254 FLOWERS IN SURREY. 



also been informed that our Spitalfield weavers 

 have the same fondness for flowers, and are also 

 amongst our best collectors of insects. In some 

 other districts, tulips are successfully cultivated, 

 and in others the ranunculus and anemone. One 

 man is celebrated for his fine stocks, another for 

 his pansies, while a third will produce unrivalled 

 gooseberries for size, or wall-flowers of the darkest 

 hue. I am assured, that great and deplorable as the 

 distress now is at Birmingham, a man would sell 

 his clothes, his furniture, indeed all that he pos- 

 sessed, sooner than part with his beloved garden. 



Flowers are cultivated to a considerable extent, 

 and with great success, in the neighbourhood of 

 London, and especially in some parts of Surrey, 

 in which county there are many exhibitions of 

 flowers every year. Here the rich and poor may 

 be seen assembled together, each either admiring 

 or criticising particular blooms, and the poor man 

 appearing perfectly competent to appreciate their 

 peculiar merits. It always affords me pleasure to 

 witness these meetings, and to watch the gleam 

 of satisfaction in the countenance of some cottager, 

 when 



his garden's gem 

 The heartsease 



has been praised, or his well-cultivated shew of 

 potatoes or apples has obtained for him some 

 trifling prize. 



