GARDENING FOR LADIES. 45 



had visited, " My lady skilled in the flowery part ; 

 my lord in the diligence of planting ;" and this is a 

 division of country labour which almost universal 

 consent and practice have sanctioned. The gardens 

 at Wimbledon House and Baling Park (we dare not 

 trust ourselves to take a wider view, or we know not 

 where to stop) are alone enough to show what the 

 knowledge and taste of our countrywomen can 

 achieve in their own department; and with the 

 assistance of Mrs. Loudon, the fair possessors of the 

 smallest plot of garden-ground may now emulate on 

 an humbler scale these splendid examples. 



In her * Gardening for Ladies,' Mrs. Loudon, 

 indeed, initiates them far beyond the mere culture 

 of flowers, and those lighter labours which have 

 usually been assigned to the amateur. She enters 

 into practical details in real good earnest, gives 

 directions to her lady-gardeners to dig and manure 

 their own parterres on this latter subject there is 

 no mincing of the matter she calls a spade a spade. 

 Perhaps she satisfies herself that, if not a feminine, 

 this has at least been a royal pastime, and so throws 

 in the weight of King Laertes in Homer* to balance 

 the scale. But really, what with our nitrate of soda, 

 bone-dust, gypsum, guano, all our new patent pocket- 



* According to Cicero, De Sen., c. 15. " Homerus Laertem leni- 

 entem desiderium, quod capiebat e filio, colentem agrum, et eum ster- 

 corantem facit." " Memoriae lapsu," say the critics ; the passage in 

 Odys., w. 226, not bearing out this meaning. But in line 241 of the 

 same book, the aia(^\dxaiv may imply the renewal as well as the 

 loosening of the soil. We should venture to translate it by the word 

 " mulching." 



