Mrs. Loudoji^s Gardening Jbr Ladies. 351 



" Such are the nature and purport of the present work ; and I have onl}) to 

 add, that I have spared no pains to render it as perfect as 1 could make it. 

 The engravings have been made here from drawings of specimens previously 

 prepared, and I can, therefore, vouch for their accuracy. — Bayswater, May 

 28, 1840." 



The work is written in a style at once correct, clear, and adapted to the 

 subject ; for we must do its authoress the justice to say, that, besides having a 

 mind capable of acquiring whatever kind of knowledge she thinks fit to 

 attempt, she is the most complete mistress of English grammar that we know 

 of. That she is equally capable of writing with elegance and poetic feeling, 

 and adapting herself to infancy as well as to mature age, we have only to refer 

 to Agnes Merton, and her other works for children, and to the Mummy, &c. 



That the book which has given rise to these observations will be of singular 

 use to the ladies of this country, and form an era in the history of their 

 happiness, we are thoroughly convinced. * To derive the fullest enjoyment 

 from a love of flowers, it is absolutely necessary to do something towards 

 their culture with our own hands. Labour is at the root of all enjoyment. 

 The fine lady who has a nosegay put on her table every morning by her 

 gardener, has not a tenth of the enjoyment from it that the lady has who has 

 sown the seeds, or struck the cuttings, and watered and shifted, or t(:ans- 

 planted, pruned, and tied up, or pegged down or thinned out, the plants, and 

 at last gathered the flowers herself. But we would have ladies of leisure do 

 a great deal more than this. Let them hoe, and rake, and dig, and wheel a 

 barrow, and prune and nail wall-trees, handle a syringe, and work one of 

 Read's garden engines. By these and similar operations, they will insure 

 health, without which there can neither be good temper, nor any kind of 

 enjoyment whatever, mental or corporal. 



The grand and all-pervading evil among ladies of independent fortune is 

 ennui, which, everybody knows, is brought on from a want of rational and 

 active occupation. Now the pursuits of botany and gardening supply an 

 occupation which is at once rational and active ; and they supply it, not only 

 to the lady who has merely a love of flowers without a scientific knowledge 

 of botany or a taste for the arts of design, and who may, therefore, cultivate 

 her flowers, and perform her garden operations, without a greater exertion of 

 mind than is required for a gardener's labourer ; but to the scientific lady, 

 whose botanical knowledge, like that of the scientific gardener, may enable her 

 to raise many new kinds of flowers, fruits, and culinary vegetables, by the 

 different processes required for that purpose ; and to the lady of artistical taste 

 in drawing, painting, and sculpture, who may direct her attention to landscape- 

 gardening, and, more especially, to the designing of flower-gardens, and the 

 introduction in them of the various kinds of ornaments of which they are 

 susceptible ; a subject at present as much in its infancy as botany was before 

 the time of Linnaeus. 



But, say some of our readers, " What ! the Duchess of wheeling a 



barrow, and nailing wall-trees ! " — Yes, certainly, if she has nothing else 

 to do, that will be an occupation equally rational and active. Why not a 

 duchess, as well as a plain mistress ? Suppose this duchess at work in her 

 garden, and that you are not aware that she has any title. Suppose her 

 dressed in the simplest manner (as were the Vicorate d'Ermenonville's wife 

 and daughters, in the gardens of Ermenonville), what wonder would there be 

 then ? Ladies of rank are as much subject to ennui, as ladies without rank ; 

 and every lady, as well as every gentleman, has a portion of the day that she 

 can call her own, when she may indulge in what she likes. If she has 

 not, her life is not worth keeping. Did not the Earl of Chatham, notwith- 

 standing his being prime minister at a period the most important that ever 



* One cause of conviction is, the great demand for the work, of which 

 1330 were sold on the day of publication. 



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