CAUSES OF FAILURE. 9 



of the Rose. It is Mrs. Hemans, I think, who 

 sings : — 



" Around the red Rose the convolvulus climbing;" 



and it sounds sweetly pretty, and would be the 

 loveliest arrangement possible, only that, unfor- 

 tunately, it is death to the Rose — death to that 

 queen who brooks no rival near, much less upon, 

 her throne. Look, too, at those vagabond suckers 

 clustering like Jewish money-lenders or Christian 

 bookmakers round a young nobleman, and steal- 

 ing the sap away. Well may that miserable speci- 

 men be called a ''Souvenir de Comte Cavour," for 

 it is dying from depletion, like its illustrious name- 

 sake. The earth is set and sodden ; no spade nor 

 hoe has been there. As for manure, a feeling of 

 profound melancholy comes over us, as over Mr. 

 Richard Swiveller, when he discovered that the 

 Marchioness had passed her youthful days in 

 ignorance of the taste of beer. We know that 

 they have never seen it, and yet they are expected 

 to bloom profusely ; and when they are covered, 

 not with Roses, but grubs, the nurseryman, or the 

 gardener, or the soil is blamed. Then there is 

 dole in Astolat, and a wailing cry over dead 

 Adonis. '' Is it not sad that we cannot grow 



