VI 



Galathcca, his deserted love, still lingers, clothed in her widow's weeds; but of all 

 the tribe of flying flowers 



" It flies, and seems a flower that floats on air," 



as saith Philip de Commine Dian's nymph, Hyale,has led me the merriest dance 

 among the blooming lucerne : ifc #as where the Croydon rail now intersects those 

 Surrey hills which constitute the first glimpse of country as we emerge from the 

 fuliginous sea of London habitations : it was here, in market-gardens forbidden to 

 the public, that I made her acquaintance. Here were employed a multitude of female 

 Hibernians in the healthful pursuit of horticulture. On one occasion my quarry 

 led me into their midst, when lo ! they abandoned their occupation, and pursued 

 me with the very same energy that I was wasting on the yellow-robed nymph ; the 

 scene must have been an exciting one, and would have reminded a classical spectator 

 of Meleager, or Orestes, or CEdipus pursued by the Furies: alas ! the resemblance 

 to (Edipus is greater now 1 



It may be reasonably required that one so practised in these " pursuits " should 

 impart to others some of the knowledge which he must himself have acquired in 

 this branch of the gentle art of venerie, especially as regards the acquisition of 

 extreme rarities : I can only regret that I have so little to impart. There are 

 three modes in which rarities may be obtained : First, by accident ; the most 

 careless and unobservant of beginners may receive an unexpected visit from Antiopa 

 or Lathonia ; the stranger may settle in his father's garden, and gladden his eyes 

 without any reason, without any plausible excuse, and may fall a victim to the 

 most bungling manipulation of that clumsy implement, the ordinary chimney-pot 

 covering to which Englishmen cling as a respectable and becoming head-gear. 

 Secondly, by diligently studying the localities ; Oinxia is to be found with certainty on 

 the UnderclifF, Epiphron on the mountain wilds of Cumberland, Typliou on the 

 mosses of Lancashire, Avion on the sedgy slopes of Devon and the Cotswolds, 

 Artaxerxes on Arthur's Seat, and so with many others. Thirdly, by purchase ; 

 Lathonia, Niobe, Antiopa, Daplidice are to be purchased in abundance at Id., 2d., 

 or 3d. each, neither species being uncommon on the Continent : supposing the 

 purchaser to be fastidious as to his collection being purely British, he may obtain 

 a warranty with any individual specimen he is selecting, by paying twenty or 

 thirty shillings additional : the specimen then becomes " British," just as a wealthy 

 tradesman becomes an esquire by paying for armorial bearings which some ingenious 

 manufacturer professes to " find" in the Heralds' College. I prefer dispensing with 

 warranty as too expensive a luxury ; and although I admit the truth of Butler's 

 familiar couplet t showing that 



" Some say the pleasure is as great 

 In being cheated as to cheat," 



still the pursuit of pleasure, however keen, must stop somewhere, and with me 



