. Of the dividing a main Slope into many small ones ibid. Of shaping the Level or ordinary Ground into very large Furrows running East and West with a gentle Slope Southwards and a steep one Northwards or contrary wise in order to increase or diminish a little the Sun's Heat ibid. Application of this Practice to Vse p. 91. Of the Difference of Heat upon the North and South side of Mountains Hills and Downs ibid. The Heat of the Air in any place dos not very easily spread into the next Air. p. 92 Nor the reflected Heat spend it self so fast but that it may be strongly felt ibid. Our European Plants grow naturally upon the Mountains in the West-Indies in such places where the Heat is fitted to their several Natures p. 93 An Account of a Slope where extraordinary Strawberries are said to grow ibid. Advantage of Sloping Walls in such days as the Sun is seen for some Hours only p. 94 Advantage of inclining Sloping Walls more or less according to the Climate Situation and Exposition ibid. Advantage of Terrasses with Sloping Walls in reference to a sufficient quantity of good Earth which is easily procured p. 95. Description of a Garden for Fruit according to the present Theory ibid. The Vse of making the outside Wall thicker at bottom than at top p. 96 A kind of Canal or Ditch to keep the Garden from too much Water ibid. Measures of the Slopes which are respectively made equal But being made different they may be better fitted for several Fruits p. 98 A Table shewing the Heights Elevations and Bases of the Walls p. 99 Measures for the Ground Plat taken across the Garden p. 100 Of a Garden for Vines only It requires but small Terrasses p. 103 Of the Number of ordinary Trees the Garden could hold from whence is to be estimated the Number of its Fruits ibid. A Table shewing the Heights and Lengths and Expositions of the Walls p. 104 Short Table giving the Result of the former p. 105 Some Suppositions taken from Monsieur La Quintinye ibid. By which a Table is made of the number of ordinary Trees the Garden would have p. 106 3½ Vines to be substituted for one Tree p. 107 General Sum of ordinary Trees and Vines in the Garden ibid. Of Terrasses for Vines only ibid. Vines ought to be kept very low ibid. Of a large Terrasse parted into two for Vines p. 108 The Garden will not hold so many Trees as it would if they were to keep within the ordinary Sizes ibid. The Trees in it will grow very large and why ibid. And must be far asunder ibid. Yet will not yield a less Crop of Fruits p. 109 They will be more lasting ibid. A Guess at their Distances ibid. Proportion of the London Foot to that of Paris ibid. A Draught of the Garden in Perspective ibid. Division of a large Garden by some Canals into four or sixteen little Gardens or any other number p. 110 This will yield the Earth necessary for the Terrasses ibid. And either give different Ponds for several sorts of Fishes or else open the way by Boats among the Gardens 111 And leave also a Foot-way into them all p. 111 Any ordinary Gentleman may have a few Terrasses or Slopes well exposed p. 112 A Tryal of Sloping Walls not to be depended upon unless made by a very good Artist ibid. A good Culture more significant than a good Exposition p. 113 Sloping Walls very necessary while our Summers continue to be so cold ibid. The Cause of that Change in our Seasons referred to a Phenomenon like Smoak that incompasses the Body of the Sun and is seen to spread an exceeding great way from it p. 114 The Origine of that Smoak p. 115 How to determine the Figure of the Space it lies in ibid. It may grow thicker and
raised from the top of them nor any other Shade cast upon them in Vegetating time by the Interposition of any thing standing on either side of them between them and the Sun But if they be deprived of the sight of the Sun while it is only within a few Degrees from the Horizon the loss is not considerable and abundantly made up if at the same time they be secured from Winds The Foundation or rather Bottom of Sloping Walls needs not be horizontal but it may ascend obliquely upon a Hill by some Degrees Which is of some conveniency for the running off of the Water and for the chusing a South Exposition upon a Hill that looks to the South-East or South-West or to any other point either between or at least not much above 45 Degrees distance from these places For the most part of the Spring and Summer such a Wall will injoy as much Sun as if the Foundation had been horizontal but the Ground at the Foot of it will injoy less And this is what I had further to mention as to the way of building our Sloping Walls I have seen in many Gardens and other places some Slopes of Earth ready made and fit every way for Trees to grow against them if they had been but faced with Bricks But they lay neglected perhaps because the good Use that might be made of them was unknown If any were apt yet to think that there can be no great difference between two South Walls of which the one receives the Light of the Sun much fuller and longer than the other let them consider that upon the very same Soil the South-side of a Wall is as good for Fruit as the North-side is bad That the East-side of another Wall is very good at least in France and the West-side but indifferent Which diversity can certainly be attributed to nothing but the Exposition and makes it more than probable that by so much as this is mended by so much Fruits ought to be more perfect I have given to this Theory some of the Commendations it justly deserves knowing how hard a matter it is to persuade People to go out of their ordinary way And I wish I may have said enough to bring it into common Practice I hope this is not out of any vain Ostentation since I chuse to publish here what I know to be much inferiour to some Meditations of another Kind I have had these many Years by me And thus much I beg leave to say lest a thing that might be useful should be neglected and thrown by before it be understood If the vegetation of Plants did only depend upon the Sun-shine coming freely to them there would be but little occasion left for any farther Improvement But it is well known that a warm and pretty close Air well sheltered from Winds thô not so much exposed to the Sun in a word such an Air as is found in the Gardens at Paris and other great Cities where they do not burn Sea Coal dos often bring forth better Fruit than will be found in other places in the Neighbourhood thô better exposed However at the same time that we get wholly the advantage of Sloping Walls we may also keep all others and secure those Walls from cold and dangerous Winds This makes me recommend Gardens of but an indifferent bigness with high Walls to them being willing to purchase a close Air with some little loss of Sun-shine But if the Gardens be very narrow as I should for the most part chuse the Walls may be less high The breadth of your Gardens ought not be the same in all Expositions And it is of great consequence that the length of very narrow Gardens be from East to West and not from North to South In disposing thus the length of the Garden the Wall may be from 8 or 10 to 15 Foot or a little more in the Slope the breadth of the Garden or Earth between the Walls from 11 or 12 to 50 or 100 Foot and the length as great as you please But the smallest Breadths are best And those as I said do not so much require high Walls and by consequence will not be so chargeable In Gardens that run from North to South a very small Breadth will be as prejudicial as it is good in Gardens that run from East to West For it is easie to see that in these last the Shade of the long Walls upon each other is but little in vegetating time and falls either upon the shortest Days or upon such Moments as the Sun is but low and weak But in Gardens that run from North to South and are of the same breadth with the former the Shade is more considerable And I find that such Gardens having an East Wall and a West Wall each with an Elevation of 30 Degrees and each of 7 Foot in perpendicular Height must be 68 Foot wide from Wall to Wall if you will that neither Wall should take from the other the sight of the Sun but when it is less than 5 Degrees high Lest any one should wonder at this extraordinary narrowness which dos often turn what we called a Garden into a narrow Walk I will shew that I do not chuse it without securing that great advantage of a warm and close Air In order to which I give here the Section of a Walk or narrow Garden for Trees whose length runs East and West Let the South Wall AB have a proper Elevation for your Climate and for the Fruits you design to have suppose at London an Elevation of 45 Degrees That Elevation is good for those Trees whose latest Fruits are ripe near the 20th of September when the Sun is about 3 or 4 Degrees South Declination at which time the Sun is already withdrawn about 10 Degrees from the perpendicular to the Wall AB Let the perpendicular Height BC of your Wall be for Instance of 7 or 10 Foot which will give 9 ⌊ 9 or 14 ⌊ 1 Foot in the Slope AB and 7 or 10 Foot in the horizontal Line AC Let the Line AD be in the Plane of the Equator and it will make here at London an Angle of 38½ Degrees with the horizontal Line AE Make the Breadth of your Walk the narrowest you can Allow for Instance four Foot to the Ground that is to receive the Trees and to be now and then cultivated three Foot to the Walk or Path which ought of right to be dug up every Winter four Foot more to another Line of cultivated Ground So you will have 11 Foot for the whole Breadth of your Walk AE Draw from the top B of your Sloping Wall an horizontal Line BDG Draw also the Sloping Line EG representing your North Wall and make it if you please parallel to the Plane of the Equator or rather if you think fit make it yet more inclined to the Horizon I mean more approaching to it by
which perhaps the Reflexion from the said Wall is not a sufficient recompence for To which must be added that the Heat is perhaps better being divided to a greater part of the Day than crowded together about Noon However by this Disposition of the Wall the Heat is made closer In another Place he dos mend the hanging of the Ground in a large Garden but without admiring at all the Remedy by dividing it into several Parts of different heights and making each of them level and parting them either by some little Walls or only by some Slopes of Earth closely beaten together And being satisfied as he has it somewhere else that there is no place in a Garden but what may be of some use he says That these little Walls may serve for several things he mentions and that the little Slopes will not be useless neither but on the contrary when they are exposed to the South or East they may either be used to raise at first some early Plants for the Spring as Winter Lettuce Pease Beans Strawberries Artichokes and after the Spring they may serve to raise some Seeds of Purslain Basil c or else if there be a great quantity of those Slopes well exposed a part of them may be imployed for good and all to bring forth good Grapes and other Fruits as it has been done in the King of France's Fruit or Kitchen Garden in certain Slopes purposely made for that use I guess by these Passages that the worthy Author who is ever very particular and full in what he writes thô he says no more in this matter used these Slopes no otherwise than as Grounds and as they do chuse some Hills well exposed for their Vines or even for their Gardens But thô this be something a-kin to the main Idea I follow in this Discourse and a Confirmation of it yet I believe there remain some considerable differences between what Monsieur La Quintinye has writ and what I propose The Gardens of his making may justifie whether or no he had left any room for our Meditations Which would indeed be only a fuller Explication of his Thoughts if he had covered his Slopes with Bricks or Stones and had made his Trees to grow against them obliquely to the Ground and had used them in any Exposition rather than perpendicular Walls and had made them sometimes more sometimes less Sloping and had defended them as I do against Winds and had likewise procured the closeness of Air with no loss of either Sun or Rain for the six or seven hottest Months from Equinox to Equinox Not to mention some other Improvements you will find