>V CrENBRAL PrEFACE. 



the side of a steep sand-rock, and there scooped m«* 

 out a plot four feet square to make me a garden, and 

 the soil for which I carried up in the bosom of my 

 little blue smock-frock (or hunting-shirt), I have nevef 

 lost one particle of my passion for these healthy and 

 rational and heart- cheering pursuits, in which every 

 day presents something new, in which the spirits are 

 never suffered to flag, and in which industry, skill, and 

 care are sure to meet with their due reward. I have 

 never, for any eight months together, during my whole 

 life, been without a garden. So sure are we to over- 

 come difficulties where the heart and mind are bent on 

 the thing to be obtained ! 



7. The beautiful plantation of American Trees 

 round my house at Botley, the seeds of which were 

 sent me, at my request, from Pennsylvania, in 1806, 

 and some of which are now nearly forty feet high; all 

 sown and planted by myself, will, I hope, long remain 

 as a specimen of my perseverance in this way. Dur- 

 ing my whole life I have been a gardener. There is 

 no part of the business, which first or last, I have not 

 performed with my own hands. And, as to it, I owe 

 very little to books, except that of Tull ; for I never 

 read a good one in my life, except a French book, 

 called the Manuel du Jardinier. 



8. As to farming, I was bred at the plough-tail, and 

 in the Hop-Gardens of Farnham in Surrey, my native 

 place, and which spot, as it so happened, is the neatest 

 in England, and, I believe, in the whole world. All 

 there is a garden. The neat culture of the hop ex- 

 tends its influence to the fields round about Hedges 



