I was under the impression that the above "sport" had vanished. I observe, however, in 'The Gardener' for January of the present year, that it has appeared in the past season at Brayton Hall, and gather from the remarks referred to that Mr Hammond is doubtful whether the Brayton "apparition" was a genuine Golden Champion or not. I think, however, that a little consideration of the scientific reason given for the "sport" at Culford will convince Mr H. that the bunch with the large berries produced by his Trebbiano Vine last season was a real Golden Champion. If I remember aright, the appearance of Golden Champion Grape on a rod of Trebbiano at Culford was accounted for at the time on the "gemmule theory" by one of the gentlemen who saw the "apparition." He supposed that a gemmule had escaped from the rod of the Champion, and found its way into the rod of Trebbiano, both rods having originally been grafted on the same stock, and that, after the Champion had been entirely cut away, the said gemmule, in due season, developed into a bunch of Champion Grapes on a particular shoot of the Trebbiano rod.

True, the Golden Champion has some peculiar properties, but the most singular of all is being able to reproduce itself by means of its gemmules escaping into other varieties of Vines. But possibly there is only one Champion gemmule in existence capable of doing so, and it is to this erratic individual that the appearance of the large-berried bunch on the Trebbiano Vine at Brayton last year is to be attributed. When the cuttings taken from the Vine that originally produced the "apparition" at Culford were sent to the Tweed Vineyard, it is quite possible that one or other of them contained this gemmule, and on its way north it may have thought that the atmosphere of Tweedside, and the general treatment it would receive under Mr Thomson's care, would not be favourable to its development into a full-grown Champion. It therefore, before reaching Carlisle, decided to remain south of the Tweed, and on arriving at the Border City escaped from the cutting; and instead of returning to its old quarters at Culford, made its way to the Brayton vineries, and there found a Trebbiano of the right sort, of which it immediately took possession, the result being as described in the number of 'The Gardener' already referred to.

And now that Mr Hammond has apparently got possession of this wandering gemmule, I hope he will induce it to remain at Brayton, and to become of "steady and temperate " habits befitting the locality - not going up and down, as hitherto, among the vineries of the nation, changing the outward appearance of other varieties of Grapes in such a manner that even men of "competent authority" are unable to identify a Trebbiano from a White Tokay. It strikes me that Brayton is rather an uncanny place; for did not Mr Hammond show at the Carlisle show in 1877 a bunch of Buckland's Sweetwater with such abnormally large berries that a London contemporary - a "competent authority " too - reports of it as a Golden Champion. Really it is high time this gemmule was put under arrest. B.