342 THE CLOSE. 



send you a few hollyhock seeds, which I believe ought to 

 be sown at this time. Of course, they will not flower till 

 the autumn of next year. If they make growth this 

 season, they should be planted out early next spring, when 

 they will be about the size of smallish carrots. I think I 

 said once before that I am not very anxious as to your 

 cultivating autumnal plants. I think you may then be 

 better, that is, more humanely occupied in cultivating 

 other people, and recovering, in the breezy north, from 

 the enervating effects of a southern locality. By the by, 

 tell me about turtle-doves and things of that kind which 

 occur in Kent, and of which we here know nothing. 

 Please also to send me a small supply of early glow-worms. 

 I believe they are still more abundant in the south of 

 England than in our own beloved vales [of Westmore- 

 land. J The posts are so rapid now that I have no doubt 

 a small colony might be sent safely and salubriously in 

 any lozenge box, with a few stalks of moist grass to lay 

 hold of, and prevent their being too much tossed about. 



" To-day my people are all off on foot, some three miles 

 westward towards Colinton, with the Sym children and 

 some other youngsters, including two dogs, and about two 

 dozen of harcl-boikd eggs and sandwiches. Joy be with 

 them. I thought at one time of joining them in a cab, 

 but the expectation of my doing so might have hampered 

 their movements ' in dingle and bushy dell/ and so I have 



