44 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



combine nursing with destruction, to cherish hope 

 and plan its ruin. Root up all arid sow grass, a 

 beauty that never tires, and amidst which, the " wee 

 modest crimson-tipped flower " will spring up of its 

 own accord, and defy the scythe. Such a remedy 

 easily suggests itself, and such an arrangement would 

 afford far more pleasure than indifferent and ill kept 

 flower borders, and would display a certain elegance 

 of taste suited to those who have no love for horti- 

 culture. Yet this is a thing no more to be met 

 with than ivy substituted for ill trained and fruitless 

 trees. The truth is, there is far more of imitation 

 than of consistent plan in the measures that are every 

 where adopted. All gardeners, having walls, have 

 wall trees; and as every garden has its flower plots, 

 you must have them of course ; but it is good to 

 imitate a good design only when imitation is pur- 

 posed in the execution also. It is the universality 

 of the former, and the rarity of the latter, that causes 

 so many failures, both as to the comforts and the 

 fruits of a garden. That man might 'claim the praise 

 of wisdom, who, having no love to garden work, and 

 caring nothing for flower, or fruit, or other vegetables 

 than the fields produce, would feed sheep upon his 

 half acre, and save fifty shillings per annum, instead 

 of adopting the imitation plan only in part ; and 

 having, at no little expense, the shadow of all things, 

 but the substance of none. 



These being the evils of the case, this little volume 

 is proposed for their remedy; and the better it will 

 prove remedial that it is small. You will escape, 

 in the first instance, the great evil of a great book. 

 There is often a monstrous affectation about science, 



