The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-27
A GRAND OLD GRAPEVINE.

A GRAND OLD GRAPEVINE.
1t Stands in Hampton Court Place and
| Furnishes Grapes For the Queen.
The famous vine at Hampton court
palace, which is SO very old and yet so
very young, is reported. to have quite
excelled itself this year, for it bears
1900 bunches of black Hamburgs, good
enough for the royal table, for which
they are nominally reserved, though
actually most of them are presented by
her majesty to tho London hospital.
pleasance ever thinks Of leaving with
out seeing this grapevine 1t would be
| as unconventional as not to get lost in
the maze Though the plant does
not, like SO many other wonders of
the gardeners art, date from the
period when William of Orange,
unable to bear the London air, took
up his residence at Hampton and
amused himself with introducing some
| of the eccentricities of Dutch horticul-
ture, it is not without antiquity, con-
tanned in a very democratic-looking
lean-to house, the royal vine covers
some 1900 square feet, the inside di-
mentions of the house being 72 feet IN
length by 80 in breadth. The vine is
planted inside the building, and its
branches almost entirely cover the roof,
some of them being 100 feet in length.
Its history is already largely tradition
al. Yet it is, we believe, tolerably
well settled that ''the great grapevine"
of Hampton court was planted in 1763
by Lancelot Brown, afterward cele-
brated as the first of English landscape
gardeners, and 'Capability Brown" of
host of amusing, but highly credit
able, tales.
TO Brown, also, much of the beauty
of the adjoining garden is due. The
earlier Georgian horticulturists did not
excel in the aesthetic aspect of the art,
and some of the Bavarian gardening
introduced by William III. was hideous
in the extreme The wilderness and
the maze are, perhaps, the most attract
i've remnants OF the Dutch kings plant
ing. But all over the grounds, now
rendered more than pleasant to visitors
by the recent opening OF the Home
Park, we come to traces OF the taste of
the sovereign who taught Dean Swift,
when he was secretary to Sir William
Temple, to grow asparagus after the
Hollandish fashion" As we approach
the vine, for instance, we pass two
large greenhouses, containing orange
trees and other plants, one of which,
an orange myrtle, is affirmed by tradi
ton to have been brought over by the
Prince of Orange, and the entire gar
dens and park owe their present form
to London and Wise, who worked un-
der the direction Of William and Mary.
Stiff, fiat and formal, with long drawn
avenues and opening glades, they are
the very type of a hundred around the
''lust hauses" of Rotterdam, AE1ster-
dam, HARLEM and the Hague. Yet
there was time when they smacl1ed
even more distinctly of the Low Coun-
tries. The private garden, the one
containing the great vine, has num-
Der of plants, rare in 1858, which con-
stitute interesting memorials of the
ground of the queen. But much of
Williams Dutch gardening has disap-
peared under the hands of horticulture
lists with different notions of the ad-
visa biiity of improving upon nature.
In print of Hampton Court, pub
lished about the time when the great
vine was planted. we see the other
space opposite the Home Park dotted
with a dismal Assem- blage of bushes.
cut into the form of those conical trees
which form part ot the contents of
Noah's Ark, and several clipped until
they resemble nothing on the face Of
the earth These fantastic monstrosi-
ties were greatly favored by the king,
who also introduced the equally absurd
practice of scattering sepulchral urns
among the flowers. In Walpole's day
the walls of the palace were covered
with rosemary, and he especially notes,
not without polite sneer tfor the lord
of Straw berry hill was man of taste,
who did not always run in the line of
fashion,, the remarkable specimens of
the ''topiary" art-the clipped eve and
other very unnatural specimens of ma
ture. Still, it is to William of Orange.
that London is indebted for much of
the beauty of her favorite pleasure
places Charles III. planted the large
semi-circle on the east side of the pal
ace. But the fine avenue OF chestEuts
in Bushey park dates from other times,
and the gardens of the palace. much al
tered as they have been for the better
are virtually the creation of the Dutch
Stakeholder. who was one of the great
est of English kings. Stand
ard