POSITION 63 



There is, alas ! one locality, beneath that dark 

 canopy of smoke which hangs over and around 

 our large cities and manufacturing towns, wherein 

 it is not possible to grow the Rose in its glory ; 

 and many a time as I have stood in the pure air 

 and sunshine among my own beautiful flowers, I 

 have felt a most true and sorrowful sympathy for 

 those who, loving the Rose as fondly as I do, are 

 unable to realise its perfect beauty. Well, no man 

 can have his earthly happiness just in the way he 

 wills ; but every man, as a rule, has his equal share, 

 and these men, I doubt not, have other successes as 

 solace and compensation. Nay, are not their Roses, 

 which we, more favoured, should regard as disappoint- 

 ments, successes to them, great and gratifying? If 

 Mr. Shirley Hibberd, once the champion and teacher 

 of urban and oppidan amateurs, could grow good 

 Roses within four miles of the General Post-Office 

 — and I have seen the proofs of his skill and per- 

 severance at one of the great London Rose-shows, 

 to my high surprise and delectation — it is quite 

 certain that he would have been mdli semndus with 

 the full advantage of situation and soil. Nor do I 

 hesitate to say that the collection to which I refer, 

 necessarily less perfect than those around it in 

 colour and in size, seemed to me the most honour- 

 able of all 



