AogMt 26,1869.] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



159 



3^ 



A SECOND VISIT TO THE SEEND ROSERY. 



; NCIENT readers of " our Journal," so ancient 

 as to have read the number for August 31, 

 1866, will perhaps remember that I had then 

 recently paid a visit to Mr. Ambrose Awdry's 

 Roseiy at Seend, Wilts. I say ancient readers, 

 for three years since seems in this very vary- 

 ing, rapidly-changing age of ours quite a long 

 space of time. I give three years as the 

 period a man may be remembered ; if he is 

 recollected longer, rely upon it he must have 

 done sometliing very good, or very bad, he must at least 

 have built a church or — burnt one down. 



That visit of mine to Seend in the summer of 1866 was 

 a visit made in company with many ; there were forty of 

 ns, but this time it was a party of four. And this brings 

 me to remark upon the proportion of happiness to be had 

 in large parties or small. There was something in Thacke- 

 ray's advice as to social pleasure when he said, '■ If you 

 wish to enjoy yom-self, never go beyond the leg of mutton," 

 which said muttony leg he meant to represent — to sym- 

 bolise, a small entertainment. But I, for my part, would lay 

 down no rigid rule. Does it not come to this — in a large 

 party the pleasure is diffused, in a small one it is con- 

 densed '? Then the pleasure is diverse : among a large 

 number my happiness is partly in looking on at the hap- 

 piness of others, in hearing the light laughter, in seeing 

 the bright smUes. In a party of forty there are sure to be 

 young people, and they are sure to be light-hearted, and 

 light-heartedness is pleasant to look at, and is catching too. 

 Yonng people make us feel young again, and how beauti- 

 ful is mere youth ' it is the very bloom on the Plum, soon 



to be rubbed off by the world's wear ; but no more of 



this. In a small party of like minds and like tastes there 

 will he at any rate more close talk, more of head to head, 

 and of heart to heart. The last time I was at Seend there 

 were many ladies tripping from Rose to Rose ; this time 

 no ladies, but four, and with oiu- host five, male rosarians. 

 As we by chance met in the same railway carriage, I could 

 see there was written upon the face of each, "I mean 

 to be happy to-day." Then the day was just the tiling, 

 neither frying to Rose and rosarian, nor showery, but just 

 a little air going, and alternate gleam and cloud. All five 

 were rosarians, four up to boUing-point and the fifth just 

 simmering. 



But here is Seend Station ; a climb up the hUl foUows. 

 and then " The Bell," a really old-fashioned, neat, and 

 very clean village inn, with a twistabout staircase, and tidy 

 little rooms around. I almost expected to find old Izaak 

 Walton with his fishing-rods in the comer of the room, he 

 over a fi^gal lunch deep in talk with "' Venator and Pisca- 

 tor " about " a fine fresh May morning," and the singing 

 birds, " those little nimble musicians of the air that warble 

 forth their curious ditties with which nature hath furnished 

 them to the shame of art." And the meal over, I expected 

 to hear old Izaak say, " And now, scholar, I think it will 

 be time to repair our angle rods." At any rate, had I 

 slept at " The BeU," I have no doubt I should have found, 



No. 439,— Vol. SVn., Kf.'>- Sekies. 



as Izaak did at his inn, t'lat " the sheets smelt of Lavender." 

 But a truce to fancy ; there, in the village inn's best room, 

 was our luncheon ; and the better to enjoy a long visit to 

 the Roses, we lunched well— a good plan, gentle reader, for 

 we are in the body yet. We ate Strawberries so good this 

 bad season, that I was inclined to say with Dr. Boteler, 

 " Doubtless God could have made a better beny, but doubt- 

 less God never did." 



Lunch over, then away down the village street to Mr. 

 Awdry's fruit garden, where old George, the gardener, 

 awaited us. Old George, liis master's right-hand— I must 

 put him in print — there he is before me, a 6-foot man, 

 white-hatted and white-headed, with a decided military 

 look and bearing, which stooping all his life to cultivate 

 mother earth had not altered. Well done, old George ! 

 Here we find an orchard house in full swing. Grapes and 

 wall fruit looking equally well ; then we spied over and 

 walked through a plot of pyramid Pears in perfect health, 

 Crasannes, Beurre d'Amanlis. Williams's Bon Chretien, 

 &c., all bearing abundantly. Coming to the Strawberries 

 within this walled garden old George confided to me that 

 he found that Dr. Hogg did not do on a hill, but that he 

 does admirably in a valley : perhaps that is because the 

 real Doctor, our Doctor, lives and does well in the valley 

 of PimUco ! 



Marking the exceeding fruitfulness of everything save 

 Strawberries, we pass on to reach. <■('( the pretty old church, 

 the Rosery. How beautiful is the view of the rich valley. 

 and beyond, our Wiltshire Downs ; When I looked on that 

 valley I thought of what Charles V. said of the city of 

 Florence, "It was too pleasant to be looked on, but only 

 on holidays." The striking feature of Mr. Awdry's Rosery 

 is its being among green fields : itself, until a few years 

 since, one of them. And in England, as we have so much 

 green, a large Rose garden is very telling in a green set- 

 ting. Entering I find as before a silver frame to the Rose 

 picture in the shape of a fence lined with Felicite Per- 

 petuee, now in all its blooming glory. Since ray last ^^sit 

 Mr. Awdry had entirely given up standards ; every Rose 

 is now dwarf, and worked on the Manetti. This lowering 

 of the flowers gave a still greater resemblance to a carpet, 

 with its bright squares divided by green lines— viz., grass 

 paths. We passed on with the master, who was as proud 

 and happy as a mother showing her nursery darlings, and 

 as to old George of the white hat, he seemed like head 

 nurse : but which was happier, or prouder of the Rosery, 

 master or man, I scarcely k-now, but certainly oid George 

 was as happy as if every Rose was his own. The bushes 

 (we may talk again of Rose bushes now that they are 

 budded "below the soil), are in rows, and in each row six 

 together of the same colour, and many sixes make up a 

 whole row. The size of the Rosery and the size of the 

 blooms both struck me. There was Pierre Notting in its 

 dark glory, Mr. Awdry's and old George's special favourite, 

 the latter remarking', "It does smell so sweet." -There 

 were Celine Forestier grown larger than usual, and 

 Charles Lefebvi-e, Senateur Vaisse, and Comtesse Cecile 

 de Chabrillant, numerous, and holding their proper place— 

 namelv, the first; .John Hopper strong and goodr while 



No.lOPl.-VOL. XLIL, Old Se2ie?. 



