TO THE POOR MAN. 75 



should be thought to have been led away from 

 flowers to the more general subject, we will add that, 

 when we see a plot set apart for a rose-bush, and a 

 gilliflower, and a carnation, it is enough for us : if 

 the jasmine and the honeysuckle embower the porch 

 without, we may be sure that there is a potato and 

 a cabbage and an onion for the pot within : if there 

 be not plenty there, at least there is no want ; if not 

 happiness, the nearest approach to it in this world 

 content. 



*' Yes ! in the poor man's garden grow, 



Far more than herbs and flowers ; 

 Kind thoughts, contentment, peace of mind, 

 And joy for weary hours." 



Gardening not only affords common ground for the 

 high and low, but, like Christianity itself, it offers 

 peculiar blessings and privileges to the poor man, 

 which the very possession of wealth denies. " The 

 Spitalfields weaver may derive more pleasure from 

 his green box of smoked auriculas " than the lordly 

 possessors of Sion, or Chatsworth, or Stowe, or Alton, 

 from their hundreds of decorated acres ; because not 

 only personal superintendence, but actual work, is 

 necessary for the true enjoyment of a garden. We 

 must know our flowers, as well as buy them. Our 

 great-grandmothers, who before they were great- 

 grandmothers " flirted on the sunny terraces, or 

 strolled along the arched and shaded alleys " of our 

 old manor-houses, 



'* had their own little garden, where they knew every flower, 

 because they were few ; and every name, because they were 