in this Treatise However those Ados of Earth have a peculiar advantage for all Herbs and particularly for those early Plants that are to be gathered in February March or April To this I might add the Account Monsieur La Quintinye gives of Square or Rectangular Gardens where he explains how the Sun never shines upon more than two Walls at once and in some Moments upon one only without ever shining upon two opposite Walls together But near the Summer Solstice one might see for a good while together about Noon the Sun to shine at once pretty full upon the four Walls of a Rectangular Garden built after our way and seldom in the rest of the Day to shine upon less than three Walls except the Sun be very low There is in Monsieur La Quintinye's Book a Ground Plat of the Kitchen Garden or Fruit Garden of Versailles Thô there be in that Garden a high and very long Terrasse with Trees on both sides against it yet the Ground Plat shews that the Walls of it are perpendicular So this Terrasse having at once the disadvantages of being more chargeable and less solid or lasting and worse for Vegetation than a Terrasse with Sloping Walls would be I cannot but conclude also from thence that Monsieur La Quintinye knew no other Walls than perpendicular ones As to the Beauty I acknowledge indeed our Sloping Walls not to be altogether so handsome as the others are And yet I do not doubt but the Eye will soon be accustomed to them especially when it may look upon them more as Terrasses than as Walls so that their leaning may not seem to threaten a fall In the English Translation of Monsieur La Quintinye I find a place that seems peremptorily to condemn our Sloping Walls It is near the end of the fifth Chapter of the third Part of the first Volume There you may read By all I have newly said about the Height of Walls it appears that I have little value for those leaning Walls to pretend to make them Fruit Walls for Pears Peaches Apricocks but they may serve for something else And in the Margin you find also writ Leaning Walls not proper But the Sense in the French Original is that such Walls as are only breast high des Murs d'appui are not good for Fruit. Neither was the Author speaking of Sloping Walls before but of the Height of perpendicular Walls I have also heard of a large round Pit like an Amphitheater built here in England with Sloping Walls all about it The Ground in the middle was as they said several Yards Diameter perhaps about 50 or 100 or more And upon all that Ground there grew Vines both sheltered from Winds and cherished with a closer Heat than they could have in the open Air. A Person of Quality has tryed about 53 Degrees Latitude in the present Year 1697 to increase the Sun's Heat upon his Melons by some pretty large Convex Glasses These being placed between the Sun and the Melons did gather the Rays in a pretty small Focus each And we have been told to our admiration that the Melons thus helpt have been tolerably good and much better than others that did grow in the Neighbourhood which were generally bad ones As if it were enough to heat any one part of the Fruit to make the Effects of it to spread over the whole But I hear also that the like Tryals having been made upon several Fruits in other places have had no other success than the giving them some unkindly precocity leaving withal to them a harsh and unpleasant taste In some places they make a Vine to grow as high as the Roof of some ordinary Building and there to spread its Branches over the whole Roof In other places they make the Vines to grow first as high as the top of a Garden Wall and there to part into two Branches running on each side for 25 or 30 Foot together upon the small Coping of Bricks they do sometimes end their Garden Walls withal Thô I have been told that with the first of these two ways they have had some good Grapes in England yet I find in both of them this capital fault that the Roots having work enough to feed so long a Stock and to
and such other Places will give leave But in a Garden for Fruit made as I shall presently describe one may find upon the Spot so much good Earth as will much more than double the natural Depth there was of it before thô you should plant your Lines of Wall Trees in the middle of a plat of good Ground eight or nine Foot wide And all this may be done without altering at all the Beauty or Symmetry of your Disposition The sixteenth Figure is the Ground Plat of a Garden for Trees made up into Terrasses It is an exact Square of 470 Foot on each side that Figure not being so offensive in our Disposition as it is in that which is common If you would have a bigger Garden you may keep the same Breadth and add two or four or six or eight Terrasses more c and order it so that the Door may still remain in the middle If you design to have a smaller Garden you may make the Length of your Terrasses less by 50 or 100 or 150 Foot And if you would have it smaller yet you may instead of ten Terrasses make only eight or six c. The outside Wall is about 10 Foot high and broader at bottom than at top The Breadth at bottom is 3 or 4 Foot The Breadth at top might be made of 8 Inches and it would be better yet if the Wall ended there into a sharp Edge The sides of the Wall are plane and so they must needs be somewhat Sloping Thô this may perhaps seem to be of little consequence yet I do not doubt but it will be a considerable advantage for this Wall to injoy thus the Sun near the Solstice for about half an hour or an hour longer of each side than it could otherwise and at the same time to injoy it more fully To which advantage there must also be added that of a greater Solidity which will make the Wall to be more lasting and seldom to want any Reparations On the inside of this Wall is a Line of four or five Foot of cultivated Ground then an Alley round the Garden and a Chanel or deep Trench that may serve for a Drain to the Garden I did suppose in the Figure that this Canal was faced on each side with a competent perpendicular Brick Wall But it should always have some Water whose Surface ought to be about three or four Foot lower than the Level of the little Walks One or two of those little Wind Mills that turn alone towards the Wind and are so common in the Fields in Holland might serve to empty this Ditch lest it should grow too full and if one would they might also serve to distribute the Water of it to any other place or to the Alleys in order to water the Trees Those Wind Mills might be placed either within or without the Garden as you think it most convenient The Breadth of the Canal must be considerable if you design it for state and ornament but it may be little if you design it chiefly for use Unless the necessity of having some Earth from thence for the Terrasses makes you to chuse a large Canal Under the Middle of the Alleys a cross the whole Garden should be as it were a Common-shore to receive all the superfluous Water of the Alleys and to carry it into the Ditch And if one such Common-shore was not sufficient one might have two placed at equal distances from the Middle of the Alleys so as to leave between them about half the length of the Alleys or very little more After the Ditch comes a little Path and a Line of cultivated Ground Then the Slope of the main Terrasse round the Garden Then an Alley at the top of it Then the inner Slope of the main Terrasse The rest are the lesser Terrasses with their respective Slopes on each side their Thicknesses at top the cultivated Grounds at the foot of them and the little Walks between The Door and Bridge and main Staires to get up the main Terrasse and lesser Staires to go down from it into the Alleys are easily perceived in the Figure whose particular measures are as follows hereafter Thô the Sloping in all the little Terrasses have been made the same and such as are properest for latter Fruits yet it would be more convenient to have them something different The perpendicular Height of the Terrasses is 8 Foot The Slopes that look to the South are elevated 51 Degrees 30 Minutes above the Horizon Those that look to the East 45 Degrees Those that look to the West 35 Degrees 22 Minutes And those that look to the North 28 Degrees 53 Minutes The Height of the South Walls taken along the Slope is 10 Foot 2¾ Inches That of the East Walls 11 Foot 3¾ Inches That of the West Walls 13 Foot 10 Inches And that of the North Walls 16 Foot 6¾ Inches The Bases of the Slopes that look to the South to the East to the West and to the North have in Breath 6 Foot 4⅓ Inches 8 Foot 11 Foot 3¼ Inches and 14 Foot 6 Inches The Door is towards the East Expositions of the Walls Height of the Walls in the Slope Elevations of the Walls above the Horizon Bases of the Walls or their Talus Perpendicular Height of the Walls  Feet Inches Deg. Min. Feet Inches Feet Inches South 10. 2¾ 51. 30 6. 4⅓ 8. 0 East 11. 3◠45. 0 8. 0 8. 0 West 13. 10 35. 22 11. 3¼ 8. 0 North. 16. 6¾ 28. 53 14. 6 8. 0 Here I bring into one Table the several Heights Elevations and Bases I said did belong to our Sloping Walls I go on to give the Measures of two several Sections cross our Garden Measures taken across the Garden going from South to North. Feet Inch 1. 6 EXternal Slope of the Wall 0. 0 Breadth of the Wall at Top. 1. 6 Internal Slope of the Wall 4. 8 Cultivated Ground 16. 4 Alley 19. 4 Ditch or Canal 2. 0 Path. 4. 8 Cultivated Ground 6. 4⅓ Slope looking towards the South 13. 0 Alley at the Top of the main Terrasse 14. 6 Slope looking towards the North. Sums 4. 8 Cultivated Ground 4. 9⅔ Path or Alley Feet Inch 4. 8 Cultivated Ground 98. 0 6. 4⅓ Slope looking towards the South 1. 0 Thickness of the Terrasse at Top. 14. 6 Slope looking towards the North. 4. 8 Cultivated Ground 4. 9⅔ Path or Alley 4. 8 Cultivated Ground 36. 0 Feet Inch 36. 0 Divided as before or with what Alterations one pleases 36. 0 Divided as before c. 36. 0 Divided as before c. 36. 0 Divided as before c. 36. 0 Divided as before c. 36. 0 Divided as before c. 36. 0 Divided as before c. Feet Inch 6. 4⅓ Slope looking towards the South 13. 0 Alley at the Top of the main Terrasse 14. 6 Slope looking towards the North. 4. 8 Cultivated Ground 2. 0 Path. 19. 5⅔
of large and small Terrasses you might cut one great Terrasse so as to afford in the middle of its Height a Step for another row of Vines as you see in the seventeenth Figure I should however upon many other Accounts and also for fear of the Vines of the lower part of the Terrasse intangling with those of the upper part rather chuse to have a whole Garden for Vines excepting only the bad Walls in it And such might be after some few changes the sixteenth Figure if we suppose the outside to be only of 240 or 300 Foot Now as I did already intimate once before our Garden will probably not hold so many Trees as are set down in the last Table For there being more room with our Walls than with the ordinary ones for the spreading and growing of the Roots round about they will make their Trees undoubtedly to grow bigger and larger every way The best Fault in determining the Distances between the Trees is to make them too big at first for fear of the Confusion and want of Fruitfulness that attends those Distances when they are made too small However in this we find a new advantage of our Gardens since a smaller Number of Trees will garnish the same Extent of Walls and give no fewer Fruits than a greater Number would have done and will be withal more vigorous and lasting But the Difficulty lies in guessing at the Distances we must chuse For my part I would for the first Tryal if the Ground be good not only make them as great as the Distances Monsieur La Quintinye determines for the very best sort of Ground but make them yet by about one sixth or one fifth part bigger Neither would I begin to mix alternately big Trees and little Trees together unless the Wall were at least twelve Foot high We must take notice here that the Paris Foot used by Monsieur La Quintinye and after him by me is to that of London as 16 to 15. So that to the London Foot one must add ⅘ of an Inch to make it a Paris Foot I have drawn with a great deal of care according to the Rules of Perspective in a large Print by it self the Elevation of the South-West Corner of our Garden Any body may judge by the effect of this Figure particularly with hiding the lower part whether