12 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



gardener. They might as well have brought him 

 Bob's hack, and told him that if he could not win 

 the Derby and the St. Leger with him, they really 

 must find somebody who could. He is not even 

 allowed to choose a situation. The tall ones are to 

 be planted on each side of the broad walk, and 

 the little ones opposite the boudoir window. The 

 broad walk may be as bleak as a common, or, un- 

 der the shade of melancholy boughs, as dank as a 

 mausoleum ; and the dear little bed opposite the 

 boudoir never sees the sun until mid-day, when it 

 is grilled for three mortal hours, and then given 

 back to gloom. So there the poor Rose-trees 

 stand — through the winter, hidibrimn ventis, or 

 without any air at all, and in the spring a rialto, 

 rendezvous, common-room, and tap for all the 

 riff-raff of the insect world — an infirmary for all 

 the diseases which the neglected Rose is heir to. 

 Some few, perhaps, may brave all and bloom ; but 

 they no more resemble the glorious flowers which 

 my lady saw at Kensington or the Crystal Palace, 

 than my little boy's toy railway-train resembles 

 the Scotch express. 



In my next chapter I Will tell what may be 

 done in a very small garden, by a very poor man 

 who really loves the Rose. 



