98 A BOOK ABOUT THE GAEDEN. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 THE PRESIDENT'S LECTURE "ROSA BONHEUR." 



MY DEAR BROTHER SPADES, Like a herring-boat 

 astern of the Great Eastern, I follow in the wake of 

 grand examples, and commence my essay, as some 

 great essayists are wont to do, with a topic very 

 remotely connected with the chief theme of my 

 history.* For I have nothing to say concerning 

 that wonderful Frenchwoman who has painted, to 

 our great surprise and delight, " The Horse Fair " 

 and " The Denizens of the Highlands," and have 

 only borrowed her sweet name to serve as my text 

 and motto Rosa Bonheur, Rose cst Bonheur, the 

 Rose is Happiness, Felicite Perpetuelle, a thing of 

 beauty and a joy for ever. 



I go back in happy retrospect to the sunny days of 

 childhood. I wander once more in bowery lanes, 

 what time there were hedges in the land, and ere the 

 face of nature was so closely shaved by the keen 

 razor of improvement. It is the time of roses wild 

 roses, blooming fresh and fair, from cold soil and 

 thorny stem, like wisdom and hope from sorrow ; 



* I remember the elder Grossmith giving a most amusing 

 account of a lecture which he wrote to test the sagacity of his 

 audience. It was entitled "The Dark Races," but beyond the 

 repetition of these three words at intervals there was no other 

 reference to the subject. The oration was delivered with solemn 

 gravity, heard with deep interest, and vociferously applauded. 

 It began, I remember, " The Dark Races, my friends, the Dark 

 Races ! A wheelbarrow is not beautiful, but it is useful," 