Sloping Walls and Sloping Trees will be much offensive to the Eye For my part I think it may be a question whether an ordinary Fruit-Garden with perpendicular Walls can ever be made to look so pleasant and so full of a regular and stately variety as I find the Figure to be That stateliness is altogether owing to those great and massy Terrasses which in our Draught overrule as it were and master the whole and have an effect like to that of very large Columns in our Buildings They have besides from so many Trees set against them in a regular order that Airiness and Gayity which arise in our Architecture from abundance of proper Ornaments The Canal is made broader than according to the measures of the Ground Plat. It will not only be nobler if it be very broad but if you have no natural rising in the midst of your Ground it may yield also the Earth necessary for the Terrasses without sinking the level of the Garden The Figure will help to conceive how some Roofs might be used instead of Terrasses If the Garden be very large and you are at a loss where to have all the Earth that would be required even thô you should pretty much increase the breadth of your Canal keep the outermost square Terrasse untouched and in the middle of your Ground Plat draw from side to side a large Canal like a Cross ending at the four ends perpendicularly against the main Terrasse This new Canal will give the Earth you want And each of the four Divisions of the Garden must be finished by it self according to the Idea I have followed in the sixteenth Figure Only the new Terrasses that go round the inner half of the four Divisions of the Garden and make up the Banks of the new Canal should not be so large as the main Terrasse After the same way if the Extent of the Ground was extraordinary great and there was yet some Earth wanting one might again by four new Canals like a Cross subdivide each of the four last Divisions which would give sixteen small Gardens in all If these Canals be designed for several Ponds where you may keep different sorts of Fishes they need not have any communication one with another But if you would have the liberty of going every where with Boats among the Gardens it will be sufficient if all the Canals be opened and continued into one another along that Branch of the main Cross which the Bridge dos come up to excepting only that part of the main Terrasse the Bridge ends against Thus you might go at your pleasure either with a Boat or walking to any one particular Garden As the outer Terrasses are made less and less according as their Length decreases so should also the Canals be made less and less broad Now by such Canals your Garden might be divided not only into four or sixteen smaller Gardens but into any other Number Thô such large and magnificent Gardens can only be the Work of Princes and other Great Men or of powerful Societies yet there is no ordinary Gentleman that is able to have a Garden but may according to his ability and the Directions I have given in other places of this Discourse have one or more Terrasses or Slopes well exposed of what length he can afford So that he may have against them a competent number of Vines and other Trees And whereas they say now for instance I have got fifty Yards of very good Wall they may say hereafter to a greater commendation of their Gardens I have raised 30 or 40 Yards of a Sloping South Wall It may happen that upon some Tryals made by an unskilful Artist our Walls may seem not to be of any use for the Production of good Fruits But ordinary Agriculture dos not now thrive equally in everybody's hands And whilst a diligent and understanding Country Man is largely repaid for his Care and Industry the unskilful often sees himself deceived in his hopes There will ever be a just distinction between those that act by the certain Principles of an Art grounded upon Nature and such as act in a great measure by chance The same Instruments according to the several Applications that are made of them being managed by two several Hands produce often both what is deservedly admired of one side and what is as deservedly despised on the other In a word I do not hope by this Theory to make all Gardeners equal among themselves But I give them in all Countries an easie
being high are naturally temperate or cold The Table it self and its Explication The Vse of the Table Example for Paris Of South Walls that are more inclined to the Horizon than the Wall that passes thrô the Pole of the World Perpendicular and Sloping South Walls may be well compared together in the same but not in different Climates Of some other Advantages of Sloping Walls In reference to Dew and Rain especially as to the East Wall In reference to Frost occasioned by the Earths transpiring sonte moisture Or by the cold Vapours in the Air driving with the Wind and sticking upon Trees The growing of Fruits extended to more Countries and Places And the time of their Ripeness and use for Men to more Days in the Year Ordinary Walls compared among themselves and with Sloping Walls as to the forwardness of their Fruits The Certainty made greater of our latter Fruits coming to Perfection Slopes of Earth for smaller Plants Of the dividing a main Slope into many small ones Fig. XV. Of shaping the Level or ordinary Ground into very large Furrows running East and West with a gentle Slope Southwards and a steep one Northwards or contrarywise in order to increase or diminish a little the Sun's Heat Fig. XVIII Application of this Practice to Vse Of the difference of Heat upon the North and South side of Mountains Hills and Downs The Heat of the Air in any place dos not very easily spread into the next Air. Nor the reflected Heat spend it self so fast but that it may be strongly felt An Account of a Slope where extraordinary Strawberries are said to grow Advantage of Sloping Walls in such Days as the Sun is seen for some Hours only Advantage of inclining Sloping Walls more or less according to the Climate Situation and Exposition Advantage of Terrasses with Sloping Walls in reference to a sufficient quantity of good Earth which is easily procured Fig. XVI Description of a Garden for Fruit according to the present Theory The Vse of making the outside Wall thicker at bottom than at top A kind of Chanel or Ditch to keep the Garden from too much Water Measures of the Slopes which are respectively made equal But being made different they may be better fitted for several Fruits A Table shewing the Heights Elevations and Bases of the Walls Measures for the Ground Plat taken across the Garden Of a Garden for Vines only It requires but small Terrasses Of the Number of ordinary Trees the Garden could hold From whence is to be estimated the Number of its Fruits A Table shewing the Heights and Lengths and Expositions of the Walls Short Table giving the Result of the former Some Suppositions taken from Monsieur La Quintinye By which a Table is made of the Number of ordinary Trees the Garden would have 3½ Vines to be substituted for one Tree General Sum of ordinary Trees and Vines in the Garden Of Terrasses for Vines only Vines ought to be kept very low La Quintinye Of a large Terrasse parted into two for Vines Fig. XVII Fig. XVI The Garden will not hold so many Trees as it would if they were to keep within the ordinary Size The Trees in it will grow very large and why And must be far asunder Yet will not yield a less Crop of Fruits They will be more lasting A guess at their Distances See La Quintinye Vol. II. p. 294. and Vol. l. p. 208. c. Proportion of the London Foot to that of Paris A Draught of the Garden in Perspective Pag. 1. Division of a large Garden by some Canals into four or sixteen little Gardens or any other Number This will yield the Earth necessary for the Terrasses And either give different Ponds for several sorts of Fishes Or else open the Way by Boats among the Gardens Aud leave also a Foot Way into them all Any ordinary Gentleman may have a few Terrasses or Slopes well exposed A Tryal of Sloping Walls not to be depended upon unless made by a very good Artist A good Culture more significant than a good Exposition Sloping Walls very necessary while our Summers continue to be so cold The cause of that change in our Seasons referred to a Phenomenon like Smoak that incompasses the Body of the Sun and is seen to spread an exceeding great way from it The Origine of that Smoak How to determine the Figure of the Space it lies in It may grow thicker and yet not be perceived to have changed except perhaps by its Effects Directions about Garden Walls ought to be taken from Monsieur La Quintinye and the present Discourse Let your Walls be straight How they must be if they stand by themselves without any Earth on either side Fig. XIX How if they rest against a Terrasse or Slope of Earth Fig. XX. Let the Earth of the Terrasses be throughly setled The perpendicular height of Sloping Walls Their Inclination Of a broad Terrasse and how it may be made Fig. XXI Fig. XXII When its sides are almost equally leaning Fig. XXIII Fig. XXIV And when the Terrasse runs from East to West The Ground of Alleys for Fruit may be made Sloping towards the South The North Wall may be left bare and Herbs sown at the foot of it Or else the Earth be kept resting in order to renew that of the South Wall Slopes preferred to Walls If you can have but one Slope give it the best Exposition Of a Slope round the Garden Of a Terrasse round the Garden Of more Terrasses in the Garden Of Flat and Sharp Terrasses Description of a Walk very well secured from Winds Fig. II. III Of the Disposition the Roots ought to have in a Tree that is to be planted against a Sloping Wall Description of a Ladder to be used about Sloping Walls Of Harbours and Summer Houses in our large Gardens Fig. XVI Of Ornaments of Architecture in a Wall altogether smooth
FRUIT-WALLS IMPROVED By Inclining them TO THE HORIZON OR A WAY TO BUILD WALLS FOR FRUIT-TREES Whereby they may receive more Sun Shine and Heat than ordinary By a Member of the Royal Society LONDON Printed by R. Everingham and are to be sold by John Taylor at the Sign of the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIX Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus Fruit-Walls Improved by inclining them to the Horizon John Hoskyns V. P. R. S. August 31. 1698. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE MARQUISS OF TAVISTOCK MY LORD WHile Your Lordship fits Your Self in Your Travels to follow the Footsteps of so many glorious Ancestors I prepare for You in the Culture of Fruits a Diversion to those great Occupations which Your Birth will hereafter bring upon Your Lordship I was walking with Your Lordship when I first thought of this Way to make our Gardens yield better Fruits Besides My Lord I cannot forget what other Titles you have to look upon this as a domestick Production I shall think my self happy if I can add something to the Innocent Pleasures of many Nations especially this for which as well as most of the Neighbouring Countries what I have to propose seems to be of most Use However My Lord I shall be satisfied if by thus indeavouring to become useful to Your Lordship I express my most sincere Gratitude for all the Obligations I have to Your Illustrious Family I am with all manner of Respect My LORD Your Lordship 's Most humble most obedient and most obliged Servant N. F. D. The PREFACE THE Reader may perhaps think it strange to find in this Discourse a mixture of Gardening and Geometry these having had hitherto but little communication with each other But such is the wonderful extent of Mathematicks that very few Arts can be named but what may be by a due Application of them in a great measure improved At least I hope Experience will make this plain in the very case we have under consideration I might have published only that part of this Discourse which could be understood by every body or else have placed the Mathematical part wholy by it self But it was hard to separate them without an injury to both And I thought it better that whoever dos not care for what relates to Geometry should be desired from hence to read only what the Table or Margin will shew him to be most for his use And lest the nicest Reader should have yet any occasion to complain and think it too great a trouble for him to chuse what he may read and