168 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ February 27, 18B8. 



■wiite and pink xip to the darkest green and purple. Kept 

 dwarf, and used as Messrs. Stuart & Mein state, we have no 

 doubt they are very decorative. — Eds.] 



UPS AND DOWNS OF A ROSE. 



I DO not know from what ancient stock I came, it was a very 

 old and honourable one I am sure — nor whether I was budded 

 or grafted, or grew on my own roots, not that it can be of 

 much importance, for I have heard one authority praise one way, 

 and another authority equally good praise the other ; so I do 

 not believe it is of much consequence, though if I could have 

 had any choice in the matter I would rather have been on my 

 own roots. Que matter I am very confident about, that is my 

 appearance. I was very beautiful, I say it blushingly, for one 

 does not like to praise one's self ; yet everybody who came near 

 me said the same, or thought it; bright eyes looked brighter, 

 and sad ones lost their sorrow when they gazed upon me. 



I cannot tell you what colour I was, for some named me 

 yellow, others buff, one said I was the colour of flaxen hair 

 with plenty of golden threads in it. I was very vain, and 

 spread out my dark green glossy leaves, so as to enhance to the 

 utmost the charms of my blooms. I was greatly admired — 

 called the most beautiful thing on the face of the earth, the 

 queen of all flowers, worth hundreds, nay thousands of common 

 cousins living out in the open borders, that sort of country 

 cousins who put on their best attire just for a few midsummer 

 days, then settle down into shabby greyness for the remainder 

 of the year. I was lovely, as I heard a little maiden say every 

 day of the long year, for even when I had no blooms to show I 

 had soft delicate green leaves edged with carmine, and even 

 my scattered petals were worth gathering up for the sake of 

 their sweet perfume. 



My place in the world was in a roadside cottage window, one 

 of those old-fashioned windows that appear to be built on 

 purpose to suit this cold sunless England of ours, for it had 

 looks-out every way but to the north ; so that whenever the 

 sun shone, I could revel in its warmth. My house, but a few 

 inches in circumference, was built of the poorest, commonest 

 material — burnt clay, and even of the burning it had had too 

 much, for there was black in patches where all should have been 

 red. This little house, unworthy as I thought it, was well filled, 

 every inch of space upstairs and down was occupied ; sometimes 

 in the hot summer I fancied I could have done with a larger 

 place to live in. My prospect from this old window was into | 

 a country lane, a lane with high hedges, and under the shelter 

 of which Primroses and Violets grew, making the early spring 

 months fragrant with their sweetness, and when they were over 

 out came the rambling l">og Rose — our relationship is very 

 distant I assure you, I would deny it altogether if I could ; 

 yet I never used to see this poor Dog Rose, that I did not wish 

 I had been something else. My ambitious choice would have 

 been, to be a CHmbing Devoniensis. growing up among the 

 rafters, and sunning myself in the pure out-door air, and 

 throwing forth my golden flowers — I like best to be called 

 yellow — beyond the reach of envious eyes, or kleptomaniac 

 fingers, or of that cruel instrument I dread still more, the gar- 

 dener's knife. 



My home surroundings were of the poorest kind, a stone 

 flagged floor scoured over with another stone, then sanded over 

 with red gravel ground up very fine, all very fresh and clean to 

 look at, but, dear me ! when the sweeping day came I was very 

 thankful I could breathe without lungs. This sanded floor 

 served for carpet, and hearth-rug, and drugget. A table, a few 

 hard wooden chairs, and a chest of drawers made up the furni- 

 ture; there was neither blind, nor curtain, nor shutters; all 

 day long I could look out into the lane, and all night up at the 

 stars. 



My master was a worker in a quarry, and I was his pride 

 and pleasure ; much care he took of me. However tired he 

 came home in the evenings I was never overlooked or for- 

 gotten, or thrust out of the way. All my wants were duly 

 supplied ; though never overfed, I could not imagine what hunger 

 or thirst meant. 



