A YOUNG LEADER 5 



planting ; all was then in the making, and the 

 pleasure was prospective. 



Now, after all those days of struggle and con- 

 tention, when garden pests were plentiful, and 

 boisterous south-west gales swept, free of barrier, 

 direct from the Channel ten miles off, there seems 

 a time of peace and prosperity. Just as the 

 tender flowering shrubs, the buddleia with its 

 golden balls, and the other variety with long, 

 slender, mauve blossoms, the sweet-scented ver- 

 bena, and the beautifully-pencilled passion flowers, 

 have taken firm hold upon " Ragged Lands " — for 

 such is the long-established name which describes 

 well what this place was once like — so a tall , graceful, 

 and energetic leader of young women has taken 

 root upon the somewhat unpropitious soil. 



It would often seem that the mere fact of having 

 to endure disappointments and overcome diffi- 

 culties is an incentive to those men or women who 

 in this life are destined to succeed. Certain it 

 is that she who some few years ago was a student 

 here, and has to-day by sheer energy, hard work, 

 and a certain degree of good luck, achieved the 

 proud position of being principal at this Garden 

 College will turn out capable, good gardeners if 

 any one can. I know that at this moment, when I 

 am idly reflecting, whilst the garden and I are alone 

 together, and only the occasional flutter of regi- 

 ments of field-fares circling overhead interrupts for 

 a moment my train of thought, some twenty or 

 more young women are standing, note-books in 

 hand, to receive their orders for the day. It is 

 not only lessons in plant-life that they will have, 



