1869.] THE ROSE. 201 



fair home and beautiful garden at Moor Park : " The sweetness of air, 

 the pleasantness of smells, the verdure of plants, the cleanness and 

 lightness of food, the exercises of working or walking, but above all 

 the exemption from cares and solicitude, seem equally to favour and 

 improve both contemplation and health, the enjoyment of sense and 

 imagination, and thereby the quiet and ease both of the body and 

 mind." And again he speaks of " the sweetness and satisfaction of 

 this retreat, where, since my resolution taken of never entering again 

 into any public employments, I have passed five years without ever 

 going once to town, though I am almost in sight of it, and have a 

 house there ready to receive me." 



Even so to his garden may every true gardener say, as Martial to 

 his wife Marcella : — 



" Eomam tu mihi sola facis," 

 *' You make me callous to all meaner charms." 



*' Let others seek the giddy throng 

 Of mirth and revelry ; 

 The simpler joys which nature yields 

 Are dearer far to me." 



And let there be, by all means, among those joys included a bed of the 

 Common Moss-Rose — a " well-aired " bed of dry subsoil, for damp is 

 fatal — in which, planted on its own roots, well manured, closely pruned, 

 and pegged down, it will yield its flowers in abundance, most lovely, 

 like American girls, in the bud, but long retaining the charms of their 

 Ijremih'e jeunesse before they arrive at rosehood. When the soil is 

 heavy, the Moss-Rose will grow upon the Brier ; and I have had 

 beautiful standards of Baron de Wassenaer, a pretty cupped Rose, 

 but wanting in substance ; of Comtesse de Murinais, a very robust 

 Rose as to wood, but by no means so generous of its white petals ] of 

 the charming Cristata or Crested, a most distinct and attractive Rose, 

 first found, it is said, on the walls of a convent near Fribourg or Berne, 

 which all rosarians should grow, having buds thickly fringed with moss, 

 and these changing in due season to large and well-shaped flowers of 

 a clear pink colour ; of Gloire de Mousseuses, the largest member of 

 the family, and one of the most beautiful pale Roses ; of Laneii, for 

 which, on its introduction, I gave half-a-guinea, and which repaid 

 me well with some of the best Moss-Roses I have grown, of a brilliant 

 colour (bright rose), of a symmetrical shape, and of fine foliage, free 

 from blight and mildew, those cruel foes of the Rose in general, and 

 the Moss-Rose in particular ; of Luxembourg, one of the darker 

 varieties, more remarkable for vigour than virtue ; of Marie de Blois, 

 a rose of luxuriant growth, large in flower, and rich in moss; of 



