XVIII 



JHERE are other things beside Gardening 

 drought to depress the spirits 

 of the planter, who has often 

 reason to wonder why he en- 

 tered upon his disheartening career. 



It was, I believe, Sir George Cornewall 

 Lewis who declared that life would be a 

 very enjoyable thing were it not for its 

 pleasures, which is convincing proof that 

 he must at some time or other have inter- 

 ested himself in gardening, since this pur- 

 suit, which at first seems, of all others, the 

 most gentle and enticing, leads the un- 

 wary dilettante from woe to woe before it 

 has done with him. 



As soon as our forest is tall enough to 

 show above it, we are talking of erecting 

 an arch at its most obvious point of en- 

 trance, with the appropriate inscription, 



Abandon hope, all ye who enter here ! 



our experience leading us to think that 



217 



