1870.] A BLESSING ON AN OLD BROOME. 139 



bushes so cared for will produce, the failure of the crop being a rarity. Per- 

 haps in cottage-gardens the better plan is to have these descriptions of fruits 

 planted in rows at wide intervals across the garden, the intervening spaces being 

 cropped with vegetables. This arrangement, however, must depend somewhat 

 upon the shape of the ground ; for small gardens it is usually the most eco- 

 nomical. When the bushes are carefully tended, no portion of the garden will 

 yield so lucrative a return. For consumption by the cottager's family, next 

 to the Apple, the fruits of the Gooseberry and Black Currant are the most 

 wholesome and useful. It would indeed be well if every cottage possessed in 

 winter its carefully-preserved store of jam from these fruits ; and when we 

 compare the very high price towards which butter is now tending, with the 

 low figure at which sugar can be obtained, it is somewhat a matter for surprise 

 that in our rural cottage homes nice, wholesome, home-made jam is not more 

 generally consumed. However, the consideration of these things might lead us 

 into questions of domestic economy that this is not the proper place to dis- 

 cuss ; and I will leave it by expressing the hope that in these, as well as in other 

 matters, the people may become yet more "educated." — A. D., in 'Gardeners' 

 Chronicle.' 



A BLESSING ON AN OLD BROOME. 



" Samuel Broome, for forty years gardener to the Honourable Society of the Inner Tem- 

 ple, whose annual Chrysanthemum Show was one of the sights of London, and who, in their 

 culture, gave such valuable testimony to the effects of Lord Palmerston's Smoke Act, is dead, 

 at a ripe old age. He lived respected, and he died happy."— Obituary of the day. 



Poor old Broome, art thou gone ! and shall we hear 

 Thy annual Jubilate never more, 



O'er the Chrysanthemums that were so dear 



Unto thy honest heart, as, year by year, 

 They decked the Temple Garden's swarded floor ! 



Like Henry Brougham, thy greater homonym, 



Thy pride and joy was to see cleared aw y ay 



The stagnant, stifling, smoke-clouds, that made dim 

 The Temple of the law, and on Thames' brim 



Alike for flowers and lawyers darkened day. 



And when the Smoke Act passed — and on Thames stream 

 Steamers forbore to smoke, and on Thames' shore 



Chimney-shafts ceased from sooty mouths to teem 

 The blacks, that turned to griminess the gleam 

 Of the Chrysanthemums thou didst adore — 



Never was simple man more glad than thou, 



Never were gentler pride and joy than thine — 



Pleased to see pleased crowds round thy Pompons bow, 

 Children, maids, barristers of parchment brow, 



Who rarely noticed sun's or blossom's shine. 



Along Thames' bank thy blooms stood brave and bold, 



The brighter for the brick and mortar round : 

 And if thy flowers were flowers of gold, 

 So innocent none grew from Temple mould, 



None so enriched, yet cumbered not, the ground. 



