JANUARY 165 



printing that France has been able to produce — the 

 Tissot Bible. It was not otherwise than satisfactory to 

 realise that, however much art may have in some re- 

 spects deteriorated, these illustrations, artistically and 

 mechanically, surpassed those particular drawings of the 

 Middle Ages, though the comparison is an unfair one. 

 It would be immensely interesting to know what will be 

 thought of this Tissot Bible in a hundred years. 



January 6th. — I always order all the kitchen garden 

 seeds during January. My method is this — the gardener 

 marks Sutton's list, and then brings it to me to alter or 

 add to it any out-of-the-way vegetable. It is most im- 

 portant to go through the catalogues, and order seeds 

 early in this month. This enables yon to get first 

 choice, and you are then prepared for any kind of 

 weather, and can sow early if desirable. Also it is easy 

 to make up omissions later on, while still not too late. 

 For all the flower seeds that are the result of careful cul- 

 tivation — such as Sweet Peas, Mignonette, Asters, Sal- 

 piglossis, and so on — the great nurserymen cannot, of 

 course, be surpassed in excellence. But for small people 

 who grow a variety of flowers they are very expensive, 

 as they only sell large packets of seeds, have few things 

 out of the common, and hardly any interesting peren- 

 nials at all. I said before and continue to say that, for 

 all uncommon seeds, there is one man without any rival 

 so far as I know, and that is Mr. Thompson, of Ipswich. 

 His catalogue alone is most descriptive and instructive. 

 It is the only catalogue I know arranged simply and 

 alphabetically, with a column telling whether the plants 

 are hardy or half-hardy, tender or perennial, greenhouse, 

 stove, etc. It also is the only catalogue which gives the 

 approximate height that the plant ought to reach when 

 grown to perfection. But, of course, this varies im- 

 mensely, as he says himself, with the character of the 



