MAY 195 



My own opinion is that it does not much matter. These 

 London candidates (I will not use the term 'carpet-baggers/ 

 because I consider it offensive) come down to stand for a county 

 division, not because they have any particular interest in it, but 

 because they desire to be members of Parliament ; and the county 

 division returns them, not because it has any particular love for or 

 interest in them, but because they are pledged to vote in a way 

 which is pleasing to the majority of the electors. Sometimes such 

 candidates turn out well, and make a mark in the House ; indeed, 

 they have even been known to do good service to their 

 constituencies ; but in eight cases out of ten, once they are elected 

 no man hears of them more ; they vanish into the great crowd of 

 Parliamentary nobodies, and for good or ill there is, politically 

 speaking, an end of them. 



This evening I went for a walk on the Bath Hills. The water 

 meadows beneath them are now singularly beautiful, the green 

 grass being tinged with the purple of the cuckoo-flower, varied by 

 flashes of gold where the king-cups grow, that become brighter 

 and richer along the edges of the dykes. Also I found a patch of 

 the wild purple orchis flourishing quite under the shadow of the 

 trees, in the fell indeed. As might be expected in that situation, 

 they were very pale in colour, but being exceedingly conspicuous, 

 as are most of the orchid tribe, tropical or European, they caught 

 my eye at once. This orchid, like all its relations, is very fasti- 

 dious as to its habitat. My observation of it goes to show that 

 although it flourishes in certain old meadows, generally with a 

 very heavy soil, it does best where it is partially, but not alto- 

 gether, overshadowed by trees, and on a stiff clay. Some years 

 ago I dug up several clumps of these plants, and set them out 

 again in this garden, imitating the conditions in which I found 

 them as regards soil and situation as nearly as was possible. They 

 have come up every spring and bloomed after a fashion, but I 

 cannot say that the experiment was successful. I have also tried 

 transplanting the bee-orchid, of which, although it is very rare in 

 these parts, a few roots grow, or used to grow, in a certain marshy 



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