CHAP. XII.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 255 



have all declared that they did not imagine 

 a goose could be brought to be so good a 

 bird. These geese are altogether different 

 from the hard, strong things that come out 

 of the stubble-fields, and equally different 

 from the flabby thing called a green goose. 

 I should think that the cabbages or lettuces 

 perform half the work of keeping and fatting 

 my geese, and these are things that really 

 cost nothing. I should think that the geese 

 upon an average do not consume more than 

 a shilling's worth of oats each ; so that we 

 have these beautiful geese for about 4^:. 

 each. No money will buy me such a goose 

 in London, but the thing that I can get 

 nearest to it will cost me seven shillings, 



"Every gentleman has a garden. That 

 garden has in the month of July a waggon- 

 load, at least, of cabbages and lettuces to throw 

 away. Nothing is attended with so little 

 trouble as these geese ; there is hardly any- 

 body near London that has not room for 

 the purposes here mentioned. The reader 

 may be apt to exclaim, as my friends very 

 often do, ' Cobbett's geese are all swans I ' 



