26 A GARDEN DIARY 



HPHE Epic of Weeding has still to be written ! 

 -* It should be undertaken in no light or frolic 

 vein, but with all the gravity that the subject 

 demands. What I should wish to see would be 

 either a careful scientific treatise by a competent 

 authority, or, what would perhaps be still better, 

 a great poem, which, like all the highest poetry, 

 would go straight to the very soul of the subject, 

 and leave the votary of it satisfied for ever. To 

 the earnest-minded Weeder, most other occupa- 

 tions seem comparatively subordinate. Blank is 

 that day some portion of which has not been 

 devoted to faithful weeding. Blank is that night 

 in which, as he lays his head upon the pillow, he 

 cannot say to himself that such, or such a piece 

 of ground has been thoroughly cleared, and will 

 not require to be done again for quite a fort- 

 night ! 



One disadvantage it certainly has, but then 

 it is one that it shares with all the other higher, 

 and more absorbing pursuits. If inordinately 



