PREFACE 



PERHAPS no apology is needed for 

 this trivial story of an uneventful 

 winter in an inconsiderable island. 

 Madeira has indeed been long a 

 household word in Great Britain. Its generous 

 wine has played an important part in producing 

 the hereditary goutiness of the nation ; and 

 its genial climate is remembered in many 

 families as having mitigated the sufferings of 

 an invalid relation. It is perhaps less generally 

 known that its mountain scenery is not sur- 

 passed in beauty, that much of the finest 

 vegetation of the world flourishes and flowers 

 there during the winter months, and that the 

 gardens in and around Funchal are, for brilliance 

 and charm, scarcely to be matched elsewhere. 

 It is possible that in these days of widespread 

 delight in gardening it may interest some to 

 read of the life, largely horticultural, of a 



vii ^3 



