KEW GARDENS. 



31 



pMosoplier, on strict analysis, must pronounce to be hunclies of 

 brea^ and cheese. It might be said, in apology for this tyranny, 

 that the gardeners have plenty to do, without the daily sweeping 

 up of orange-peel, plum-stones, nut-shells, pieces of paper, goose- 

 berry-husks, and ginger-beer corks ; and that if people are fam- 

 ished and fainting, there are plenty of taverns and tea-gardens 

 within a bow-shot of the gates. But the plea will not avail. The 

 ruling powers are exceedingly unfeeling thus to stop the supplies. 

 As housemaids would say, 'Missis is very particular T 



' 3. JN'o person attired otherwise than respectably can be admit- 

 ted, nor children too young to take care of themselves, unless a 

 parent or suitable guardian be w^ith them ; the police have strict 

 orders to remove such, as also persons guilty of any kind of im- 

 propriety. 



'4. It is by no means forbidden to walk upon the lawns ; still 

 it is requested that preference be given to the gravel-paths, and 

 especially that the lawn edges parallel to the w^alks be not made 

 a kind of foot- way, for nothing renders them more unsightly. 



'5. It is requested that visitors will abstain from touching the 

 plants and flowers ; a contrary practice can only lead to the suspi- 

 cion, perhaps unfounded, that their object is to abstract a flower 

 or a cutting w^hich, when detected, must be followed by disgrace- 

 ful expulsion.' 



We have been anxious to learn for what set of people these re- 

 strictions are absolutely required ; and it turns out to be for those 

 ivho ought to know better. The 'lower classes' are not the peo- 

 ple who pick and pilfer here. We have seen a group of dirty 

 children, who would, not have been admitted at all, had Rule 3 

 been strictly enforced, dancing round the vases of flowers near the 

 Palm-Stove in an ecstacy of delight, and all but w^orshipping them, 

 but never daring to touch them. If, near the same date, a mem- 

 ber of a liberal profession pockets part of a fern, denies it, is 

 searched, and has to yield the chattel ; if women, in elegant at- 

 tire, can pluck flowers wdiich they know they ought to respect sa- 

 credly ; a low opinion must be formed of the moral sense of such 

 amateurs. It is clear that total abstinence is th^ only rule compa- 

 tible with the very existence of the gardens. A luxuriant plant, 

 as the Coral Tree, Erythrina laurifolia^ may have on it two or 

 three hundred tempting blossoms at once. ' If I take only one, 

 it cannot be missed.' But you are one of a party of four or five 



