214 A LOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



" The pretty and sweet manner of it forced 

 The waters from me, which I would have stopped, 

 But I had not so much of man in me, 

 And all my mother came into mine eyes, 

 And gave me up to tears." 



" Half the nurseries of England," as Dr Lindley wrote, 

 " poured their treasures into St James's Hall." There were 

 twenty boxes from Sawbridgeworth alone. There were 

 glorious collections, large and lovely, from Cheshunt and 

 Colchester, Hertfordshire and Hereford, Exeter and Slough. 

 But I had brief time, as secretary and supervisor, that day 

 for " idle tears," or other private emotions. Had I been 

 editor of Notes and Queries, the Field, and the Queen con- 

 jointly, I could not have had more questions put to me. 

 Had I possessed the hundred hands of Briareus, not one 

 would have been unemployed. Then the censors reported 

 their verdicts ; the prize-cards were placed by the prize- 

 Roses; and then came 



The momentous question, Would the public indorse our 

 experiment } Would the public appreciate our show t 

 There was a deficiency of ^loo in our funds, for the ex- 

 penses of the exhibition were ;^300 ; and as a matter both 

 of feeling and finance I stood by the entrance as the clock 

 struck two, anxiously to watch the issue. 



