12 GARDENS OF ENGLAND 



of the cottage garden is scarcely taken into account 

 as it might be. That influence, however, is not so 

 much to be maintained by honours won at cottage- 

 garden shows, though these have a certain value, 

 nor even by the healthy stimulus of mutual emula- 

 tion. It is, in great measure, wrapped up in that 

 inborn instinct of the love of flowers for their own 

 sake, which has here been touched upon — the 

 question of food supply being entirely subordinate, 

 yet following by natural sequence. The more this 

 love of flowers and of cultivating them can be 

 cherished and developed, therefore, in the children 

 of the present generation, the better for the nation. 

 It is only here and there that a hard -worked 

 master or mistress of our English elementary 

 schools can be found who is qualified to add 

 gardening to the ordinary school routine, but some 

 there are, and they should be held worthy of 

 special honour. But, at any rate, every country 

 school should be provided with a school garden, 

 which, by some means, according to the circum- 

 stances of the village or district, might become, 

 under expert guidance, a nursery ground for well- 

 instructed cottage gardeners. The enthusiasm is 

 there, burning low in the nature of scores of 

 English boys and girls, and it only needs kindling— 



