1869.] THE ROSE. 441 



I will present to the young Rosarian one or two specimens of our 

 weaker brethren, that he may learn to check betimes in himself those 

 infirmities which are common to us all, and which, when they gain the 

 mastery, make men objects of contempt and ridicule. I must add 

 that, although I paint from the life, my pictures are never portraits of 

 the individual, but always studies from the group — a group brought 

 together by memory from diverse parts and periods, but displaying in 

 its members such a strong family resemblance that I must guard my- 

 self against a natural suspicion. 



The Irascible Exhihifor loses no time in verifying his presence to 

 our eyes and ears. Talking so rapidly that '' a man ought to be all 

 ear to follow," as Schiller said of Madame de Stael, and so loudly that 

 he may be heard in all parts of the Show, he is declaiming to a police- 

 man, a carpenter, and two under-gardeners, who are nudging each 

 other in the ribs, against the iniquitous villany of *' three thundering 

 muffs " who recently awarded him a fourth prize for the finest lot of 

 Roses he ever cut. He com.municates to the policeman, who evidently 

 regards him as being singularly advanced in liquor, considering the 

 time of day, his firm belief that the censors in question were brought 

 up from a coal-mine on the morning of the exhibition, and had never 

 seen a Rose before. He does hope that, on the present occasion, some- 

 body will be in office who knows the difference between that flower 

 and a Pumpkin. Here he is informed that Mr Trueman, a most reli- 

 able Rosarian, is to be one of the judges. He is delighted to hear it. 

 Mr Trueman is a practical, honourable man ; and having arranged his 

 Roses with a running accompaniment of grunts and snorts, he goes in 

 quest of that individual, expresses entire confidence in his unerring 

 judgment, and the happiness which he feels in submitting his Roses 

 to a man who can appreciate them, instead of to such a set of old 



women as were recently judging at , when they ought to have 



been in bed. 



Alas for our poor feeble humanity ! — two hours later Mr Irascible, find- 

 ing no prize-card on his boxes, denounces Mr T. as an ignorant humbug, 

 or knows for a fact that he is in vile collusion with the principal 

 winners of the day, — reminding me, in his swift transition from praise 

 to condemnation, from love to hate, of a ludicrous Oxford scene. 



Tom Perrin kept livery-stables, and in those stables the stoutest of 

 wheelers and the liveliest of leaders for our tandems and fours-in- 

 hand. Unhappily for Tom, all driving in extcnso was strictly forbid- 

 den, and he came, in consequence, to frequent collisions with our 

 potent, grave, and reverend Dons. Upon the occasion to which I 

 refer he had been summoned to appear before the Vice-Chancellor, 

 Doctor MacBride, then Principal of Magdalen Hall ; and as the offtnce 



