Retrospective Criticism. *i25 



allows; and whenever it becomes necessary to deprive them of it for 

 whatever cause, it is our duty to do it by the quickest means, and that 

 which gives the least possible pain, in our power. The sort of traps 

 I make use of, I consider so very simple and well known, that I should 

 never have ventured to have intruded a description of them on your notice 

 had not the above-mentioned articles appeared. 



I take the heaviest bricks I can find, and place one flat, and sunk a little, 

 so as to be nearly even with the surface of the ground, on each side of 

 which I thrust down into the ground a small stick sharpened at the lower 

 end, and cut flat and split at top. I then take a large pea or small bean, 

 and make a hole through it with a small brad awl or garden nail, through 

 which I put a piece of brown thread, putting one end of it through the 

 split of each stick and twisting it round, so that the bait is suspended 

 over the centre of the brick; then I take another brick and place it on the 

 lower one, so that it rests supported by the thread. The mouse coming 

 to the bait, and finding it fixed, bites the thread in two with the view of 

 taking away the bait, when the upper brick immediately falls on its head 

 and crushes it to death instantly. It is beat completely flat, and feels very 

 little or no pain. The process is so very simple and easy that a child may 

 attend to the tmps every morning after they are once set, and the trouble 

 of first setting them is comparatively so small that I really should consider 

 him as deserving to lose his crops who would not bestow it. I am Sir, 

 yours, &c. — D. French. Harloiv, Essex, March 30. 1829. 



Iron Hot-houses, mid No. XX. of the Gardener^s Magazine. — Dear Sir, 

 I feel truly sorry that my scribbling should give offence to any of your cor- 

 respondents, and particularly that my favourite iron-framed houses should 

 prove so hot as to cause blisters on the very thin skin of a favourite of 

 my own. It is a pity that his nerves are so delicate as to make him start 

 at what he calls nothing but the shadoiu of a man. I cannot with propriety 

 " doff" my habit" at present, though I can assure you that I am not at all 

 ashamed of my name, but am afraid that my name may sometime or other 

 be ashamed of my scribbling. You perceive I am only just trying ray hand 

 at authorship, and, though it be rather in a clandestine way, I hope there 

 is nothing criminal in it. more than in the manner in which I learned many 

 other things; budding and grafting, for instance, I used to steal out at 

 over hours, under hedges, into the woods and shrubberies, and put all kinds 

 of grafts and buds into all kinds of stocks, some kinds ridiculous enough to 

 be sure. Such as took, I exultingly showed to my companions; and such 

 as missed, I said nothing at all about. So with my writings : if they take 

 with the public, I can claim them if I choose ; if not, you must stand father 

 to them yourself, 



Agronome feels very proud of being the favourite of Seventeen (see the 

 cover of No. XII.): he presumes that the writer is some beautiful lady of 

 that age, who has fallen in love with his old, withered, and weather-beaten 

 physiog, and that her papa very prudently disapproves of the connection. 

 There needs be no alarm on that score, as Agronome is engaged; and the 

 only consolation he can give to his fair favourite is, that if he should happen 

 to live another seventeen years longer, he engages to treat of at least seven- 

 teen dozen of subjects, some of which he hopes will be " exactly to her 

 taste." 



But the chief reason for my intruding upon the public is, that I begin to 

 get rather old, and having had rather more than an ordinary share of ex- 

 perience in gardening, &c., I think it rather a pity that I should die and 

 nobody be the wiser. I shall, therefore, commence criticising the last Num- 

 ber of the Gardener's Magazine ; and, oh Sir, I am highly delighted with 

 your tour to and through the Continent. I wish I could give as good an 

 account of my tour through the north country, but it is out of my line. 

 I, however, do not approve of your ornamented mile-stones ; I think a 



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