PREFA TOR Y NO TE. 



I HAVE changed the name of this volume, not with 

 the view of deceiving anybody, or of putting a new 

 blazon upon old wares, but because I wish to express, 

 so far as I can, in the title, the very practical aim of the 

 book, and to dispossess the reader at the start of any 

 notion that it is made up by a mere literary grouping of 

 ruralities. 



In the Preface of 1867 which was the date of its first 

 issue I said, " Its aim is to stimulate those who live 

 in the country, or who love the country, to a fuller and 

 wider range of thinking about the means of making their 

 homes enjoyable rather than to lay down any definite 

 rules by which this may be accomplished ; and I have es- 

 pecially sought to excite the ambition of those holders of 

 humble estates, who believe that nothing can be done in 

 the way of adornment of country property, except under 

 the eye of accomplished gardeners. The book is a tract 



