THE DEANERY GARDEN, ROCHESTER 



Those who know the Dean of Rochester,* either personally or by 

 reputation, will know that where he dwells there will be a beautiful 

 garden. His fame as a rosarian has gone throughout the length 

 and breadth of Britain, and far beyond, and his practical activity in 

 spreading and fostering a love of Roses must have been the means of 

 gladdening many a heart, and may be reckoned as by no means the 

 least among the many beneficent influences of his long and distinguished 

 ministry. 



A few days' visit to Dean Hole's own home at Caunton Manor, 

 near Newark, will ever remain among the writer's pleasantest memories. 

 It must have been five and twenty years ago, and it was June, the time of 

 Roses. To one whose home was on a poor sandy soil it was almost a 

 new sight to see the best of Roses, splendidly grown and revelling in a 

 good loam. Not that the credit was mainly due to the nature of the 

 garden ground, for, as the Dean (then Canon Hole) points out in his 

 delightful " Book about Roses," the soil had to be made to suit his 

 favourite flower. In this, or some one of his books, he feelingly describes 

 how many of the visitors to his garden, seeing the splendid vigour of his 

 Roses, at once ascribed it to the excellence of his soil. " Of course," 

 they said, " your flowers are magnificent, but then, you see, you have got 

 such a soil for Roses." " I should think I had got a soil for Roses," was 

 the reply, " didn't I mix it all myself and take it there in a barrow ? " I 

 quote from memory, but this is the sense of this excellent lesson. .The 

 writer's own experience is exactly the same. Of the quantities of garden 



* These lines were in print before the lamented death of Dean Hole. 



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