134 VISIT TO A NURSERY. [Cuar. VII. 
people, and, at length, they not only received me 
with pleasure, but begged me to bring my friends 
and acquaintances to see their flowers. I frequently 
did so, and as we always treated them with kind- 
ness and consideration, a favourable impression was 
made upon their minds, which, I have no doubt, 
will long continue. When I was leaving Shanghae 
for the last time on my return to England, I went 
to remove a collection of plants which I had in one 
of these gardens: as I was doing so, the proprietor 
said to me, ‘the next time you come to Shanghae 
I shall have left this garden, and gone to one 
which I have taken in the next district, where I 
shall be glad to see you, and supply you with the 
plants you want.” 
“Thanks, my good friend,” said I, “ but as my 
labours in the ‘ central flowery land’ are ended, I 
shall now return again to my own country, ‘ Ta- 
Eng-co*,’ a land in the far distant west, and you 
shall never see me again; fare you well.” 
He then kindly wished me fair winds, smooth 
seas, and a happy meeting with my friends at 
home. 
I merely mention this circumstance to show what 
a change took place in the feelings of these poor 
people in the course of two years, and which I 
regard as an earnest of what may be done with the 
northern Chinese, who differ widely from their 
haughty and insolent countrymen in the south. 
* Great England, or Great Britain, the name which our 
country is known by in the north of China. 
