148 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



still be traced on the farther side of the little stream 

 which runs past the priory ruins. Here she was 

 accustomed, summer and winter alike, to spend two 

 hours every morning, as soon as she was up, in 

 prayer and meditation. Many are the references in 

 her diary to this pious habit, which invests with a 

 deep interest the few ancient thorn bushes which 

 remain, and the dark clumps of Iris fatidissima which 

 mark the site of the monastic garden. The " wilder- 

 ness " was to this Puritan saint as an oratory, where 

 she gained strength and consolation in the trials and 

 difficulties of life. " If," says Dr. Walker, her " soul 

 father," "she exceeded herself in anything as much 

 as she excelled others in most things, it was in medita- 

 tion. This was her masterpiece." To be alone with 

 God, and alone with God in the " wilderness," this 

 was the desire and the secret of her life. " The way 

 not to be alone," she wrote to a friend, "is to be 

 alone, and you will find yourself never less alone 

 than when you are so. For certainly the God that 

 makes all others good company must needs be best 

 Himself." And so, morning by morning, she retired 

 alone into the "wilderness" to meditate. Some- 

 times she is "weary and distracted," and grieves 

 over her " amazing dulness and wandering thoughts." 

 "My mind," she writes, "was discomposed, and I 

 had upon me a great lightness and vanity of spirit, 

 and could not for a long time bring my mind into any 

 serious frame." At other times she rejoices in the 

 Lord, and her mind is radiant with "white celestial 

 thoughts." " My meditation of God was sweet," she 

 enters in her diary ; " I had large meditations of the 

 great mercy of God in sending the Holy Ghost, and 

 found my heart much affected with it," After the 



