138 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



in the rhododendrons, if he cannot say how many- 

 flowers he will have, he can count the trusses ; and 

 there are many others almost as much marked, as the 

 spring-flowering magnolias. Or he can go among his 

 fruit-trees, and tell almost to a certainty Avhat his crop 

 may be; among his pears, for instance (to take the 

 commonest case), if he only knows the difference 

 between fruit-buds and leaf-buds — it is very marked, 

 and every gardener knows it — he can see to a certainty 

 whether it is likely to be a good or bad year. Of 

 course if his trees are not protected he will have to 

 make a liberal discount for the robberies of bullfinches 

 and other bud-loving birds, who in a hard winter will 

 claim and take their full share; and he will have to 

 make a still more liberal discount for spring frosts ; but 

 at any rate the flower-buds are there, and he can count 

 them, and very pleasant and interesting work this is. 



I am not fond of frost and snow, and the older we 

 get the less we like it. But I have no doubt whatever 

 that frost and snow have their uses, and that we should 

 be all the worse without them. Many writers have 

 taken the British weather as their theme, and shown 

 how its endless changes and its harshness have done 

 much to develop the character of Englishmen, of 

 which an extreme instance may be taken in Kingsley's 

 eulogy of and welcome to the north-east wind. But I 