what he may pass over I have all along set in the Margin some Commas over against such places as any one not skilled in the Mathematicks may freely avoid I must however except the two or three first Sheets which were already Printed before I thought of this Distinction The remaining Discourse tho some few Words in it may not be understood by such as are unacquainted with the common Terms of ordinary Arts will I hope neither prove tedious nor offensive to any Lovers of Gardening even Ladies themselves not excepted Where I have used a double row of Commas I desire to have no other Readers but such as have studyed to a great degree either Natural Philosophy or Mathematicks or both It was requisite that this Theory should not appear without its Demonstration that so the Curious might know the Ground it is built upon and satisfie the rest of the World that here is no design laid to impose upon them but on the contrary such hopes offered of an extraordinary Success in raising good and early Fruits unless the Seasons be too much wanting as amount almost to an intire certainty Neither could the Directions that were to be given be fitly expressed without borrowing from Geometry and some other Mathematical Sciences their proper Language I have endeavoured to be as short as I possibly could and there are some places where if one reads fast he will hardly conceive the whole extent of the Discourse Such are for instance the places where I speak of Remedies against Winds That very brevity for which discerning Men are used to express so great an Esteem will make a second reading pleasanter less troublesom and more profitable whenever it will be necessary and will help to find easily and within a little compass the Directions useful to Practice As to the Style I am sorry to find so very few Words and not one Sentence to have been altered by such as were at the trouble to peruse my Manuscript But the Example of the Illustrious Monsieur Hugens who published in French his Theories of Light and Gravity tho he was no perfect Master of that Language makes me hope that any faults in the Style will be forgiven me especially by English Men who of all Nations have least to reproach me withal that I should offer to write this Treatise in English If it be well received perhaps a second Edition may be more accurately penned Most Countries may reap some Advantage by the Theory which I shall propose but especially such as have more than 45 Degrees Latitude This comprehends in our Europe all England Scotland and Ireland most part of France Holland Flanders Germany Switzerland the North part of Italy Hungary Sclavonia Transilvania Moldavia Poland Denmark Sweden Muscovy and several other Countries of less note but with some difference Of these Countries such as lie more to the South may expect to have with our Walls some excellent Figs and Grapes c. with some of the Fruits of hotter Climates But as one goes more Northwards tho here and there some new Sorts of Fruits be met withal yet fewer and fewer good Fruits will by degrees be left especially of those Kinds that require a great deal of Heat till at last most Fruits by the help of Sloping Walls will only shew better their Shape and Bigness and perhaps something of their Flavour without ever coming to a perfect maturity For I do not doubt but that even in those unhappy Climates the natural Productions which they have will be much mended by our Inclining Walls Southwards of 45 Degrees Latitude I can no more reckon in the North Hemisphere whole Countries as concerned in this Discourse but only some particular places upon Hills and Mountains or else some peculiar sorts of Fruits of which some may be made forwarder without any prejudice from the Increase of Heat and others may be transported from hotter Countries Or lastly some peculiar Expositions which being yet too cold as for instance the North Expositions may be helped as much as one pleases by duly inclining their Walls As our Theory is not restrained to Europe nor to Countries on this side the Equinoctial Line so it is not proper only to Men of great Estates but whoever is able to have a Wall about his Garden may in some proportion injoy the Advantage that arises from it 'T is true I have principally considered how large Gardens for
these Expositions and to dispose his Ground by Terrasses one above another so that in the Latitude of London the sloping of the Terrasses be elevated upon the Horizon for the South Wall neither less than 36 nor more than 52 Degrees See the Figure I where the Section of those Terrasses is represented in two several Places to the Eye And here you may take notice that if the Ground be not very steep the less the Sloping Wall is elevated upon the Horizon the less Room all things being alike each Terrasse will take and the less charge will be required In the making of these Terrasses a sufficient quantity of the good Earth must be carefully gathered along the Ridge of each Walk there to receive and nourish the Roots of our Trees Neither is it necessary to be very curious in keeping your Terrasses or Sloping Grounds straight and parallel But you may follow the winding of the Hill provided it keeps within the extent of good Expositions and take every where so much breadth as dos most conveniently give your Terrasses the Height you require Thus the Expence will not be considerable and even the plain Countrey Man may not think it above his power especially if he dos his Work by parts and in several Years And I am much mistaken if even those irregular Terrasses do not prove very pleasant and entertaining to the Eye A late ingenious Account of China tells us how agreeable the prospects of their Hills are which the Country Men divide into several Levels parted by a Sloping Ground between All this trouble is taken in that industrious Country in order to keep the Rain from running off their Fields But here we shall have probably more occasion to think how we may not be troubled with too much Water and how that of the upper Terrasses may be prevented from falling into the lower ones which being always easie to be done and the Remedy depending in a great measure upon the Extent of the Ground I must here forbear any farther Discourse Thus have I brought our Theory to some consistence and shewn how it might easily be reduced to Practice But while the first Figure is under our Eyes I cannot but observe that instead of looking with others upon a great Declivity towards the South as a considerable inconveniency in the Ground for a great Garden I should rather admire it for the multitude of Sloping Walls well exposed it would afford from place to place besides the pleasantness of many Walls breast high and of a good prospect abroad And as to the shade for Walks one might have it at the top of all from some rows of Trees I will here add some Reflexions I chuse among a great many by which we may farther compare Inclined Walls with perpendicular ones For I should swell this to an unreasonable Bulk should I speak of all the Calculations I have made relating to this matter I shall only then observe that from the Equator to the very Pole that is in the whole Terrestrial Globe I find not one Place and not one Exposition whatsoever in which a perpendicular Wall is so hot as a Wall sloping to a proper Degree for the Exposition And whereas the North Exposition is utterly naught in our ordinary manner of building perpendicular Walls if in the Latitude of 51½ Degrees a North Wall be elevated only 38½ Degrees upon the Horizon it will injoy the Sun thô much sloping for every Minute it can shine in the whole half Year from the Spring Equinox to the Autumn Equinox But during the two Months and three Days about the Summer Solstice it will injoy the Sun with an Elevation or Inclination ever greater than of 20 Degrees which gives more than the ninth part of the full Action of the Sun And for ought I see that may be near as much as our ordinary South Walls do then receive This might serve for the Summer Fruits that are ripe about the end of July and for raising of Pease c. For thô one would not chuse to build such a Wall without some necessity or some other considerable advantage yet having it at hand one would not leave it without use The North Exposition dos mend very fast as the Countrey lies more Southerly And above all others it dos require in temperate Countries on this side the Equator Walls with a very small Elevation such as 25 or 30 or 35 Degrees So then we find that even the very worst of perpendicular Walls may become tolerably good if they be made sloping It will appear by the sequel of this Discourse how many Advantages besides the bare Increase of Heat do follow our building of Sloping Walls But one of them lies already too obvious not to be spoken of here I say then that this Contrivance seems to be of an extraordinary consequence for the raising of all sorts of Fruits something earlier than we use to have them and for their perfect ripening And that it may prevent some of those that are fond of Fruits from falling into the Diseases that usually follow the eating Fruit not thoroughly ripe I expect from these Walls such Melons and Figs and Grapes as I think have never been seen in this Country I forbear speaking of other Fruits but shall only say that if we had once some excellent Kinds of Trees raised by this Method we might not need to send for new Graffs again to France And if the Summer being extraordinary wet and cloudy our Sloping South Wall should bring forth but indifferent Fruits yet even then those Fruits will be more tolerable than such as we gather from our ordinary Walls But all this will become more evident when the Principles I build upon shall be laid down There is yet something I have to say both in reference to the properest matter to build our Walls withal and to some other circumstances in the manner of building As to the properest Matter for our Walls I think Brick to be much better in this Countrey than Stone because they grow hotter and keep much longer the Heat By which means they do still warm the Plants a good while after the Sun is hid under a Cloud and in a manner lost to other Walls I know nothing that is more convenient than they are or of a better Shape for our purpose The biggest and thickest Bricks will be best And I should chuse as I said before to dispose them so that they might appear by their broadest sides Thus the Wall will be cheaper the Bricks will be apt to grow warmer and their Interstices being fewer and less deep there will be less room to take care of against Insects finding a shelter there Walls of Slate or of any dark coloured Stone whether natural or painted will also be very good For these Colours imbibe the Light or Heat much more than Colours that are whiter Our Walls ought not to have any Building
