XVI LOVE FOR THE GARDEN 425 



Wait till I cut you out at the Horticultural. I have 

 not made up my mind what to compete in yet. Look 

 out when I do ! 



And when the latter offered to propose him for 

 that Society, he replied : — 



Proud an' 'appy should I be to belong to the Horti- 

 cultural if you will see to it. Could send specimens of 

 nailing up creepers if qualification is required. 



After his long battlings for his early loves of 

 science and liberty of thought, his later love of the 

 tranquil garden seemed in harmony with the dignified 

 rest from struggle. To those who thought of the 

 past and the present, there was something touching 

 in the sight of the old man whose unquenched fires 

 now lent a gentler glow to the peaceful retirement 

 he had at length won for himself. His latter days 

 were fruitful and happy in their unflagging intellectual 

 interests, set off by the new delights of the succidia 

 altera, that second resource of hale old age for many 

 a century. 



All through his last and prolonged illness, from 

 earliest spring until midsummer, he loved to hear how 

 the garden was getting on, and would ask after certain 

 flowers and plants. When the bitter cold spring was 

 over and the warm weather came, he spent most of 

 the day outside, and even recovered so far as to be 

 able to walk once into the lower garden and visit his 

 favourite flowers. These children of his old age 

 helped to cheer him to the last. 



