STOCK OR GlLLVrLOWER. 23 



favourite variety, notwithstanding the love we have 

 for novelty ; and we presume that this flower was 

 brouglit to its high state of beauty in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Brompton, as well as the large purple 

 Stock, since Miller speaks of them, in 1724, as the 

 Brompton Stock, by which name also the variety 

 Coccineus is now known in most parts of the 

 world. We cannot forbear relating the laughable 

 and beneficial effect the sight and name of this 

 flower had on the spirits of an acquaintance, with 

 whom we were making a tour in Normandy, in the 

 first summer after the return of the Bourbon family 

 to the throne of France. He had been induced to 

 join a small party, and to leave his home, for the 

 first time, to visit the opposite coast ; but so truly 

 British were his habits, that nothing could please or 

 satisfy him. The soup was meagre, the pottage 

 was acid, the peas were sweet, the wine was sour, 

 the coffee was bitter^ the girls were brown, their 

 eyes too black, their caps too high, their petticoats 

 too short, their language an unintelligible jargon, 

 their houses old, their inns dirty, the country too 

 open, the roads too straight ; in short, he saw 

 every thing with such discontented eyes as to ren- 

 der the party uncomfortable, until good fortune 

 led us to a rustic inn, where in a small garden were 

 growing several fine Stocks, which he affirmed were 

 the first good things he had seen since he left Sus- 