My food was not of the richest, nor prepared on the most 

 scientific principles, yet it supplied all my needs, and gained 

 the desirea end, growth with strength and beauty. Simple as 

 this food was, time and thought were necessary for its manipu- 

 lation. Parings from a common, half soil and half dying grass 

 roots, were mixed up with white sand ; my master never would 

 use the red, though he had large quantities close by, and for 



the white he had to walk miles. This soil and sand were then 

 incorporated with decayed te i leaves, not the proper material I 

 have heard say, but then it was the best my master could 

 obtain, and I was too full of vigorous growth to care much, 

 it I had enough. 'Water, and without it none of our family 

 can live long, came from a running brook ; it was soft, and cool, 

 and clear, and seemed to possess a renewing power as it was 

 gently poured over me night and morning. I did not like it 

 any the less because I knew the tadpoles had played in its 

 shallows, and the swallows cooled their blue wings in it as they 

 fleeted over it. It was better in every way forme, than the hard 

 spring water which used to chill and damp, but never refresh. 



Yes, great store did my master set upon me, always giving 

 me the best place, the lightest, airiest, sunniest corner ; never 

 shutting me up alone in a heated smoky room, often for my 

 good opening the window when he could better have done with 

 it closed. But, though I had a merry pleasant life, it was not 

 all sunshine, there would come days of rain and coldi east 

 wind, when the window could not be opened, and I had to live 

 on as best I could. Then ihc enemy I hate most would be 

 sure to make his appearan • ■. it e transparent-winged but yet 

 deceitful green fiy ; how it came in used to puzzle me, it must 

 have been on my master's jacket which he hung up close to my 

 stand, but come in as it might, it was sure to find a speedy 

 lodgement under one of my leaves, and was sure to choose 

 the youngest and tenderest. In great terror lest my beauty 

 should be spoiled, I was vain enough to care for my appearance. 

 I rolled and twisted up my leaves, making myself as disagree- 

 able as possible, in the vain hope the unwelcome guest would 

 be driven to take its departure ; yet nothing I could have done 

 would have produced the desired eSect if my master had not come 

 to the rescue, with his pipe of tobacco, of which he was very 

 fond. Luckily for me, darker and rougher the weather was, 

 and more and more he smoked, until at last the little parasite 

 not feeling well in a tainted atmosphere took its leave. But, 

 I always came off the worse for its visits, however short they 

 might be, for my twisted-up leaves never opened out again in 

 a proper manner, and the rough usage I underwent to force 

 back my good looks was often nearly my death. I was_ deluged 

 over and over again with cold water thrown at me with great 

 force, just like the bursting of a waterspout, then followed such 

 scrubbing, and rubbing, and shaking of my little house, that I 

 trembled lest its very foundations should be disturbed. 



Patting all together, the world did not use me ill, and my 

 master thought so much of me, and took so much care of me, 

 that in return I could but be and do my best. So I grew and 

 flourished, threw out strong shoots, and leaves, and flowers, 

 and filled that old cottage window with a rare beauty, at which 

 passers up and down the lane stood, and looked, and wondered. 

 One day in the full glory of my regal beauty I was carried 

 away from my master's humble cottage. No word of warning 

 was given me. I did not dream of the new honour to be con- 

 ferred upon me, however much I might have desired it. Strong 

 arms deposited me safely among the soft cushions of an open 

 carriage, the amber lining of which was very trying to my wide- 

 open blooms. I rocked about sadly, and many of my petals 

 were shaken off as we jostled up the narrow lane. A little girl 

 and a King Charles spaniel were my only companions, and 

 they were too much engaged listening to the ponies' silver bells, 

 which made music wherever they went, to think of me, or to 

 trouble about the falling flowers, aud I did not much care for 

 the teasing and blowing of the wind, which with the sun and the 

 hot dry dust injured me not a little ; but then we cannot have 

 everything, and the change was grand for me. It is not often 

 the iowly born drive out in state, and I could not help wishing 

 my German cousins might see me and be envious. 'What a 

 miserable life it must be out in the hedgerows, winter and 

 summer, exposed to every turn of the fickle weather. 



'When the drive came to an end, the same strong arms 

 carried me into a large mansion, and placed me on a marble 

 stand in a window of a room full of costly ornaments. This 

 window opened out into a garden full of gay, scentless flowers, 

 on which the midday sun was shining. I could see the bright- 

 ness though I could not catch one of the beams, for blind and 

 curtain were down, shading from the out-door light, lest inits 

 strength it should enter and injure carpet, or pictures, or gild- 

 in" I thought of my nearly always open window at the 

 cottage in the lane, and of the sanded floor which the quarry- 

 man's busy wife ground to dust all day beneath her heavy shoes ; 

 but then no sun or air could injure it, so the door was seldom 

 shut from morning until night. Here, in this my new place,, 

 there was a still, close, as it were, used-up atmosphere, any- 



