22 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



refreshment for these working men on a summer's eve, 

 when their hot work is done, or on silent Sabbaths, when 

 there is no work to do, " to sit 'mong the Roses and hear 

 the birds sing" — songs of praise and comfort and hope. 



Meanwhile they have a foretaste of this gladness in the 

 glass houses which I went to see. Houses ! why, a full-sized 

 giant would have taken them up like a hand-glass ; and 

 even I, but a small office-boy in connection with that great 

 business," was unable in most of them to stand upright; and 

 into some to enter at all. That '' bit o' glass " had been, 

 nevertheless, as much a dream, and hope, and happiness to 

 its owner as the Crystal Palace to Paxton. How often the 

 very thought and expectation of it had soothed and relieved 

 his weariness as he worked at his stocking-frame ! How 

 the reality had refreshed, refined him, in his brief, bright, 

 holiday hours ! There is a timber-yard on the left as you 

 leave Nottingham, travelling upon the Derby Road, and 



* One of the first of many delicious stories which it was my privilege to 

 hear Mr Thackeray tell, was, that once upon a time he and Mr Higgins 

 ('•Jacob Omnium") went to see a Giant, and that the man at the door in- 

 quired whether they were in the business, because, if so, no charge would be 

 made for admission. Mr Thackeray was 6 feet 4 inches, and Mr Higgins not 

 less than 6 feet 6 inches in height. As the Eton boy, describing a country 

 fair, i-emarked in his Latin verse — 



" Gigaritesque duo, super honore meo." 



