156 IDLEHURST : 



him Roses and Hebrons, large and filling, and not too 

 alluringly nice. In general, I find it safer to secure 

 my garden-stuff for myself; and so pea, bean, and 

 potato are culled at their grand climacteric, and are 

 in the pot before they have time to resent the change 

 by flagging and softening. This matter of selection 

 of the fittest, and recollection of some recent ex- 

 periences of travel, led to reflections on the vegetables 

 of the nation at large. I find in the matter of peas 

 that at public dining-places in the summer, one is 

 generally served with small bluish and greyish cubes, 

 somewhat hard and floury in texture, indeterminate 

 in flavour, save for the mint. I trace the natural 

 history of these vegetables thus : 



Seedsmen- breed a quick and strong-growing, 

 heavy-cropping stock, coarse and insipid, all touch 

 of quality lost in the gain of abundance and rapid 

 return. This seed is sown in market-gardens and 

 given rough field-culture ; the pods are gathered, 

 very well developed (for the tally's sake), by 

 women of the tramp class, and are carted in 

 large masses to markets, thence to the greengrocer's 

 trays, where they lie in sun and dust for a day, 

 maybe. When they finally reach the saucepan and 

 the table, they pass without comment as "green 

 peas," no more critically considered than the slice of 



