104 A GARDEN DIARY 
FEBRUARY 12, 1900 
I HAD occasion to go to Guildford yesterday 
despite the weather, and met in the train 
our eminent horticultural acquaintance, Mr. R. P. 
We have always a good deal to say to one 
another on the subject of our respective gardens, 
although his is a long-established and renowned 
one, ours such a callow young thing that it is 
hardly fit as yet to be called a garden atall. On this 
occasion, seeing that he was coming from London, 
my first remark was not a horticultural one. 
“Ts there anything fresh?” I asked. “News 
seems so often to come in just after the morning 
papers are out.” 
‘“Fresh? Oh, you mean about the war? 
No, I think not. Everybody seems to be pretty 
sick over the whole business. I saw Sir F. J. 
the day before yesterday, and he was very much 
in the dumps about it. He says the Tommies 
out there don’t like it one bit. That they have 
got their tails regularly between their legs, and 
I’m sure 7 don’t wonder.” 
