REVIEW. 
" Chureli of England ministei-s," and methodists ; gov- 
ernesses, and ladies' maids ; coachmen and grooms. In 
fact those -who have escaped a " rough rub" or a "hai-d 
hit" may attribute it o-sadently more to forgetfulness on 
the pai-t of the author, than to any desire or intention 
to allow them to go unscathed. Gregory in his way 
is quite a Sir Oracle, and the only wonder is, that a 
man so shrewd from infancy should have met with so 
many rebuffs in his progress through Ufe. To look at 
him, however, phr-enologically : though shi'ewd, he was 
evidently a man of small intellect, and smaller profes- 
sional attainments who trusted more to his cunning 
than to his corn-age or ability to get him through 
difficulties, who had Uttle or no self-respect properly so 
called, and who, having to serve, would have cringed 
to anything to curry favorrr from his superiors. 
Now, although cu-cumstances placed this man in a 
gardener's situation, it is quite certain that he was not 
worthy of the name of a gardener ; but was in reality 
one of those handy men — and fai' be it from our inten- 
teution to disparage them — who, when docile, make excel- 
lent gai-dening machines, but who have no more a right 
to be called gardeners than our friend of W Cottage, 
Isleworth, has to place the origin of the "Packet of 
Seeds" upon the shouldei's of James Gregory. 
We are aware that this work has been highly 
spoken of by some of om- contemporaries ; and, though 
we admit that it contains a deal of advice by which 
gardeners, both old and j'oung, as well as then- em- 
ployers, and many more, may profit ; yet, looking to its 
tendency and influence upon gai'deners and gardening, 
we believe it to he injurious, and calculated to degrade 
gardeners in the eyes of theii' employers and the world. 
That the author should write of gardeners within the 
sphere of his own ohsen^ation and experience, which 
had been principally confined to that class of handy 
men who make themselves generally useful, is not to 
be wondered at ; but if he would place them upon an 
equality with such men as Paxton, Fleming, M'Intosh, 
Barron at Elvaston, Spencer, and many more equally 
respectable and talented, though less foi-timate men, we 
must enter our protest at once against such an assump- 
tion. We have no wish to raise gardeners to a false 
position, or to become the advocate of egotists and 
pretenders, but at the same time we must protest 
against men of education, moral worth, and pro- 
fessional ability being associated with the hero of 
this tale, according to whom, gardeners must have 
no opinion of their own, but must be the willing 
tools of whoever may think fit to employ them. The 
old gardener, in the com'se of his serritude, is elevated 
from the plain name of " James" or " Gregory," to 
" Mr. Gregory," which immediately tm-ns his brain, and 
like other ignorant men, he begins to give himself aii'S, 
" or take on," as he terms it. " If the sqiui-e gave me 
any orders, I did not take 'em as I ought to have done. 
If he had a plan, I had a plan ; if he wanted anything 
done, I was just going to doit, OH^y something or other ;" 
and then I was often saying, at such times— "I'm sm-e 
I'm always at work ; I do the best I can," and the like, 
the upshot of which is, he is discharged, takes a house in 
the village, becomes a job-gai-dener, at 2s. per day ; 
and, ultimately, through sickness in his family, is 
very much distressed. At this juncture, through 
the intervention of the governess, he is restored to 
his old situation, his successor and predecessor, " a 
very respectable young man, and come fi-om a good 
place," having been dismissed, because he had the 
misfortime to mai'ry " a fine-looking young woman, 
who had been brought up to the dressmaking ; whose 
mother, like a foolish woman, instead of teaching her 
how to clean a house, cook, and so on, and getting her 
into a respectable family, had said her daughter should 
never be a slave, and gave her too much her own way,' 
and who, consequently, neglected to clean the gai-den 
room, and gave offence to the master and mistress. 
Well, shortly after the old gardener is reinstated, the 
master salutes him with — 
" Is that j'ou, Gregory?" 
"Yes, sir," said I, " and very much obliged to you I am for 
all favours." 
"You wUl have nothinij to thauk me for," said he, " if you do 
what I wish ; and if I teU you to cut off half the trees' heads 
in the orchard, I'll have it done, though I'll hear all you've 
got to say against it, and I'll uot blame you if I do wrong. If 
you gardeners don't take care you'U sicken half the masters in 
the coimtry, and they'll employ labourers instead, for I'd rather 
plough my place up than have a man in my service that thinks 
himself too great to do what he's told, and when he 's told. If I 
want my land cropped to my fancy, do you think my bailiff is to 
do as he pleases ? No ; he 's too much good sense for that ; but half 
of you gardeners must'nt be interfered with ; and that makes 
gentlemen care so Uttle about changing a gardener." 
Here is a correct likeness, we are sony to say, of a 
class of gentlemen, some of whom know a little of garden- 
ing, as other gentlemen magistrates know a little of law ; 
but so little, that they would act -ndsely to let a good 
gardener pursue his own course, just the same as the 
magistrate permits his decisions to be guided by the ad- 
vice of his law-clerk. We are speaking now of gardeners 
properly so-called, and not of handy men, or garden la- 
bourers. We do not dispute a gentleman's right to do as 
he likes with his own ; and, at the same time, it is but 
right that he should hear his gardener's reasons for ob- 
jecting to his plans, and then, in case of failm'e, exonerate 
bim from blame. We once remember hearing a noble- 
man's gardener say, that if "his Grace" told him to 
turn a dozen donkeys into the pleasirre-groimds he 
should do so ; previously pointing out the injury they 
would do, to clear himself from blame ; and so every 
gardener ought to do, viz., state the reasons for his op- 
position to his master's plans fully ; and then, if his 
master persists, do the best to give the plans fail- play. 
In dismissing the "Packet of Seeds" from our table, we 
are sorry our Isleworth friend did not aim at higher 
game, and have eudeavom-ed to elevate rather than to 
disparage the character of his brother exhibitors ; for, 
in speaking of the "Jack Braggs" of the breakfast- 
room at Chiswick, he is aware that the majority are 
mere helpers and hangers on, and that those who make 
the most noise have frequently the least to talk about. 
As far as we know, and we have had as much experience 
in these matters as the author, gardeners are well con- 
ducted, civil, and courteous, indeed, much more so than 
we have seen their superiors in station under similar 
cii'cumstances. Therefore, the allusion was uncalled for, 
and, to say the least, in very bad taste. — A. 
