POSITION AND SOIL. 59 



goes in at rats. His exertions were sudorific ; 

 and when he finished the struggle, with beads on 

 his brow, the Sultan told him, ' that although 

 he had heard the most renowned performers of 

 the age he had never met one who — perspired so 

 freely !' Nor could I, with my heart as full of 

 charity's milk as a Cheshire dairy of the cow's, 

 think of any higher praise of the plot before me 

 than that it was an admirable place for ferns ; 

 and therefore, when my commentary was received 

 with an expressive smile of genteel disgust, as 

 though I had suggested that the allotment in 

 question was the site of all others for a jail, or 

 had said, as Carlyle said of the Koyal Garden at 

 Potsdam, that * it was one of the finest fog-pre- 

 serves in Europe,' then, without further prevari- 

 cation, I told the truth. And the truth is, that 

 this boundless contiguity of shade is fatal, and 

 every overhanging tree is fatal as an upas-tree to 

 the rose. The rose in close proximity to a for- 

 est-tree can never hope to thrive. In a two- 

 fold sense it takes umbrage ; robbed above and 

 robbed below, robbed by branches of sunshine and 

 by roots of soil, it sickens, droops, and dies." * 

 * "A Book about Roses." 



