MARCH 53 



Exciting ? yes, that is the word ; exhilarating is all too 

 tepid a term to express the emotion aroused by the crises 

 of inflorescence and the hazards of fertilisation. Experto 

 crede ! Have I not passed that way ? It was my lot to 

 spend many of my early years in a remote and exceedingly 

 quiet country neighbourhood, and of all the resources of 

 amusement and occupation which such a life affords, 

 there is none to which I look back with such profound 

 gratitude as to the garden. Gardening was not in those 

 days the fashionable passion which it has now become. 

 One had to find out a good deal for oneself; it is 

 amusing to hear and read about the discoveries made 

 by enthusiasts in these latter days, as if they were 

 really new. 



It confirms the belief that country clergymen in 

 general do not act wisely in neglecting their gardens to 

 note the extraordinary zest which those few add to their 

 lives who have acquired and indulged enthusiasm in 

 horticulture. There is not a week not a day in the 

 whole year in which the garden does not claim attention 

 and reward it in one way or another. The reward comes 

 in the form of pleasure how pure and how sure only 

 those may testify who have tested it. Let those who 

 have not done so open to themselves a new and permanent 

 avenue to enjoyment by studying a little work published 

 in the days of our great-grandsires Paterson's The Manse 

 Garden. 



James Thomson of The Seasons was a son of the 

 manse, and his father may have been a diligent and 

 successful gardener; but James's excursions in horti- 

 culture appear to have been of a parasitic kind. It is 

 recorded of him that his notion of exquisite sensation was 



