JANUARY 17 



Hardly anything grows here to perfection when left 

 alone. Most plants require either chalk, peat, leaf- 

 mould or cow-manure, and half-tender things are now 

 the better for covering up with matting or Bracken-fern. 

 It is seldom of any use to come so early as this ; but 

 there has been no cold this year, though one feels 

 it must come. Oh ! such days and days of gloom and 

 darkness ; but to-day the wind freshened from the north- 

 east, and I could breathe once more. How delightful 

 it is to be out of London again ! There is always plenty 

 to do and to enjoy. How the birds sing, as if it were 

 spring ! I love the country in winter ; one expects nothing, 

 and everything is a joy and a surprise. The Freezias are 

 flowering well ; they improve each year as the bulbs get 

 larger. Cyclamens are in. the greenhouse, and a large, 

 never-failing, old white Azalea, which forces faithfully and 

 uncomplainingly every year, and from which we cut so 

 many blooms. 



The first Aconite ! Does any flower in summer give the 

 same pleasure ? The blue-green blades of the Daffodils 

 and Jonquils are firmly and strongly pushing through 

 the cold brown earth ; nothing in all the year gives such a 

 sense of power and joy. One is grateful, too, for our 

 Surrey soil and climate to live where it never can rain 

 ioo much, and where it never accords with Shelley's 

 wonderful description of damp : 



And hour by hour, when the air was still, 

 The vapours arose which have strength to kill. 

 At morn they were seen, at noon they were felt, 

 At night they were darkness no star could melt. 



These mild winters have a wonderful effect on plant 

 life. The Solanum jasminoides looks as fresh as in 

 November, and as if he meant to stand it out ; we shall 

 see. In front of my window, on the ground floor, I have 



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