22 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



Bell-lovers have said the same thing. ' He that hears 

 bells,' says Burton in his Anatomy, 'will make them 

 sound what he list; as the soul thinketh so the bell 

 clinketh.' I will dismiss the crocus with two lines 

 only from Forbes Watson — 'The yellow crocus is a 

 perfect flower, leaving nothing that we could wish to 

 add to or to alter' — and will pass on to the snow- 

 drop. 



Of all February flowers I suppose the snowdrop is 

 the most popular. Its thorough hardiness, its patience 

 under any ill-treatment, its easy cultivation, and, 

 above all, its pure beauty, make it welcome to 

 every garden, and there is no more valued plant in 

 the garden of the poor, and in children's gardens. 

 I suppose no flower brings so many associations and 

 past remembrances with it ; certainly it does to me, 

 for it has always been a favourite flower here. 



I not only grow a great number of the common 

 snowdrop, but I grow most of the species, and would 

 grow all if I could, but some will not grow here. 

 The Crimean snowdrop does very well here, and I 

 like it for its plaited foliage, and for the pleasant 

 story which tells what a delight it was to our soldiers 

 when they saw it during the first dreadful winter of 

 the Crimean war. It was grown in England before 

 that, but by a very few, and I fancy that all that are 



