MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR xxxv 



grower has not been the object of this Memoir. His 

 toils are fully written down by himself ; and, if he 

 has omitted the triumphs, does that matter? If not 

 the most successful of amateur rose-growers, he 

 was high up in the first flight, and won quanti- 

 ties of medals and silver cups. He was one of the 

 National Rose Society's judges, and each summer 

 used to see him travelling all over the country to 

 judge at rose shows. His experiences were some- 

 times very amusing, especially when exhibiting, and 

 sometimes they were almost tragic. One year he 

 had to have a new gardener, and this was a sore 

 trial. He usually took the gardener with him when 

 he went to show roses, and the first attempt with 

 the new gardener was at Norwich. While setting 

 up some roses there, Mr. Foster-Melliar asked the 

 new gardener to bring him the rose that was to win 

 the medal. As the man was bringing it, the head 

 snapped off. Eose-growers will appreciate the irrita- 

 tion caused by a mishap of this kind, but Mr. Foster- 

 Melliar merely told him to go and fetch the next 

 best. As the wretched man was bringing it, that 

 one also snapped off at the head. Mr. Foster-Melliar 

 looked at him. "There, there," he said gently, 

 " go and play on the grass " ! It is doubtful if the 

 man ever got over it, and, at all events, he left 

 shortly afterwards. He was prepared to be stormed 

 at, but to be told to "go and play on the grass " was 

 too much for him. 



In the height and vigour of his manhood, as it 

 would have seemed, he was struck down. On the 

 Thursday he had just completed, signed and de- 

 spatched to the printers the preface to the third 

 edition of this book. On the Saturday he was 



