JET. 63.] DARENT-HULME. 261 



At the beginning of the long vacation, and back at 

 Darent-Hulme, he was almost speechless with pleasure, 

 going from shrub to shrub and from tree to tree, to 

 ascertain what havoc had been done by winter frosts, 

 and to contemplate the growth made during his ab- 

 sence. The young Gingko trees, Salisburia adiantifolia, 

 were among the first to be inspected. He had always 

 been eager to nurture them into vigour, but it must 

 be confessed that their growth was stunted and the 

 slowest. Other delicate trees of which he took special 

 care were the Cryptomeria elegans, whose feathery 

 foliage was beginning to recover its proper tone and 

 throw off the russet-brown of winter. Then there were 

 the pines in all their varieties the " Austrians," which 

 flourished everywhere, and those from more sunny 

 climates, such as Pinus Laricio, P. excelsa, P. pinea, 

 P. Pinaster, &c., and the dark green P. nobilis, one or 

 two of them, if the frosts had been severe, making 

 new leaders. Prestwich's residence at Oxford gave 

 some respite to these young trees, as there was less 

 transplanting : still, every season a certain number were 

 marked for removal into other positions all carefully 

 indicated. No garden ever afforded keener enjoyment. 

 No one realised more than he the truth of the words of 

 Douglas Jerrold, that " a garden is a beautiful book, 

 writ by the finger of God : every flower and every 

 leaf is a letter. You have only to learn and he is a 

 poor dunce that cannot, if he will, do that, to learn 

 them and join them, and then to go on reading and 

 reading, and you will find yourself carried away 

 from the earth by the beautiful story you are going 

 through." 



A letter with his views on the origin of the Drift 

 and its relation to the submergence of the land will be 



