JULY 381 



because it is singularly devoid of French influence. In a 

 closing sentence of an admirable article on the Millais 

 Exhibition Mr. Claude Phillips says : ' A vast wave, 

 starting from France as a centre, is now more or less 

 rapidly spreading itself over the whole expanse of the 

 civilised globe, enveloping even us, who with a wise 

 obstinacy most strenuously interposed our barriers of race 

 and position as a defence. If it continues to advance, 

 steady and resistless as heretofore, will there not, before 

 the next century has spent half its course, be practically 

 but one art ? ' But as time goes on will not individuality 

 always assert itself, and may we not hope for Boecklins 

 in the future who will struggle and be free of all schools, 

 even the French ? 



July 12th. After Bale I came back once more to 

 Cronberg. Nothing is so interesting, next to one's own 

 garden, as the gardens one knows well, belonging to one's 

 friends, especially when they have very different situa- 

 tions and soil. At Cronberg the soil is very strong and 

 tenacious, and bakes into a hard crust, about as different 

 to my Bagshot sand as can be imagined. In all I say or 

 recommend, it is most important to remember that in 

 stiff, heavy soils everything that grows well with me 

 would do badly and require a perfectly different cultivation. 

 The amateur should "always recognise that when things do 

 badly it is probably because of some mistake in cultivation, 

 and that it is always worth while to try some other 

 method. 



I went for the first time to the famous ' Palmengarten ' 

 at Frankfort, which in its way is really beautiful, and a 

 very well-kept, interesting public garden half pleasure 

 garden, half botanical. The greenhouses are clean and 

 orderly, and arranged in much better taste than they 

 would have been at home. There is much more attempt 

 at grouping foliage plants, Mosses, Ferns, etc., than one 



