CLIMATE, SEASONS, ETC. 



of that conceited ass, Mr. JAMES PERRY, to burst is a regular verb, 

 and vulgar pedants only make it irregular), and those of a Lilac, 

 in a warm place, are almost bursted, which is a great deal better 

 than to say, &quot; almost bitrst.&quot; Oh, the coxcomb ! As if an 

 absolute pedagogue like him could injure me by his criticisms ! 

 And, as if an error like this, even if it had been one, could have 

 any thing to do with my capacity for developing principles, and 

 for simplifying things, which, in their nature, are of great com 

 plexity ! The oaks, which, in England, have now their sap in 

 full flow, are here quite unmoved as yet. In the gardens in general 

 there is nothing green, while, in England, they have broccoli to eat, 

 early cabbages planted out, coleworts to eat, peas four or five 

 inches high. Yet, we shall have green peas and loaved cabbages 

 as soon as they will. We have sprouts from the cabbage stems 

 preserved under cover ; the Swedish turnip is giving me greens 

 from bulbs planted out in March ; and I have some broccoli too, 

 just coming on for use. How I have got this broccoli I must 

 explain in my Gardener s Guide : for write one I must. I never 

 can leave this country without an attempt to make every farmer 

 a gardener. In the meat way, we have beef, mutton, bacon, 

 fowls, a calf to kill in a fortnight s time, sucking pigs when we 

 choose, lamb nearly fit to kill ; and all of our own breeding, or 

 our own feeding. We kill an ox, send three quarters and the hide 

 to market and keep one quarter. Then a sheep, which we use 

 in the same way. The bacon is always ready. Some fowls 

 always 1 fatting. Young ducks are just coming out to meet the 

 green peas. Chickens (the earliest) as big as American Partridges 

 (misnamed quails), and ready for the asparagus, which is just 

 coming out of the ground. Eggs at all times more than we can 

 consume. And, if there be any one, who wants better fare than 

 this, let the grumbling glutton come to that poverty, which 

 , Solomon has said shall be his lot. And, the great thing of all, 

 \ is, that here, every man, even every labourer, may live as well as 

 \ this, if he will be sober and industrious. 



22. There are two things, which I have not yet mentioned, and 

 which are almost wholly wanting here, while they are so amply 

 enjoyed in England. The singing birds and the flowers. Here are 

 many birds in summer, and some of very beautiful plumage. 

 There are some wild flowers, and some English flowers in the best 

 gardens. But, generally speaking, they are birds without song, 

 and flowers without smell. The linnet (more than a thousand of 

 which I have heard warbling upon one scrubbed oak on the sand 

 hills in Surrey), the sky-lark, the goldfinch, the wood-lark, the 

 nightingale, the bull-finch, the black-bird, the thrush, and all the 

 rest of the singing tribe are w r anting in these beautiful woods and 

 orchards of garlands. When these latter have dropped their 

 bloom, all is gone in the flowery way. No shepherd s rose, no 

 honey-suckle, none of that endless variety of beauties that decorate 

 the hedges and the meadows in England. No daisies, no prim- 



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