MARCH 49 



thought and no imagination.' Yet twenty years ago this 

 sort of garden was like Tory politics, or Church and 

 State, and seemed to represent all that was considered 

 respectable and desirable. I shall never forget the 

 bombshell I seemed to fling into a family circle when I 

 injudiciously and vehemently said that I hated parks and 

 bedded-out gardens. 



In Mr. Bright' s book I first saw the mention of 

 Curtis's 'Botanical Magazine,' and afterwards came 

 across a few stray illustrations out of it. Many of these 

 old gardening books were, I fear, cut up and sold for 

 screens and scrap-books when there was no sale for 

 the complete works. I was much struck with the 

 beauty and delicacy of these hand-coloured flower plates, 

 and so began my first interest in old flower books, 

 which has led by degrees to my present collection. At 

 one time I thought of giving some account of the 

 Herbals and botanical works at the library of the 

 South Kensington Natural History Museum, where 

 there is a very fine collection, which begins with the 

 early Herbals and includes botany and gardening 

 books. This, however, proved to be too ambitious 

 a work; but a short account of my own books may 

 be of some interest, for these, though far from being 

 a large collection, extend over nearly three hundred 

 years. The knowledge of the very existence of these 

 beautifully illustrated Herbals and old gardening books 

 is even now limited, though they are within reach of 

 everybody at the Natural History Museum. Probably 

 the reason why these books so suddenly fell out of all 

 knowledge is owing to the letterpress, which is often in 

 Latin, having, for one reason or another, become obsolete. 

 No one now consults Herbals medically, or goes to 

 old books for botanical instruction. 



