2 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



' Gardener's Dictionary,' by C. H. Wright and D. 

 Dewar. This last supplies any deficiencies in the other 

 two, and it teaches the cultivation of plants under glass. 



The cookery book to which I shall refer is ' Dainty 

 Dishes,' by Lady Harriet Sinclair. It is an old one, and 

 has often been reprinted. I have known it all my married 

 life, and have found no other book on cooking so useful, 

 so clear, or in such good taste. It is the only English 

 cookery book I know that has been translated into 

 German. 



I have given you the names of these books, as it is 

 through them I have learnt most of what I know, both in 

 gardening and cooking. It is, however, undeniable that, 

 as the old proverb says, you may drag a horse to the 

 water, but you can't make him drink ; and unless, when I 

 name plants or vegetables for the table, you look them up 

 in the books, you will derive very little benefit from these 

 notes. 



Just now it seems as if everybody wrote books 

 which nobody reads. This is probably what I am doing 

 myself ; but, so far as gardening is concerned, at any rate, 

 I have read and studied very hard, as I began to learn 

 quite late in life. I never buy a plant, or have one given 

 me, without looking it up in the books and providing 

 it with the best treatment in my power. If a plant 

 fails, I always blame myself, and feel sure I have culti- 

 vated it wrongly. No day goes by without my study- 

 ing some of my books or reading one or more of the very 

 excellent gardening newspapers that are published weekly. 

 This is how I also learnt cooking when I was younger, 

 always going to the book when a dish was wrong. 

 In this way one becomes independent of cooks and 

 gardeners, because, if they leave, one can always teach 

 another. Nothing is more unjust than the way a great 

 many people find fault with their gardeners, and, like the 



