42 A YEAR IN A LANCASHIRE GARDEN. 



VI. 



Ants and Aphis Fruit Trees The Grass Walk" Lilac-tide " 

 Narcissus Snowflakes Columbines Kalmias Hawthorn 

 Bushes. 



May 4. May set in this year with (as Horace 

 Walpole somewhere says) " its usual severity." We 

 felt it all the more after the soft warm summer 

 weather we had experienced in April. The Lilac, 

 which is only due with us on the 1st of May, was 

 this year in flower on the 28th of April. Green 

 Gooseberry tarts, which farther south are con- 

 sidered a May-day dish, we hardly hope to see 

 in this colder latitude for ten days later, and now 

 these cold east winds will throw back everything. 



I have been going over the fruit walls. The 

 Apricots have, after all, done fairly well, and, if 

 they do not fall off at the " stoning," we shall have 

 nothing to complain of. Peaches and Nectarines 

 are even worse than I had feared. There was not 

 much bloom to begin with ; then what bloom 

 there was has set but badly ; and now my most 



