Jaunary 4, 1872. ] 



.JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



IBRAS 



kewYC 



0OTANI 

 QARUi 



THE NEW YEAE'S PROMISE. 



ID yon ever tlirouf;;h an open door overliear 

 a little cliild saying its lessons ? I do not 

 mean one so far gi'own as to be dignified 

 with the name of boy or girl, but a child, 

 a httle child, a tnisting, fully-confiding 

 httle tiling, such as the Great Master took 

 on His knee and declared that " of such was 

 the kingdom of heaven" — one that as yet 

 its mother could not on any account allow 

 any other one to teach ; and as to its lessons 

 they are but half play, a httle verse or two, a merry run- 

 ning i-hyme which is repeated and acted as well. Now, 

 if through an open door, or window, you, unseen, have 

 overheard such a httle one so doing, you have stood, and 

 paused, and hstened with dehght unfeigned to the silvery 

 voice so new, so clear, so young, and you have thought, 

 ■Wliat a sweet beginning of hfe ! No child this cuffed by 

 cruel hands ; no dirty, ragged, gutter-child, but all that 

 should be. AVliat a sweet beginning of hfe ! what a fair 

 promise of a bright and happy future ! Now such-like is 

 the beginning of this year, not as last year, with war near 

 us. No cruel siege of a gi-eat city, no stars-atiou within 

 of woman and cliild, but all pleasant, all promising ; peace 

 at home and abroad ; the nation's love roused to the 

 nation's Sovereign and her son ; the old Enghsh Oak 

 shown to be sound at heart stiU, the old herethtai-y in- 

 stincts true as ever, and the national heart still human 

 and hmnane. The year opens with all Englishmen 

 having felt and feared together, and so now bound clo.ser 

 together. The new year comes to us, and it seems to 

 give a fan- promise of happiness, and like the httle child's 

 voice, it is young, and new, and sweet. What it may 

 prove none can know until its end, but this we may say, 

 it promises well. 



Now let me note some current or recently ciurent 

 matters which bear, or have borne, upon us as readers of 

 " oiu' Jom-ual." There is said to be a tendency in this 

 age for wealth to become centred in a comparatively few, 

 and, on the contrary, the many to become very poor, so 

 that rich men will grow richer, and poor men poorer. 

 Of many som-ces of wealth I will not speak ; but of one, 

 the old source — land, I wiU speak briefly. Thirty years 

 ago, and fm-ther back, the poor man had a better chance, 

 because commons were not enclosed, and each resident 

 had " a common right." In the part of England I hved 

 in when a boy (the fens of Cambridgeshire), commons 

 were accorcUng to their name, common in number and in 

 character, and on them the poor man could graze his 

 flock of geese, and let his sow and her pigs take their nm. 

 Commons are now tilings of the past, and the poor man 

 is a loser. Tliis should be remembered by those who 

 have landed property ; and if the best of the poor are to 

 be kept either from emigration or from removuig to large 

 towns, laud must be attached to each cottage. In Ed- 

 ward IV.'s reign no cottage was without its fom- acres, 

 and in Ehzabeth's reign no cottage had less than a rood 

 of land attached to it. The owners of land are doing 



No. 662.-VOL. XXII., Nbw Sfiues, 



well, occupiers are doing well, for if a faixa be vacant 

 there are a dozen who want it. I speak of my own neigh- 

 bom-hood, where it is impossible to get a farm unless by 

 interest or favom- of some kind, and often have I been 

 asked for a recommendation. 



Tliis being so with owners and occupiers, I want to see 

 the deserving among the lower class favom-ed with a few 

 acres here and there, and a good garden always, and the 

 land not let at what is called " accommodation price." 

 These are times when mucli is done, in sickness especially, 

 for the poor ; but charity lowers self-respect, and is apt 

 to injm-e, whereas help a man to help hunself, and you 

 benefit his pm-se and his character too. Of one pleasant 

 day connected with benefit to the poor which I spent last 

 year I must briefly prattle. 



The late Prince Consoi-t foimded an association for 

 improving the condition of laboiu-ers and others Uving in 

 Windsor and twelve sun-oimtling parishes. It helps in 

 this way : Prizes of £1, £2, or £B to the labourer, or 

 artisan, "or his wife who has brought up a family in sober, 

 honest, and industrious habits, without parish relief, except 

 in cases of sickness ; also to the widows of such. Prizes- 

 of a similar kind to families distinguished for cleanliness: 

 and tidiness of house and person ; also to weU-conducted 

 servants who have hved longest in the same place. To- 

 young persons who have kept their first place of service 

 for the longest period (not less than tliree years). Prizes,, 

 too, to the best cultivators of the gardens and allotments,, 

 being persons of honest, sober, and good moral character. 

 Prizes, also, for exliibitors of the best collection of vege- 

 tables, or the best specimen of needlework, cottage handi- 

 craft, and economy. Now, it so chanced that I was ia- 

 vited by one who takes great dehght in " our Journal," 

 and reads its pages evei-y week, to be present last July at 

 the annual meeting of this Society, held in the Home 

 Park, Windsor. No pleasanter and more ti-uly joyous 

 scene can be imagined. The Home Park, which lies just 

 beneath the grand old Castle and its ten-ace, was opened 

 to aU. Crowds of healthy Berkshh-e labom-ers, thek 

 wives and daughters, were present ; crowds, too, of ladies 

 and gentlemen, mihtary uniforms, so Windsor-hie, and' 

 music and tents fiUed with flowers and fraits, and works 

 of needle, and knife, and tool. Right pleasant was it to 

 see the prizetakers — 226 in all — receive the rewards of 

 their good conduct, thi-ift, or skill from the hands of one 

 of oiu- Piincesses, who gi-aciously stepped down fi-om the 

 platform on which she stood, when an old woman of 

 eighty-tlu-ee and another of seventy-seven received piizes 

 for then- needlework, so thoughtfully spaiing their totter- 

 ing steps. Then there were thi-ee huge Guardsmen who 

 received prizes for their — mark it ! — needlework — bed- 

 covers and patchwork tablecovers ! Wlien I saw all this, 

 princes, nobles, clergy, mihtary men, all busy and happy 

 ■svith doing good to the poor, I had two thoughts — one. 

 Such tilings make England strong ; the other. Why should 

 not such associations be in evei-y neighbom-hood ? 



There is also another matter connected with conferiing 

 benefit on the poor which I must mention. I have 

 noticed during the year the Children's Flower Show at 



No. 1211.- Vol. XL-Vn., Old Sekieb. 



