On the Remuneration of Gardeners. 143 



short, is talked of, and we all know how proud Mr. P. is of 

 the share he had in the architecture of the house. The 

 gardener went there on wages which he felt to be low ; but 

 which he trusted would be raised as he displayed his talents. 

 With the most honourable feelings he declined asking for an 

 advance while the great works he had in hand were going on, 

 least it might be considered as a sort of threat to leave in the 

 midst of them ; but when the whole was completed, he then 

 respectfully represented to his employer that he found great 

 difficulty in supporting himself, his wife, and three children on 

 forty pounds a year, and eleven shillings a week board wages, 

 for he had no perquisites, not even milk or a pig. The 

 magnificent and generous nobleman, not more rich than 

 pious, after several weeks' consideration offered an addition of 

 12/. a year. Such is the liberality of a man who is said to 

 have upwards of 100,000/. a-year. I make no reflections on 

 the subject, but I think it is a fit case to be recorded in the 

 Gardener's Magazine for the benefit of its practical readers. 

 Had this gardener not been an honourable minded man, and 

 enthusiastic in his profession, he never would have gone on 

 for so many years with such extensive works, and with so 

 paltry a remuneration. But he was wrapped up in the plans 

 he was executing, and fancied that while erecting a column 

 to his own fame as a gardener, he was also laying the surest 

 foundation for an increase of salary, and, in short, for rendering 

 his situation comfortable and permanent. At the moment, 

 however, when he thought of beginning to reap the fruits of 

 his labours, he was politely swept away from the place where 

 he had spent his best years, and made his greatest exertions ; 

 and the small increase of salary that was denied him was 

 more than included in the wages of his successor. Had this 

 gardener not been an honest man, he might, out of the 

 thousands a year that passed through his hands, in the mul- 

 tifarious payments of from 250 to 300 men weekly, easily have 

 helped himself. Is not such treatment enough to tempt men 

 to dishonesty ? and is it not astonishing that gentlemen, when 

 they hire servants, do not take these things into account in 

 adjusting their remuneration ? In a word, there is no class 

 of servants so ill paid as gardeners, and none, who from their 

 general good conduct, and the long study and attention 

 required to excel in their profession, deserve to be so well paid. 

 But I am confounding general views with the relation of a 

 particular case, and shall, therefore, conclude for the present, by 

 expressing a hope, that this case will teach them — never to 

 trust to the gratitude or generosity of their employers for that 

 which they are entitled to receive from them as matter of 