we may not be troubled with the Rain they are apt to bring in abundance to the Root of our Trees But this certainly can be no fault in a dry Season or light Ground or Easterly Wall or hot Countrey especially considering the great force of the Sun upon our Terrasses which will quickly dry the Ground In other places besides what may be done by receiving and turning off the Rain the Walk might be made as you see in the XIth Figure where it is pretty deep in the middle of it is the Slope of the South Wall AM the Cultivated Ground some three four or five Foot broad MN another thin Sloping Wall parallel to BA and some three or four Foot high NO the Walk or Path which may be five or six Foot broad and paved if you think fit OP PE EG are the correspondent Sloping North Walls and Cultivated Ground The great Depth of NO will keep the Grounds AMN EPO pretty dry and the Path NO may be made falling in order to bring the Water to some Drains where it may be lost In an extraordinary wet Weather one might use some slight Boards like QR and place them so near the Foot of the Sloping Wall that they might receive the Rain at their upper end in order to convey it to the bottom NO For this purpose it is proper that there be a very small jetting out in the Wall to which the Boards may be closely applyed Or rather one might at first fix in the Wall a long and narrow piece of beaten Lead which necessarily receiving the Rain would easily bring it to the upper Surface of the Boards or to some Gutters placed along the Wall which would be much convenienter than the Boards and would easily convey the Water to some other Gutters that should make it fall upon the Bottom NO The Slope MN receiving so directly the Sun-shine upon it will help very much to heat the Ground NMA and by consequence will in some measure forward Vegetation The Bottom NO which is to serve for a Path or Walk must be raising near the middle in a round Figure to keep it dry there The two Terrasses being farther from one another than in the second or third Figure the Heat will accordingly be less close Now we have begun to propose for our Terrasses a Shape something different from that excellent one in the second and third Figure we may farther observe that there would perhaps be some small Advantage to shape our cultivated Ground so as to have it better exposed to the Sun and grow warmer We might for Instance let the Section of our Walk in the eleventh Figure be according to the Lines BRMNOTEG and order matters so as not to be troubled with the Rain especially in the Ridge E. And by these means we should also get a Sloping Wall OT of a tolerable bigness and very well sheltered but ill placed and of an indifferent Exposition You may remember how speaking to the first Figure I did chuse in the side of a narrow Vale a pretty steep Hill well exposed which I did shape into several Terrasses one above another I don't know but that keeping to the like Idea it may succeed pretty well especially about 45 Degrees Latitude to chuse that Hill very steep to take it almost as Nature dos give it us and to pave it all over with Brick laid flat except some Holes of an Oval Figure about six or seven Foot long and about four Foot broad These Holes are each to receive at the Top of them a Tree whose Branches must be made to spread upon the paving of Bricks The greatest Diameter of the Ovals ought to be horizontal They must be disposed with as much regularity as possible They will look handsomer and will be more equally divided and lie more convenient for the spreading of the Tree and to receive all the Rain if they be Checker-wise as you see them in the twelth Figure But they will lie something more conveniently to turn off the Rain if they be above one another However it seems there is no great danger to be feared from too much Rain in a Hill so well exposed to the Sun and where an extraordinary quantity of Rain will not fail to find its way down or will ever be easily turned off The uncovered Earth must be dug as often as it is convenient The Bricks will grow very hot by the Sun shining so fully upon them And for ought I know they may hinder the too great and useless Dissipation of the Spirits of the Earth that secret and precious Fire of Nature not only by preventing the growth of Grass but also by intercepting their way and making them come out in greater abundance at the place where the Trees and their Roots are The good Earth must have been gathered to a sufficient Depth about the Ovals It is easie to order it so that either all the Rain shall run into the Ovals or most of it run down at the sides of them according as your Climate or the Season requires As to the Charge both in Bricks and Mortar and Day-labour it will come for each Tree to much less than half the correspondent Charge in building of a perpendicular Wall thô we should suppose this to have Trees on both sides Since I began this Treatise I have often inquired whether our Sloping Walls had been used any where And particularly I have indeavoured to find in Monsieur la Quintinye's Book what he says that may relate to this matter It is very plain that they are in no common use if used at all in these Northern Climates where they are most wanted And probably they have have had no occasion to think of them in hotter Climates where for the most part Heat is as much feared as here it is desired But I would fain have known whether ever they had been designedly built on purpose to injoy the Sun longer and to increase its Heat Monsieur la Quintinye speaks of some Sloping Grounds which he calls des Ados These he says are an Earth raised up with a Slope along a well exposed Wall in order to sow upon it in Winter time and in the Spring some Plants that are designed to be more forward than in the open Ground So Pease and Beans are sown and Artichokes Vines Rasberries c are planted upon an Ados the Reflexion of the Sun probably from the Wall above and from the Ground before heating these Slopes as if they were real Walls What I find said of them in the rest of the Work is much to the same purpose By this contrivance the Origine of which I do not at present inquire into one dos considerably increase the Heat at all times in the Year and I do not see that one can out-do it much in Winter or Autumn But in the Spring and Summer the Wall hides the Sun from the Slope for some time
garnish such a large extent with Leaves and a thousand other little useless Shoots there can remain no strength in the Sap for the production of Grapes unless perhaps they be some few and ill favoured ones All these and the like Trials were indeavours towards what is here more fully stated for I do not doubt but a great deal more besides has been attempted in many places in order to make the most of the Sun's Heat Whether I have done any thing more towards it than others let either Experience justifie or those determine that are able to understand the Mathematical part of this Discourse But after all I acknowledge readily that our Invention required but an ordinary Capacity to light upon it and even but an indifferent Skill in Geometry to examine and establish it upon its true Principles I must here repeat again and again that I have in this Discourse indeavoured to increase the Sun's Heat to an extraordinary degree and this I hope I have found how to do effectually But it is easie in hot Climates and in some light and dry Grounds and in the governing of tender Plants to err by an excess of Heat If any body should fall into that Errour it must be by his own fault He may take as much and as little as he pleases of that degree of Heat which is to be had by our Sloping Walls Thô accommodating my self to the Climate of England where too much Heat is hardly to be feared I may perhaps have sometimes spoke as if one were always to take the most However a pretty good Remedy against too much Heat is to keep constantly the Ground sufficiently watered So that the Trees being conveniently full of moisture their Fruits may be so much the farther from being scorched and dryed up And here I may observe by the by that if our Terrasses be so broad as to have at the top of them a little Rivulet or Aqueduct it will be very easie from thence to water them on both sides But this is perhaps above the Circumstances of an ordinary Gentleman's Estate The same conveniency for watering would be found in the steep Hill of the twelfth Figure provided there were some Water at hand above the uppermost Ovals If you have a Sloping Wall ready built and you are unwilling to have all the Heat it dos give you may keep your Trees upon some Frames or Espaliers at some little distance from the Wall as half a Foot or a Foot or a Foot and a half more or less as you intend to take off more or less of the Sun's Heat Those Frames thô not much used in England are yet better than the bare Wall because they leave more room and liberty to Trees Perhaps you may desire to have some Method for the chusing of the Elevations of your Walls when they have any other Exposition than to the South or to the North. I do for this make use in our Climates of the following Construction which I do not give as a Geometrical one but only as a Mechanical Approximation for the Solution of a Problem perhaps too hard to be solved in its full Extent with any great exactness An Exposition being given in a given Climate it is easily understood by what I said before that all Fruits do not require the Sloping Wall should have the same Elevation but that some Fruits will have it great some little and that among these Elevations there is two Extreams to wit the highest Elevation and the lowest that stand as it were for Limits of the rest I call the highest Elevation the Sloping Wall can have in the given Exposition simply the greatest or highest Elevation and its proper Wall the highest Wall And I call the lowest Elevation the same Wall can have in the same Exposition the smallest or least Elevation and its proper Wall the lowest Wall Let HA be the Horizon AOP the Meridian AO an Arc equal to the Elevation you chuse to give to your Sloping Wall when it looks to the North AP the Height of the Pole And you may find thus the greatest Elevation of your Declining Wall whether it declines to the East or to the West Draw the Line PO whose middle is D and determine how much more you would take for the greatest Elevation of your East Wall than for the greatest Elevation of your West Wall For I do chuse to give the East Wall a greater Elevation that it may injoy the Morning Sun more fully and to the West Wall a smaller Elevation that the Sun may come the sooner to shine upon it Suppose for instance you chuse 5 Degrees or 10 Degrees for the difference of Elevations between the highest East Wall and the highest West Wall Place those 10 Degrees for instance in the middle of the Arc PO from S to T and let S be higher than T. And draw the Lines DS DT Make the little Circle PDO to serve as a Compass where the Point O will answer to the North Exposition and the Point P to the South Exposition Let your proposed Expositions look for instance towards the 60th Degree taken on both sides the North and upon the Circle ODP take OE equal to 60 Degrees The Lines E σ E τ parallel to DS DT will give upon the Arc AP the greatest Elevations A σ A τ for the two Walls to wit A σ for the Wall that looks 60 Degrees East-ward from the North Point of the Horizon and A τ for the Wall that looks 60 Degrees Westward from the same Point The smallest Elevations belonging to the same Expositions will be found with taking AQ equal to the smallest Elevation of the South Wall and proceeding with the little Circle OQ as was done with the little Circle OP Now the Point Q cannot be lower than the Point O. For whatever be the least Elevation you can give to the South Wall the North Wall requires either the same or a lower and never the same but when it seems inconvenient for Vegetation to give a lower If the Point Q happens to be very near the Point O as suppose within 5 Degrees from it you may upon the little Circle OQ take O◠of 60 Degrees as before and draw to OQ the perpendicular eh meeting with the Arc AP in h and so you will have the Arc Ah for the least Elevation And if you think fit you may add to and substract a little from it at your pleasure if you intend to give more Elevation to the East Wall than to the Westerly But let it be so that you may still remain between the Limits O Q. However much Niceness in so wide a Construction is probably superfluous The Heat remains sensibly the same for the South Wall and for the North Wall too if keeping their Elevation each they are made to decline some few Degrees from the North or from the South This is partly plain because the Heat upon a Wall
