t86 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



in spirit many a time, honouring their memories, and 

 always regarding them with a thankful, filial love. I 

 like to think of them among their Roses, as I wander 

 among my own, mindful how much of my happiness 

 I owe, humanly speaking, to their skill and enter- 

 prise ; remembering them as we Rosarians of to-day 

 would fain be remembered hereafter, when our 

 children's children shall pluck their snow-white Marie 

 Beauman,! 



'Pure 



As sunshine glancing on a white dove's wings,' 



and shall wish we were there to see. I like to think 

 of Lee of Hammersmith complacently surveying those 

 standard Rose-trees which he introduced from France 

 in the year 1818, which were the first ever seen in 

 England, and which he sold readily (it was reported 

 at the time that the Duke of Clarence gave him a 

 right royal order for 1000 trees) at one guinea apiece. 

 I like to imagine the elder Rivers looking on a few 

 years later, half pleased and half perplexed, as Rivers 

 the younger budded his first batch of Briers, and the 

 old foreman who had served three generations boldly 

 protested, — ' Master Tom, you'll ruin the place if you 



^ This prophecy, made more than 30 years ago, if not fulfilled, is 

 very nigh unto fulfilment, in the lovely rose, which bears the title 

 of the Marchioness of Londonderry. 



