COTTAGE GARDENS 173 



only too true. People often think that cottagers 

 never weed, but this is a great mistake. Weeds 

 are looked upon by them as great evils. Their 

 views on weeds are, in fact, very similar to Bocca- 

 cio's, who writes very plainly on the subject : 

 " Let the painfull gardiner expresse never so 

 much care and diligent endeavour ; yet among 

 the very fairest, sweetest, and freshest Flowers, 

 as also Plants of the most precious virtue ill 

 savouring and stinking weeds, fit for no use but 

 the fire or mucke-hill, will spring and sprout up." 



This patient labour of the man who so often 

 starts to work in his Garden at the end of a hard 

 day's toil, produces in the onlooker a feeling of 

 the deepest admiration and amazement till Gray's 

 words to his friend are remembered : "So you 

 have a Garden of your own, and you plant and 

 transplant and are dirty and amused" 



It is this passion for Gardening, which is planted 

 in the hearts of rich and poor alike, that has been 

 one of the chief joys of the world a pleasure 

 born of the love of beauty and the delight in even 

 " a slip of ground for a Cabbage and a Gooseberry 

 bush," and " to sit under my own Vine and 

 contemplate the growth of vegetable nature. I 

 now understand in what sense they speak of 

 Father Adam. I recognise the paternity, while 

 I watch my Tulips." 



" I should like to influence the whole world with 