whose Elevation is given is a Maximum when the Exposition is to the South and a Minimum when it is to the North. And this not being a sufficient Proof it is also further evident by some Calculations which I forbear to insert here For thô a Maximum or a Minimum dos not for the most part alter its bigness sensibly when the Elements from which it results are but a little changed yet it happens sometimes as in the Points of Retrogression of Curves that a Maximum or a Minimum will alter very much upon the least change in its Elements as suppose in the Abscisse And not only a Maximum or Minimum may be found where the Fluxions of the Abscisse and Ordinate are either of them infinitely greater than the other but where those very Fluxions have any determinate and finite Proportion among themselves But a part of this has already been observed by others This Equality of Heat is the Ground of the Construction I have given for determining the Elevation of declining Walls For it follows easily from it that the Elevation of the South Wall will remain sensibly the same thô it declines some few Degrees from the true South and that the Elevation of the North Wall will also remain sensibly the same thô it should decline some few Degrees from the true North. But Experience will be in all Climates the properest way to determine for each Fruit and each Exposition and Situation and each sort of Materials our Walls may be made withal the Elevation that should be given to Sloping Walls We must now compare as well as we can a smooth and plane Wall with a rough irregular Wall and with some other Walls that are not plane In this Theory I have supposed hitherto the Walls to be very smooth and plane And in that Supposition the Heat is as the Square of the Sine of the Sun's Elevation upon the Plane of the Wall But if it was possible to have a Wall of an uniform and determinate roughness every where that could perpetually fold its rough Surface into larger and straight prismatical Furrows so as to have always one side of the Furrows parallel to the Rays of Light and the other side perpendicular to them the Heat would then be and only then as the Sine of the Sun's Elevation upon the Wall Which must be so understood as not to exclude a Wall whose roughness vanishes into an exact Plane I am apt to think that our ordinary Walls thô very rough and uneven come nearer the first Supposition than the second But if the second was to take place TV TL must in the fourth Figure be made equal to the Sines of their proper Arcs TP TZ And the Parabolas MV ML IV must be turned into straight Lines and the rest of the Calculation must be altered accordingly The result of which would be a much smaller disproportion of Heat than before between the Sloping and the perpendicular Wall But notwithstanding this there would be yet left a very considerable Increase of Heat for Sloping Walls which would give a sufficient incouragement for the building of them As will soon appear to you by an easie Calculation too obvious after all I have said for me to explain it any farther However it is not possible that the Heat should follow this Proportion If the Heat was supposed as S½ which is the mean proportional between the Heats in the two former Suppositions taking S for the Sine of the Sun's Elevation upon the Wall then TV TL being duly determined the Parabolas would be turned into Parabolas of another Kind where the Cube of the Ordinate would be as the Square of the Abscisse And the Calculations woud be made after a Method like that I followed before And the result would come much nearer my first Supposition thô it would perhaps yet fall short of the true Increase of Heat upon the Wall A smooth South Wall seems to receive more Heat in all than a rough irregular Wall But the rough Wall receives more Heat while the Sun shines very obliquely upon it than a smooth South Wall would do And it receives less Heat than the smooth Wall when the Sun shines near full upon both For my part I think the smooth Wall to be preferable not only because it seems to have more Heat in all and looks much neater but because it gives no shelter to Insects The very sloping of a Brick Wall will give an advantage for the polishing or making of it smooth by the drawing to and fro of a rough and hard Stone sufficiently plane upon it the Stone being large and suspended from above to some convenient place for that purpose But we have one sort of very large and thin Bricks whose Figure is an exact Square already polished to our Hands Neither should I be very fond of a Sloping South Wall with some smooth semi-cylindrical Furrows upon it running from top to bottom in all the Wall as in Architecture some Pilasters are often made the flat part between the Furrows being also very smooth unless the Furrows were very small indeed which would bring the Wall so much the nearer a Plane Any other Furrows would prove too convenient a Nest for Insects I have calculated more out of Curiosity than for any real Use the Proportion of Heat for an Equinoctial Day upon such a Furrow and upon the Plane Wall or Fascia that could fill it up to the very Axis supposing the Atmosphere not to act upon the Rays of Light and the Elevation of the Walls to be the same with that of the Pole and these Walls to be turned directly to the South And I have also calculated the Heat that the like Fascia would receive if it was turned directly to the Sun for the whole Day In the seventh Figure where C is the Center of the Lines of Sines OA AG make up the Rectangles OCAD and GCAE and upon the Axis AC conceive the Solid formed by the Revolution of the Space OAGO as well as the Cylinder formed by the Revolution of the Space DEGOD The Heat of the Sun upon the Fascia always perpendicular to its Rays will be at the Days end as the Moment or Weight of the Cylinder ODEG in reference to the Line OD suppose as the Number 9870. And the Heat upon the Cylindrical Surface will be as the Moment of the Solid OAG in reference to the Line DE that is as 2723. And the Heat upon the inclined Fascia will be as the Moment of the Solid OAG in reference to the Line OD that is as 2467. But the inclined Fascia or the Plane Wall receives in proportion to its Surface much more Heat than the Semi-cylindrical Cavity as appears both by the very Numbers I have just now given and by taking upon the Semi-cylindrical Surface a small Space equal to the like Space
this give the same Weather or Heat to the Climate nor the same Strength or Weakness to the Sun as there is in a Country where its Rays do not pass thrô so much or so little Air yet at first sight it seems to be of some consequence for Agriculture both in cold and in hot Countries and I could not forbear proposing it to the consideration of the Curious If in our Example we do not get that degree of Heat they have naturally in the Latitude of 45 supposing both Countries equally cloudy yet with the very Numbers I gave we may possibly reach upon our Ground the Heat which they have in 48 Degrees Latitude and we may yet come nearer the Heat which the Ground has in the Latitude of 45 if we make our Slope that looks to the South a little steeper raising it for instance 10 or 12 Degrees above the Horizon There is some Ground lost here thô not very much As to the Trouble it is not greater than we see Countrey-men take to make the Water to run off their Fields And we have this conveniency that we may give our Slopes only what Breadth we please suppose as much as will result from the strength of a Man to throw with a Shovel the Earth from him But the broadest Slopes are best Thus we may help and increase a little by the shape of our Ground the Heat of the Sun or else we may abate a little from it And by consequence we may fit our Lands the better to bear any Plants we have a mind to raise This may serve to guide such as would plant some Vines in their Country whether it be naturally a little too hot or too cold For it will either lead them as daily Experience dos others to chuse a Ground fitly exposed and inclined for their purpose or else if their Ground be not proper it will let them see a possibility and a Method with a little trouble to make it so Every body knows what great difference of Heat and Vegetation there is in the same Climate between the North and South side of great Mountains and the like is in some measure observed at much smaller distances in our Hills I remember that travelling once in England in Summer over some Downs which had but an ordinary Declivity one could plainly perceive by turns that the Air became of a suddain much warmer when the Declivity was towards the Sun and colder when it lay from it Yet the Sun being high then did shine upon the whole Ground In any Shade and even in our Woods thô the communication be so open with the very next Air warmed immediately by the Sun and its Rays are let in at several places yet the coolness is very sensible the Heat spreading from the ambient Air with less ease than one is apt to think These considerations incline me to believe that by this shaping the Ground there may be something done for the benefit of smaller Plants especially in a close place or calm weather when the reflected Heat may not be blown away from the Ground that reflects it For it seems each Surface of Ground makes then close about it as it were a peculiar Climate And this is farther confirmed by the common Experiment we have how much hotter it is in Summer near a South Wall or a row of Houses that look to the South when the Sun shines full against them than in any other place where the Light of the Sun comes with the same Liberty For it is plain the reflected Heat being thus perpetually supplied from the Sun dos not so much spend it self into the open Air but that it may be strongly felt at some distance all along the place that reflects it I cannot here but mention what I heard a learned Gentleman say who has been in the West-Indies He assured that upon their Mountains according as one goes up higher and higher and the Heat dos become less one finds by degrees very many of our European Plants naturally growing the Mountains always giving them in some peculiar places as it were different Climates fitted to their several Natures So then as the Diminution of Heat makes the Ground naturally to bring forth the Plants of colder Countries so on the other side the Increase of Heat which in a great measure lyes in our power must needs fit our Grounds and Gardens for an easie and natural Production of the Plants of such Countries as are hotter only to a certain degree than ours The use of Sloping Grounds for smaller Plants is pretty well known already especially beyond Sea And as for these Climates not to mention what they call in French des Ados I have heard that a Gentleman who lives at Dublin has in his Garden a pretty easie Slope well exposed which furnishes him with Straw berries long before they be ripe in other Gardens and with such Strawberries too as have a colour smell and taste to which the others are not to be compared It happens pretty often that the Sun dos shine only some part of the Day which makes at such times perpendicular Walls in the Spring and Summer to be frequently altogether without it But Sloping Walls having before them a much greater part of the Sky are so much the more likely to injoy the Sun if it comes at all to be seen This advantage as well as that of injoying more fully the Sun at any Moment it happens to shine is so much the more to be valued when the Climate is apt to be Cloudy and subject to much Rain In pretty hot Countries or in Climates where their perpendicular South Walls are already as hot as they desire to have them one may often by inclining another Wall to a proper quantity make any Exposition from the North East Southwards to the North West to be equal in Heat to a perpendicular South Wall The like may be said of a perpendicular South East Wall c If it be the best perpendicular Wall in your Climate you may make several other Expositions not to be inferiour to it by inclining the Walls as much as is necessary And further suppose Experience has taught in your Country and Situation the best East-South-East Wall for instance to be for such a kind of Fruits that which is elevated 75 Degrees upon the Horizon you may give such an Elevation to another Wall in another given Exposition as will receive an equal Degree of Heat with the former Very few Grounds have so much good Earth as is necessary for Fruit Gardens The charge of bringing some from another Place is very great And unless one fetches it from far there will probably be too near the Garden and the House some large unsightly place left in a manner barren and desolate Neither is it practicable to take away the good Earth from some Parts of your Garden to bring it to some other Parts except as far as your Alleys
