CAUSES OF SUCCESS. 1 9 



specimens of medium merit, and some failures. 

 Among the latter I cannot forget a small and 

 sickly exposition of Paul Ricaut, who, by some 

 happy coincidence, which warmed my whole body 

 with laughter, was appropriately placed in a large 

 medicine bottle, with a label, requesting that the 

 wretched invalid might be well rubbed every night 

 and morning. Poor Paul ! a gentle touch would 

 have sent him to pot-pourri ! 



When the prizes were awarded we left the 

 show-room, grave and important as two exam- 

 iners coming out of the schools at Oxford ; and 

 when the undergraduates — I mean the stock- 

 ingers — had rushed to see who had taken honors 

 and who w^x^ plucked, I went with some of them 

 to inspect their gardens. These are tiny allot- 

 ments on sunny slopes, just out of the town of 

 Nottingham,* separated by hedges or boards, in 

 size about three to the rood — such an extent as a 

 country squire in Lilliput might be expected to 

 devote to horticulture. And yet it was delightful 



* " No town in England displays the gardening spirits more 

 manifestly than ' old Nottingham.' Independently of galdens attached 

 to residences, there are, we believe, nearly 10,000 allotments within 

 a short distance of the town ; and as many of these are divided, and 

 in some cases subdivided, it is not too much to affirm that from 20,000 

 tx) 30.000 of the inhabitants, or nearly one-half, take an active interest 

 in the garden. And where will you see such Roses as are produced 

 upon the Hunger Hills by these amateurs — such cabbage and lettuce, 

 rhubarb and celery?" — Nottinghamshire Guardian, March 8, 1867. 



