176 Disabilities of young Gardeners. 



and leaving it to their option whether they would do it or not. 

 Whenever we consider that gardeners and their assistants are 

 employed for the express purpose of adding to the gentle- 

 man's luxuries and enjoyments, how mean and contemptible 

 does this conduct appear ! and particularly so, when we reflect 

 farther, and observe, that, in the majority of cases, it is solely 

 the base contrivance of the head gardener, from the still baser 

 motive of ingratiating himself into the favour of his master, 

 by robbing his young men of that which he is utterly unable to 

 return, and which to them is more valuable than money: time. 

 JMedical men assure us that ten hours a day for labour is suffi- 

 cient for a healthy able-bodied man; andlwould add, that, where 

 the mind has to be cultivated at the same time, a little less 

 might suffice : but to reason upon the injustice and slavishness 

 of this custom would be useless, and equally absurd as if I 

 were attempting to pi'ovethe truth of a self-evident proposition. 

 Let it suffice, then, that I give you an example from real life, 

 omitting names and dates, as they are said to be odious, and 

 serve little purpose, as it is the principle I wish to expose and 

 combat, and not to give personal provocation ; and an ex- 

 ample also I think better, because it will explain my meaning 

 more truly, and with greater effisct, than any description I am 

 able to give. Well, then ; on a certain baronet's estate, not 

 quite a third of a geographical degree from a northern metro- 

 polis, there is, or at least was, a celebrated garden, into which 

 all young aspirants were anxious to be admitted, from the 

 great quantum of knowledge they supposed was to be acquired 

 within it. The gardener was a man not a little respected by 

 his master and others, I believe. The family went three 

 months every summer to London, and during their absence 

 the gardener displayed his real character. Sunrise and sun- 

 set were the hours for labour, and nothing but improvement 

 was the order of the day; and all this for the only purpose 

 of gaining favour, by exciting surprise in the mind of his 

 employer on his return, by having so much done, and at no 

 extra-expense. What a wretched desire ! What a despicable 

 ambition ! This gardener (and recollect that he is by no means 

 without the countenance of others of his brethren in iniquity), 

 at the time when the young men should be cutting the lawn, 

 which from the absence of the family stood for hay, would make 

 them commence work at five in the morning, and continue 

 them, under the heat of a July sun, till seven in the evening; 

 and then, as a mark of humanity and the greatness of his soul, 

 he would tell them to go and get what he technically called 

 *' a piece," and come to the green-house, where he would 

 have plants to shift, &c., at which he would keep them em- 



