| Description | Understands that Butler can send him most of the fruit-trees on the list sent from Liverpool (by William Cheshire). Had great confidence in his late gardener Stevenson, so wishes to confine himself to the trees on the list he prepared before his death, and annexes a copy of it. Gives details of his garden walks and the trees required to line them. Wishes Butler to guarantee the sorts, etc., of the trees, and send a competent person to plant them. Asks if holes should be dug in advance. Thinks a single horse cart the most suitable for transporting the trees, and wishes the cost of transportation to be stated in advance. (Copy of an original in William Cheshire’s hand, signed by Boulton.)
Sir,
I reseived in course your letter of the 29th instant, from which I learn that it is in your power to send me immediately most of the sorts of fruit trees enumerated in the lists transmitted you from Liverpool, and that there are a few peaches and nectarines in your collection which you should preferably recommend.
Having had great confidence in the judgement of my late gardener, I wish to confine myself, as nearly as possible, to the sorts of trees which he has described in the lists here referred to, of which a copy is annexed. My garden walks face very nearly the S. E. and the S. W. (the former is 57, and the latter 96 yards long), and I perceive it was intended to place the dwarfs 5 yards asunder, with a standard, or rider, between each. According to this arrangement, and some marks placed on the walls, I find the whole quantity required of peaches, nectarines, and apricots as fifty-two, viz. 26 dwarfs and 26 standards; so that two of each of the specified sorts will leave only two vacant places, which may be filled with plums of the sorts most suitable to the aspect. Of the plums, pears, and cherries you will please to send one tree of each of the specified sorts, as the appropriate places for a larger quantity of each, and especially of the cherries, does not immediately occur to me.
The half standard apple trees on Paradise stocks are also intended to be planted 5 yards asunder, and the requisite number is 96 (say, ninety-six). These apples are intended solely for table use, and only two or three of them for pies, it being my intention ere long to . . .
In the execution of this order, I the more particularly rely upon you to do it in the most satisfactory manner from the peculiar circumstance under which I am placed by the fatal accident to which you have adverted, and I shall expect that you will guarantee the sorts, and that the trees are in all respects of a proper age and size; that you will send a competent person to plant them; and that they shall be dispatched forthwith, so as to be here before the frosts set severely in, advising me by post when they are sent off that we may be prepared to receive them; and if you think any advantage would result from having the holes in which they are to be planted previously prepared, I beg to be favored with an intimation thereof.
Respecting the mode of conveyance, a single horse cart as suggested by you, I shou’d certainly think it the most eligible, provided the expence, on [so] small a quantity of trees, be not too great. I perc[eive] it has escaped your recollection that you promised to state the sum for which you would undertake in th[is] way to make the delivery; and, as I should wish the expence to be previously defined, I shall thank you for a reply to this point by return of post.
I am, sir, your most obedient servant,
M. Robinson Boulton
[On the next page is the following list.]
Peaches
Early Ann, Early Purple, Royal George, French Mignone, Double Swalsh, Noblesse, Red Magdalen, Miller’s Mignone, Early Newington or Smith’s Newington, Early Admirable, Chancellor, Royal Charlotte, Gallande
Nectarines
Fair Childs, Duc de Tello, Elrage, Bragnone, Newington, Roman, Scarlet
Apricots
Moor Park, Breda, Orange, Brussels
Plums
Early Morocco, Green Gage, Yellow Gage, Orlean, White Magnum Bonner, Red Do., La Royale
Cherries
May Duke, Black Heart, White Heart, Bleeding Heart, Kentish, Morella, Holeman’s Duke
Pears
Jarganello, Green Chissel, Brown Burie, Summer bon Chretien, Winter Do., Swan’s Egg, Summer Bergamot, Winter Do., Autumn Do., Cressane Do., Chaumontelle, Valencia, Moor Fowl Egg, Green Pear of Yair, Black Worcester
Half Standard Apple Trees grafted on Paradise stocks:
Jeneting, Dutch Codling, French Do., Kentish Do., Ribstone Pippin, Holland Do., Golden Do., Kentish Do., French Do., Lemon Do., Flanders Do., Kirton Do., Orange Do., Wykin Do., Blenheim Do., Newtown Do., Aromatic Do., Chester Golden, Dutch Queening, Summer Do., Northern Greening, Winter Do., Norfolk Beefing, Corpendie Do., Margille Do., Nonsuch Do., Quince Apple, Egg Apple, Eve Apples, Golden Rennett, White Codling, Hessick Do., Summer Pearmane, Cherry Do., Winter Do., Spice Apple, White Hawthorn Dean, Whorle Apple, Wheeler’s Russett, Green Ledington, Grey Do.
PS.
If you should think that the peaches, nectarines, and apricots are not judiciously proportioned by merely doubling the list, viz. 28 peaches, 14 nectarines, and 8 apricots, you will please to make such an alteration in this respect as you may judge expedient, so that the aggregate number, viz. 50, remains unaltered. |