Ditch or Canal 16. 4 Alley 4. 8 Cultivated Ground 1. 6 Internal Slope of the Wall 0. 0 Breadth of the Wall at Top. 1. 6 External Slope of the Wall 84. 0 470. 0 Total Sum. Measures taken across the Garden along one of the small Alleys going from East to West Feet Inch. 7. 8 Wall and Cultivated Ground 42. 4 Alley Ditch Path Cultivated Ground 8. 0 Slope looking towards the East 13. 0 Alley 11. 3¼ Slope looking towards the West 305. 5½ Length of the Alley and small Cultivated Ground 8. 0 Slope looking towards the East 13. 0 Alley 11 3¼ Slope looking towards the West 42. 4 Cultivated Ground Path Ditch Alley 7. 8 Cultivated Ground and Wall 470. 0 Total Sum. But with increasing the Breadth of the Canal every where by 15 Foot more the whole Breadth and Length of the Garden would be 500 Foot each If the Garden be designed for Vines only the Terrasses need not I suppose have more than 4 or 5 or at most 6 Foot in the Slope that looks to the South and accordingly they will be smaller and nearer one another and by consequence they will be less chargeable and the same Extent of Ground will yield more Fruit. Supposing the Ground not to be of the very best sort but of a middling kind between that and the sort of Ground Monsieur La Quintinye calls indifferent the Garden whose Measures I have just now given would hold almost 1600 ordinary Fruit Trees taking in those that may be placed against the outside of the Wall that goes round the Garden This will appear upon examining the three following Tables where I make yet no allowance for the Trees growing bigger against our Walls than against the ordinary ones But the Tables however will very well serve to guess at the Quantity of Fruits that will be produced And this must be with allowing for each Tree according to the common rate of their Fruitfulness Height of the Wall taken along the Slope Length of the Wall Exposition of the Wall to the Heavens The Walls spoken of in this Table Feet Inches Feet Inches   10. 0 456. 0 East Outside of the Wall that goes round the Garden 10. 0 468. 0 South 10. 0 468. 0 West 10. 0 468. 0 North. 10. 0 458. 8 East Inside of the Wall that goes round the Garden 10. 0 458. 8 South 10. 0 446. 8 West 10. 0 458. 8 North. 11. 3¾ 347. 6 East Outside of the main Terrasse round the Garden 10. 2¾ 360. 4 South 13. 10 359. 6 West  16. 6 360. 4 North.  11. 3¾ 27 Trees East The Nine little Walls at the Bottom of the Nine Alleys 20. 2¾ and 9 Trees South and West The Nine Corners at the right hand at the going into the Alleys 13. 10 16. 6¾ and 9 Trees North and West The Nine Corners at the left hand at the going into the Alleys 13. 10 16. 6¾ 297. 0 North. One of the North Walls of the little Alleys 16. 6¾ 2376. 0 North. The remaining 8 North Walls 10. 2¾ 297. 0 South One of the South Walls of the little Alleys 10. 2¾ 2376. 0 South The remaining 8 South Walls This first Table allows twelve Foot to the Gate and Pillars and makes the Length of a Sloping Wall middlemost between its Length at Bottom and its Length at Top. Only as to the long Slopes of the little Alleys observe that they are set down less by 8½ Foot than what they really are at Bottom So much being allowed for the spreading of the Trees in the Corners The Result of the first Table is here set down in the second East South South and West West North and West North. Length and Height of the Walls Length and Height of the Walls Length and Height of the Walls Length and Height of the Walls Length and Height of the Walls Length and Height of the Walls 914. 8 10. 0 926. 8. 10. 0 9 Trees 10. 2◠914. 8. 10. 0 9 Trees 16. 6¾ 926. 8. 10. 0 247. 6. 11. 3¾ 3033. 4. 10. 2¾ and 359. 6 13. 10 and 3033. 4. 16. 6¾ 27 Trees 11. 3¾     13. 10     13. 10     Monsieur La Quintinye divides our Wall Trees into two Classes and according to him if the Ground be between very good and indifferent Soil the Walls whose Height is in the Table 10 Foot and 10 Foot 2¾ Inches require the Trees of the first Class to be at eight Foot six Inches distance asunder and the Trees of the second Class to be at seven Foot three Inches distance asunder The middle Number between those is about 8 Foot But the Walls whose Height is in the Table 11 Foot 3◠Inches and 13 Foot 10 Inches and 16 Foot 6◠Inches require to have their Trees alternately intermixt with making them by turns a high one and a low one and their Distances must be about five Foot three Inches one with another According to these Determinations the last Table will give the following Numbers of ordinary Trees East South South and West West North and West North. Trees Distance Trees Distance Trees Trees Distance Trees Trees Distance 114 8 116 8  114 8  116 8 66 5¼ 379 8 9 68 5¼ 9 577 5¼ 27 5¼         The total Sum of Trees is 1595. And for one Tree that takes up 8 Foot Space you may substitute if you please 3◠Vines But if the Ground be very good the Number of Trees will be less So then our Garden might hold 1300 ordinary Trees and 1000 ordinary Vines or 1400 ordinary Trees and 680 ordinary Vines And from thence must be estimated the Number of its Fruits But it would be very unwise to make such high Terrasses to serve for Vines only For that Plant being of such a Nature as not to do well in these Countries if it be suffered as it is too often done to spend its strength in nourishing an overgrown Stock we may follow their Directions that advise us to keep it so low as to give for instance to Muscat only the Height from three Foot to five A Terrasse for Vines would then be great enough unless I mistake in drawing this conclusion if it was but half as high as those I have described Neither would it be necessary to allow more than half the Breadth we did give to our Alleys or very little besides And since this great narrowness might prove troublesome because of the Rain I would in building the Terrasses spare within and at a good Depth under each of them a little paved Ditch to carry off the Rain at both Ends and to keep the Alleys clear of too much Water The same might also be conveniently done in building any Terrasses thô never so big But if you think it too improper to have in one Garden a mixture
at Bottom if you would have the Wall to be most solid and lasting But if you intend to favour the Trees of one side more than those of the other side where perhaps it is not in your power to have any Trees the Top of the Wall may be removed going from that side you intend to favour towards the other provided it dos yet bear directly over some part of the Bottom And this will make that side the steeper which probably you design for the outside of your Garden The broader your Wall is at Bottom the better it is for Vegetation but the charge is also greater 2½ or 3 Foot may be a competent Thickness The Height will be well from 8 to 10 or 11 Foot A higher Wall would be more chargeable and unless the Breadth at bottom be also increased it would be less hot and would not last so long Walls of darkest Colours are best If your Wall is to rest against a Terrasse or Earth having a Slope faced with Bricks on the other side it will be well that the Plane which parts the Earth and the Wall be perpendicular to the Horizon which will make the other side of the Wall so much the more Sloping And let the several Beds of Bricks which make up your Wall be not Horizontal but a little leaning towards the Terrasse So the Wall will be able to witstand better the Pression of the Earth Let the Earth of all your Terrasses or other Sloping Grounds which you intend to face be throughly setled or well beaten before you face them Lest that Earth by coming to sink should spoil the Regularity of your Wall The perpendicular Height of such a Wall as this needs not be more than 8 Foot If you would have a Terrasse with solid Walls on both sides they must be built after the same way Let the Inclinations of all your Terrasses be made according to the Directions I have given at large in the present Discourse If your Terrasse be very Sloping on both sides let it have some little Thickness at top that the Earth coming more and more to settle the two Walls that face it may not come to touch one another Terrasses that are flat at top with a Walk there are very Noble and neat But if this Walk be broad you may consider whether you had rather build two Walls breast high on both sides of the Terrasse so that the facing of it be not altered by them This will save the charge of bringing so much Earth and is capable of the Ornaments of Architecture or else may be performed after a very plain way and with little charge It is most proper for such Terrasses as have both their sides almost equally leaning Such are those that run from North to South or from North West to South East You might also have a Wall breast high only of one side of the Terrasse which would spare some charge and be pleasanter in walking This is very proper when your Terrasse runs from East to West for thus your South Wall having at the Top of it the Wall breast high your North Wall will have a more proportionable Height for Trees See the Figures quoted in the Margin The Ground of your Alleys may be made Sloping by some 5 or 10 Degrees c towards the South which will expose it better to the Sun and cause the Water to run more towards the North Wall or worst side and make the Ground near the South Wall to be the dryer This will be particularly proper for Vines which thrive best in a pretty dry Ground and for a Country subject to much Rain Your North Wall might be left bare without any Trees which would make the reflected Heat to be much the stronger upon the South Wall And then at the Foot of the North Wall might be sown some Plants that require in your Climate in the Spring and Summer much Sun Shine and a Ground not very dry Such might be some Strawberries or any other smaller Plants that are common in Gardens So then one side of your Alleys may be for Fruit and the other side for all sorts of Herbs But if you think fit the Earth of the North side may wholly rest and be kept in store to renew the Earth of the South side as there shall be occasion You may order after the manner I have said whatever Walls or Terrasses you build prefering always a Terrasse with a Slope on each side faced with Bricks to an Earth or Slope walled on one side and only faced on the other as this must be preferred to a simple Wall without any Earth I need not say that if in your Garden you will have but one Slope it should be against the best Wall and reach the very Top. A Garden may very properly be surrounded by a Slope of Earth walled on one side and faced on the other the Wall being at the outside of the Garden But if you please you may not make the Slope that would look to the North. If you will be at a greater Expence you may have a flat Terrasse round your Garden Or else before your Slope that looks to the South build a sharp Terrasse having the whole length of your Garden The same you might do along your Slope that looks to the North. And so you might have as many Terrasses as you please But it is best not to part them by a Garden between but to keep them all together because they will be thus better sheltered against Winds A flat Terrasse is that which has a convenient Walk at the Top of it whether it be walled or only faced on both sides A sharp Terrasse is for the most part only faced on both sides and ends at Top as it were into an Edge there not being Room enough for a Walk It may also be walled on one side and only faced on the other The same may be said of a Flat Terrasse A Sharp Terrasse is preferable to a Flat Terrasse for Cheapness A Flat Terrasse is preferable to a Sharp Terrasse for State and for the convenience of the Walk it affords If your Climate be subject to very dangerous Winds from which your Walls must be secured at any rate the best will be to make in a convenient place two Terrasses running exactly from East to West like those of the second and third Figure I have no new Directions to give about the Insides of those Terrasses They must be faced with Bricks and the Side exposed to the South being used for Fruit the North Side may either wholly rest or be employed as you think fit But as to the Outsides these not being designed for any use you may make them as steep as you please Then you may fill the whole Spaces comprehended by the indefinite Lines or rather Planes AM AO EN EP continued as
