A GARDEN DIARY 13 
passed away. This then seems to be an ap- 
propriate moment for inaugurating a sort of 
running commentary upon the garden and its 
surroundings ; setting forth what the spade 
has already done, and what the spade has still 
to do; what we possess in the way of plants, 
and what we still visibly lack; laying bare 
above all our failures and blunderings in the 
clearest of colours, with an eye, it is to be 
hoped, to their rectification. Such a record; 
honestly kept, must be a highly improving one 
to look back upon. A man’s proper short- 
comings, writ out fair in black and white, should 
contain very edifying reading for that man him- 
self, whatever it might be for anyone else. The 
worst is that, like other amended sinners, we 
may come to burn in time with the zeal of the 
missionary. Not content with our own private 
flagellations and exhortations, we may sigh to 
exhort and to flagellate others. Hence doubtless, 
that vast and increasing host of garden books, 
which so greatly decorate our bookshelves. 
Yet after all a garden is a world in minia- 
ture, and, like the world, has a claim to be 
represented by many minds, surveying it from 
many sides. If it takes all sorts to make a 
world, it must take a good many varieties of 
gardeners to exhaust the subject of gardening. 
Assuming the said gardener to be of the right 
sort, naturally we accept his exhortations thank- 
