SOME CORNISH GARDENS. 225 



despised it as a failure, or whether from its isolated 

 and prominent position it suggested that fascinating, 

 because somewhat perilous, diversion which is known 

 as " duck and drake," or whether, as I have inti- 

 mated, he was impelled by a spirit of mere mischief, 

 I cannot say, but the boy began to bowl at the 

 flower-pot, and he very soon bowled it over. And 

 now, imploring all parents and guardians who may 

 have lively lads about them to keep these chronicles 

 out of their sight, lest they should consider it 

 their vocation to shy at every pot they see, I have 

 to record the unhoped and happy consequences of 

 that bouleversement. The Aponogeton, thus hurled 

 from its exalted place, and finding itself in low water, 

 at once began, like many a noble mind which has 

 been lethargized by inaction and roused by some 

 sudden shock, to make sweet uses of adversity, 

 displayed all its latent powers, established itself in 

 a business, which grew and prospered in all its 

 branches, and steadily accumulated a floating 

 capital, which literally filled the surrounding banks. 

 Passing from the Upper to the Lower Houses, 

 from the Lords, or rather the Ladies, to the Commons, 

 that is, the general range of glass, we come first to an 

 arrangement which may be commended as a model, 

 all the more worthy of imitation because it has now 

 been tested for a period of thirty years. The range 

 consists of (1) a forcing pit, forty-two by eight feet, 

 divided into three compartments, in which pot vines, 

 melons, cucumbers, &c., are grown in quick succes- 

 sion, with a healthful vigour of foliage and fruitage 

 which I never saw surpassed. Then (2), with a walk 

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