30 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



Christian gentlemen as we wish to be, let us be severe with 

 our fellow-men. In the interim, suppose we try the experi- 

 ment of winning them by kindness and love. 



It is high time, however, to leave this digression, and to 

 repeat, that whatever may be the infirmities of these poor 

 florists, they are eminently successful in the culture of 

 flowers ; and indeed it would be easy to multiply proofs 

 that in Rose -growing, as in everything else, earnestness 

 and industry, born of love, 



" Di tutte le arti maestro e amore," 



must achieve success. At a flower-show which took place 

 a few weeks ago at Oundle, and at which I acted as one of 

 the judges,* the hero of the day was a Northamptonshire 

 butcher, Thorneycroft of Floore, a name well known to 

 Rosarians. He told me that by rising early, sometimes at 

 3 A.M., and by working late, he had not only carried on an 

 extensive trade, but had found time to put up three glass 

 houses with his own hands ; and that, in addition to his 



* On this occasion some very pretty collections were shown, not only of 

 wild-flowers, but of wild ferns and grasses. In three of the latter, exhibited 

 by children of one family, I observed asparagus ; and upon my saying to the 

 exhibitors that this was not contemplated by the schedule, my ignorance was 

 at once enlightened, — " Please, sir, it says ferns and grasses, and this is 

 sparrow grass." 



