THE ROSE GARDEN 137 



Hybrid Tea Roses had been so great that he 

 was planting nothing else, and was doing away 

 entirely with all Hybrid Perpe-tuals. Now this 

 is one of those wholesale and wanton followings 

 of fashion that, I confess, exasperate me not a 

 little. Why discard one beautiful thing because 

 another is as, or even more, beautiful ? Why 

 turn our backs on the old and faithful friend, 

 because forsooth the new acquaintance pleases 

 us ? Are our hearts so small and mean that we 

 have not room in them for more than one 

 liking at a time ? Moreover in all things the 

 slavish following of a fashion because it is a 

 fashion, whatever its intrinsic merits, is odious 

 and unworthy, reducing sentient human beings 

 to the level of a flock of sheep hurrying blindly 

 and foolishly through a gap. And when about 

 three years ago some one suggested to me that 

 it was a good idea to write these humble notes 

 " because gardening is all the fashion," I fear 

 I replied with some asperity, " I write them 

 because I care for my garden, and want other 

 people to care for theirs." 



I am sick of that word " fashion ; " and now, 



