2g On the Remuneration of Gardeners. 



are diversities of places and wages, as well as talent and in- 

 dustry. Various articles are amalgamated in supply and 

 demand, and I would advise young gardeners not to seek the 

 housekeeper's room before a vacancy occurs in the hall ; many, 

 to my knowledge, have from this cause retrograded : — 



" Incidit in Scyllam, qui vult evitare Charybdin." 



They cannot do better than add contentment to the excel- 

 lent "lesson you have given (Vol. I. p. 356.), " Lose no time, 

 and concentrate attention." 



" Necessitati qui se accommodat, sapit." 



You may perhaps suppose me averse to education and 

 remuneration. By no means am I so, sub modo ; but I have 

 lived too long, and seen too much of operative classes not to 

 know how much contentment sweetens a bitter potion, and 

 how easily the seeds of discontent vegetate and poison the 

 best feelings, affections, and efforts of man. 



From such evils, for the gardener's own sake, I would 

 screen him. I would prepare him for the higher departments 

 of horticulture, but I would fortify his mind to wait in patience 

 until better prospects may offer to his view. I would teach him 

 English composition, but I would head his common-place- 

 book with a valuable line from Scaliger : 



" Omnibus scribendi datur libertas, paucis facultas." 



There are few feelings so difficult to repress as those which 

 arise from half-matured reading. Superficial men deem it 

 nothing to know any matter, unless others are aware of it, 



" Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter." 



The wages of gardeners here seem higher than in London, 

 which is an anomaly I cannot understand. If they are 

 discontented with them, I advise a comparison with the in- 

 comes of men in other departments, — - with the college curate, 

 merchant's clerk, but more particularly with subaltern officers, 

 who have purchased their rank and pay. Their own good 

 sense would then pei'haps guide them to enjoy, without re- 

 pining, the blessings of Providence. Of one point they may 

 remain certain, — that wages arid merit will ever go hand in 

 hand; for the servant cannot be more desirous of a good place, 

 than a master is of a good servant. 



If I may crave your patience, I would say, emigration 

 should not be lightly canvassed. Experience in this district 

 has given rise to mature enquiry and sober caution ; and I am 



