26 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



There are difficulties, of course, in this as in all 

 good works. There are difficulties with regard to 

 cottage-gardening, even in those villages where 

 priest and squire co-operate heartily, and these 

 difficulties are multiplied where men are thick upon 

 the ground, and where at present little interest is 

 taken in the matter, either by the clergy or the 

 rich. These difficulties come from the temptations 

 incidental to the annual show ; and the annual 

 show is, according to my experience, a necessity. 

 Emulation is the stimulus, with which we cannot 

 dispense. My lord won't ride his best hunter over 

 a nasty brook, when nobody is there to see ; and 

 Bill Smith won't dig and delve after work-hours, 

 if no one is to admire his big potatoes. Large 

 and lovely is the rhubarb of Jones, but never so 

 large, never so lovely, as when it rests beside the 

 rhubarb of Robinson, having won the premier prize. 

 Alas ! to win premier prizes men are tempted to 

 be dishonest, and they fall. * If you please, sir, 

 Bob Filch went a-cadging miles and miles for them 

 cut flowers as won last show.' ' Lor' bless your 

 reverence, I knows for a fact that Jim A gave Jack 

 B one-and-nine for that Senateur Vaisse in his six.' 

 And his reverence, moreover, knows for fact, that 

 Roses have not only been begged and bought, but 

 stolen, just before a show. His reverence could name 



