The Sun.
London, England, 1821-04-25 00:00:00

HORTICUL'T'URE.

(From the Quarterly Review, No. 4SI
The pine apple, which is brought to such per-
fection in this country, Cannot be obtained in
France, the air and clitriate not being favourable
to this description of. fruit. The late Puke of
ORLEANS, (Egalite), to give it
,A fair trial, pro
cured from hiS friend the Earl of Egitmont a pine
stove, furnished with plants, together with the
frames, bricks, hues, bark pots, plants and even
the gardener,,Blaikey (still residing- in France);
but after repeated trials, which all ended in dis-
appointment,
,the attempt was-finally given, up.—
The climate and soil of Great Britain is more fa-
vourable for gardening, taking. all its branches
into consideration, than any. other. .Admitting:
that it is less so for culinary herbs and roots, and.
bulbous flowers, than Holland, it Is, from its ever
verdant and soft turf, fine gravel, and varied suf.,
face, incomparably better adapted for landscaPe
gardening;. than that or any other country of the
Continent. CHARLES 11., in reply to some per-
sons who were reviling our climate, said, he
thought that was the best climate where he could
be abroad •in the air with pleasure,- the- most days
in the year, and the most hours of the day, and
this he could be in England more than in- any
other country in Europe.---" There are (says Sir
Wm.. TEMPLE), besidei the temper of our climate,
two things particular to us, that contribute much
to the beauty and elegance of our gardens; those
are, the gravel of our walks, and -the fineness and
almost perpetual greenness of our turf. The first
is not -known any where else, -which leaves all
their-dry walks very unpleasant and uneasy. The
other cannot be found. in France or in Holland
as .we have it, the soil not admitting that fineness
of blade in Holland, nor the sun that greennesS
in France, during most of the sumMer.”..--The
horticultural productions of Great Britain may,
in-variety, excellence, and abundance, be truly
said to surpass those of all other countries in the
world independent of -culinary vegetables and
fruit of the-finest quality-, flowers of the rarest
species are in abundance, and at moderate prices,
so that a tradesman may, whenever he desires,
have on his table a dessert, and in his dra_wing
room an assemblage of flowers, not surpassed "by
the first nobleman of the empire; -and• such as
could not -be procured by any sovereign in. any
other country in Europe The _total number-of
exotics, hardy and tender, introduced into this
country, appears to be 11,970, of which 47were
introduced in or previously to the time of Henry
VIII, '533 during that of Elizabeth, 573 the two
Charles's and -Cromwell, 44 James 11., 298
William and Mary, 230 Anne, 182 George 1.,
-1770 George 11., and 6756 George lIL, which
is above half the number of exotics now in the
gardens of this -country.

SWIMMING ACROSS The HELLESPONT

Lord BYRON has addressed a letter to Mr.
Murray, froni Ravenna, elst Feb. 1821, occa-
sioned by a passage in: Turner's Travels, stating
that " Lord Byron, when he expressed such con-
fidence of the practicability of swimming. across
the Hellespont, seems. to- . have forgotten that
Leander swam both ways, with and against the
tide ;_ whereas he (Lord. Byron) only performed
the easiest part of the task, by swimming with it
from Europe to Asia
" I certainly (observes tord Byron) could not have forgotten
what is known to every school-boy, that Leander crossed in the
night, and returned towards the morning.: My object was to
ascertain that the Hellespont could be crossed at all by swim-
ming—and in this Mr. Ebenhead and myself both succeeded_.
the one in an hour and ten minutes, the other in one hour and
five minutes; the tide was not in our favour, on the contrary,
the great difficulty was to bear up against the current; which,
so far. from helping us to the Asiatic side, set us down right to-
wards the Archipelago.—Neither Mr. Ebefiliead, myself, nor,
I will venture to add, any person on board the frigate, from
Captain (now Admiral) Bathurst, downwards, had any notion
of a difference of the current on the Asiatic side, of which Mr.,
Turner speaks. Of what may be done in swimming, I shall
mention one more instance. In 1818, the Chevalier Mingaldo,
(a gentleman of Bassei:l_o a good swimmer, wished to swim
with my friend, •Mr. Alexander. Scott, and myself: as he
seemed particularly anxious on the. subject we indulged him.
We all three started from the Island of Lido, and swain to
Venice. At the entrance of the. Grand Canal, Scott and I
were a good way a-head, and we saw no more of our foreign
friend ; which, however, was of no consequence, as there Was a
gondola to hold tiis clothes, and pick him up. Scott swam on
till past the Biato, where he got from fatigue than
chill, having been four hours in the water, without rest, or
stay, except what is to be obtained by floating on one's back:
this being the condition of our performance. I continued my
course on to Santa Chi.iira, comprising the whale Of the Grand
Canal, (besides the distance from the :Lido) and got out where
the Laguna once inpre opens to Fusina. I had been in the
water, by my watch;'withaut help or rest, and never touching
ground or boat, four hours and twenty minutes. To this
match, and the greater part of its performance, Mr. Hoppner,
the Consul General, was witness, and it is well known to many
others:

" I am now ten years older in time, and twenty in Constitution
than I was when I passed the' Dardanelles, and yet two years
ago I was capable of swimming four hours and twenty minutes ;
and I am sure that I could have Continued two hours' longer,
though I had on a pair of trowsers—an accoutrement which by
no means assists the performance. My two companions were
also four hours in thi water. Mingaido might be about 30
years of age, Scott about 26. With this experience in swim-
ming.at driferent periods of age, not only on the spot, but else-
where, of various persons, what is there to make me doubethat
Leander's exploit was perfectly practicable ? If three indivi-
dtials did more than pa4ing the Hellespont, why-should he
have done less ? •But Mr. Turner failed, and naturally seek-
ing. a
.plausible excuse for his failure, lays the blame on the
Asiatic side of the strait—tome the cause is evident. He tried
to swim directly across, instead of going higher up to talte the
vantage. He might as well have tried to fly over Mount
Athos. That a young Greek of the heroic tiwies,' in love; and
with his limbs in full vigour, might have 'succeeded in such an
attempt, is neither wonderful nor doubtful. Whether .he at-
temptedit or not is another question, because he might have
had a small boat to save him the trouble.'-'

A large fossil skeleton of the /ditto Saurus
Platydon, or Prole° Saurus, was lately-discover-,
ed in the:blue lias formation at Lyme:aegis,
Dorset. The head of.this-skeleton, from theTor-
bit to the termination of the. nnse,-is four feet arid
a half long, the teeth: well defined, with the pro-
cess-of the;sternum scapula, ,humerus, &c: and
.the whole length -of 7Vertebrm, being froTn 18. to
20 feet -in' .of the os-
teology of Ole Ictitio -Saurus, or Proteo Saurus,-
was the subject of a celebrated paper addressed
to the Royal;-Society by their Vice-President,
-Sit Edward'Home;. Bart. and- was published
in the Philosophical-Transactions for 1819.
Yesterday morning a fineimale child was -found
in the Suxtey.Ganal,. -near the. Lord
Tavern, in the Greenwich-road, ;which, from: its
appearance, .is'scrpposedqo have,-been murdered,
h-was cofiveyed to a neighbouring tavern;andlan
Inquest has. be summoned to inquire Into the
causes of its death.