far as you think fit with Trees and very tall and thick Hedges or with Buildings and whatever else is able to stop the Wind. Both the Ends of the Alley must be stopped by a cross Terrasse each and at their outside the same care must be taken for a Shelter of very tall Hedges and Trees against Winds Thus the Walk between your Terrasses will be sheltered as much as possible and the Heat in it will be very close and the Sun Shine that is lost will be inconsiderable I do not mean only that such Buildings and Plantations as I spoke of may be made about your Walk to secure it from Winds but that you may also take your advantage of Buildings already made and of Trees already planted even of those of a Forest to make your Alley between them and to secure it by the Shelter they will afford The Roots of the Trees we are to plant against our Sloping Walls should not be disposed after the same way as if the Walls were perpendicular If there be but one Root it is best placed when it makes an Angle with the Body of the Tree equal to the Angle of the Sloping Wall with the Cultivated Ground And then such a Root being turned from the Wall will be Horizontal But thô the Root made a smaller Angle with the Tree yet there will be commonly some position where it will naturally place it self in your Cultivated Ground in an Horizontal Situation But this must be done with judgment so that the Roots of different Trees may not too much intermix If there be but two Roots in your Tree when they are opposite and both Horizontal place them parallel to your Sloping Wall If they be not directly opposite they will be best when they both bend a little downwards from the Body of the Tree And you will easily find what Situation is best for the Tree with keeping its Body parallel to the Situation it is to have and at the same time turning the Tree about its own Axis After the same way whatever be the number of your Roots and their Situation you will know how to place the Tree if you indeavour to find how all the Roots without running too deep from the places which are heated by the Sun can best remain under Ground especially under the Cultivated Ground which receives more the benefit of the Dew and Rain and Sun Shine than that which is under the Wall And when the Roots are long and pliant you may place them at your pleasure in a Situation parallel to the Surface of the Ground or to the Plane of the Wall according as they are near the one or the other of those The Fruits that grow pretty high from your Cultivated Ground will require that you should have in order to gather them a Ladder somewhat particular with two Arms at the upper End by which it may be kept from the Wall and from the Trees And such a Ladder being once fixed will be near parallel to the Wall and will serve to gather at once all the ripe Fruits in that place or to do all the necessary Work about the Trees be the Wall never so high till you remove the Ladder to another part of the Wall Some Harbours Cabinets or Summer Houses in our large Garden might be very well placed at the four Corners They should have the full Breadth of the Alleys or rather more so that they may face the middle of them directly And the Walks may be continued into one another by cutting a round Space from the Corner of the Canal I have drawn in one of the Corners of the sixteenth Figure some pointed Lines which shew how I mean those Summer Houses should be made and what changes they will give both in the Alleys and Canal and in the Corners of our main Terrasse Smaller Harbours or Grottos may be made under the Terrasses and may serve for shelter against Storms and for Store-Houses for our Fruits not to keep them there for a good while but to lay them up till they be carried to a more convenient Place They may be of about ten Foot Square and have their Floor lower than the Ground and cause no other change in the outer Part of the Terrasses but that a Way must be cut to them along that Corner of the Walk which is exposed to the North West They must have a good deal of Air from the Door c. And according as you would have them dry you may have under your Trees in the South Wall a small Window of a convenient bigness so much raising from the Wall as to exclude the Rain And if you fear lest you Harbour or Store-House might prove too damp you may make it narrower and spread it under a greater length of the Terrasse This will give you the liberty of making the Floor higher and level with your Alley or raised above it by two or three Inches or more One is not apt to think that a Brick Wall altogether smooth and without any jetting out and Windows should be capable of some pretty Ornaments of Architecture Yet I find it may be very much imbellisht barely by the different Disposition of the Bricks And I have given an Instance of it in the Frontispice There I made use only of Bricks whose Measures are as follows Ordinary Brick Length 4 Parts Breadth 2. Double Brick 4. 4. Half Brick square 2. 2. Half Brick long 4. 1. Quarter Brick 2. 1. But one might also imploy Bricks of different Colours and Sizes What is done in the Frontispiece for imitating an Architrave Freese and Cornish might also be done for Pilasters and for large Partitions between them like the Square Frames of our Wainscot or like our Windows I say this after having tried it and perceived that even the Schizzos I made looked noble and pretty and imitated our good Architecture beyond what I could have expected without having any thing either Gottick or Fanciful The Example you have in the Frontispice is very much inferiour to what might have been done if there had been more Room And not only the Modillons of the finest orders might be easily imitated but so might also the Triglyphes and Metopes of the Dorick F.I. F.II. F.III. F.IV. F.V. F.VI. F.VII. F. VIII F.IX. F.X. F.XI. F.XII. F. XIII F.XIV. F.XV. F.XVI. F. XVII F. XVIII F.XIX. F.XX. F.XXI. F. XXII S G sculp Idea of sloping Walls for Fruit. Defects of perpendicular South-walls Perpendicular South-walls East-walls and West-walls compared together Perpendicular Walls compared with Sloping Walls The same done in a particular Example for the Equinox and for the Summer Solstice The result of which shews the great advantage of Sloping Walls What Countries they are best for A good Culture is necessary for them to have their full effect An Instance from Experience of the usefulness of Sloping Walls How Sloping Walls may be built with little charge And how far the Roofs
them in each Climate within the two Extreams we shall find I should not easily chuse to make any where except perhaps in extraordinary high Grounds the South-wall more sloping than an Elevation of about 30 or 40 Degrees upon the Horizon would make it to be For thô a great obliquity of the Wall would not hinder Vegetation but rather for ought I know forward it yet our experience in this kind being so very narrow I cannot know otherwise than by guess how the Elevations of only 10 or 20 Degrees upon the Horizon would agree with Plants However such small Elevations are not fit for South-walls in these Countries But if there were any use for our South-walls in the Torrid Zone as there may possibly be for those Fruits which being peculiar to that Climate require also a great deal of Sun-shine to bring them to perfection especially in the higher Situations upon some Hills or some Mountains I should even there chuse not to give these Walls less than 40 or 45 Degrees Elevation which sloping would perhaps give but too much Heat For there is some reason to doubt whether it would not scorch any Plant whatsoever that is set in these hot Countries against a Wall very much inclined So I should leave the most sloping South-walls for the Climates that have about 40 or 45 Degrees Latitude and not use them there neither but upon Mountains or for the Plants of hotter Countries In Iseland which is placed under the Polar Circle the inclined South-walls must make an Angle of more than 46 Degrees and less than 66½ Degrees with the Horizon Generally in all the temperate Zone I should limit the Elevation of the South-wall between 30 and 66 Degrees These several Considerations must be duly weighed together as well as the tenderness of your Plants in order to chuse a properer Elevation But a small errour in this is not of great consequence if you intend to raise all the Heat possible For you can indeed erre considerably but one way to wit in procuring too much Heat If you do not fear to exceed in this you may follow the Numbers of this Table where the first Column gives the Latitude or Elevation of the Pole Latitude Deg. Greatest Elevation of the South Wall Deg. Least Elevation of the South Wall Deg. Least Elevation corrected Deg. Middle Elevation Deg. 40 40 20 30 35 50 50 30 35 42½ 60 60 40 40 50 70 70 50 50 60 I II III IV V The second Column gives the greatest and the third Column the least Elevation of the South Wall upon the Horizon The fourth Column gives the same least Elevation with some Corrections that are not made in order to increase the Heat but at the expense of some Heat to give in smaller Latitudes more Elevation to the Wall The fifth Column gives only the middle Numbers between those of the second and fourth never differing from them one way or another more than 10 Degrees The Table was made from this Rule That the Elevation of the South Wall in temperate Countries ought in order to make the most of the Sun's Heat neither to be more than the Height of the Pole nor less than the Height of the Pole wanting 20 Degrees So then the second and fourth Column may pretty well serve especially in great Latitudes for Limits of the Elevations of our warmest South Walls But the Elevations for hottest Countries cannot be so well determined till Experience has taught what may and what may not be done there In those hot Climates the Rule I gave just now is of little or no use For it supposes that Fruits are ripe by the end of October or long before But in the Torrid Zone we may have Fruits all the Year round In great Latitudes the Sun in Autumn and Winter shines seldom and always thrô a great depth of Air which inclines one to neglect that insignificant Sun-shine and to make the most of the Sun-shine in the Spring and Summer by keeping the South Walls as our Rule does rather more sloping than they needed have been otherwise But pretty near the Equator the Sun comes every Day to a considerable Height And that invites one not to neglect the Sun-shine so much during Autumn and Winter and by consequence to make there the Walls rather less sloping Which the scorching Heat requiring also all these Reasons seem to prove that the South Walls must again grow rather more upright as one comes nearer the Equator For let it ever be remembred to consider whether the Climate the height of the Situation the Soil the Exposition the Nature of your Plants and the Season of their growing be such as to permit you to give your Sloping Walls the most Heat you can procure As to the Use of the Table the Fruits that ripen in Autumn and very late in the Year require the greatest Elevations those that ripen in June or July the least Such as grow ripe in May will have almost the least Elevations and such as grow ripe in April August and September require some middling ones But if any Fruit such as Pease c are to grow ripe in March they require again the greatest Elevations Now all this is said upon supposition that you are in no fear of procuring too much Heat And this is what we can at present determine about the Limits of the Elevations of South Walls Before we proceed farther should not we relate as an Experiment favouring our Inclined Walls that where Vines do grow in the open Air they chuse to Plant them not upon a flat but upon a rising Ground exposed to the East or South-East or South Which sloping of the Ground consonant to the Theory I have been proposing is found by Experience to be of an extraordinary Advantage And to this must also be referred what Monsieur La Quintinye has writ concerning the Exposition and Declivity of the Ground for great Gardens But if after all there should be left some Scruples in the Reader 's Mind let him either examine the Demonstrations I shall give in this Discourse or cause some proper Judge to tell him how far he may rely upon them Having then no reason to think but that our Theory will be found agreeable to Nature we may see farther how it can be brought to an extended and easie Practice If any body therefore is desirous particularly in a Country not exposed to some returns of Frost in the Spring and to blasting Winds to raise a pretty deal of good Fruit either for his own use or for the Market I would advise him both as the best and the least chargeable to chuse in a very good Soil especially in the side of a narrow Vale a convenient Hill or Rising with a pretty strong Ascent and exposed to the South South East or to the South and by East or to the South or to the South and by West or at least not far from