A GARDEN DIARY 45 
v2 
SEPTEMBER 26, 1899 
ye although undoubtedly our ancestor, Sir 
Primitive stands a good way back on the 
family tree, and other influences have grown 
up since his time to disturb his teachings. The 
fear of becoming too tidy, for instance, does not 
at first sight seem to be a very reasonable fear. 
It has not been imputed to many people as a 
failing, especially to those who happen to have 
been born to the westward of St. George’s 
Channel! Nevertheless there are moments when 
a wild passion for tidiness, a perfect thirst and 
craving for order, seems to sweep across the 
soul like a wave; when everything else that 
one habitually cares for is flung back, and over- 
whelmed before it, even as the hosts of Pharaoh 
were flung back, and overwhelmed before the 
cold, subduing waters of the Red Sea. 
We are all the children of our age; there 
is no getting over that fact; heirs of a hardly 
won civilisation, let us call ourselves Wild Wilful- 
ness, or any other law-defying name, as much as 
