January 5, 1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
5th 
Tn 
6 th 
F 
Epiphany. 
7th 
S 
8 th 
SUN 
1st Sunday after Epiphany. 
9th 
M 
10 th 
TU 
Royal Horticultural Society. Fruit and Floral Committees at 
11 th 
W 
Society of Arts at 8 p.m. [11 a.m. 
ANOTHER NEW YEAR. 
SIT down for the eighteenth time to write the 
AajBB-j'S opening article for the new year of the period- 
wor( ^ s attachment and farni- 
(~ Parity, we here have been long accustomed to 
f v^fi Jj 'Sj call “ our Journal." I own I begin with 
mingled feelings. Thoughts of past years 
come over me, and of past writers which now this 
paper and this world equally know not. I ask 
myself, Can I write anything new or fresh ? and is 
there not a younger hand ready to do the work better ? 
But I obey orders, and that makes me ready and willing ; 
nay, in the bottom of my heart I must own I have a secret 
and sweet pleasure in addressing, as Chaplain, my larger 
congregation. 
Brother amateur gardeners and professionals, whose society 
I always seek, and whose calling I half envy—lovers of nature 
trimmed and put in order by skilled art—lovers of field and 
farm—fanciers and cherishers of bird and beast—to you, then, 
I once more write while the pulse of the old year s growing 
more and more feeble, and the frost on the pane and the 
whitened ground seem to have suddenly come to be suited 
to his burial. As the world's wheels move faster and faster, 
and the strife and the struggle for success become more intense 
and fierce, the human heart seems to long more and more for 
some quiet resource away from business—something on which 
the mind and affections can rest undisturbed. 
Two lives of men very eminent in their different callings 
have during the last year appeared. One that of the persever¬ 
ing and determined-to-be-successful Lord Campbell, who did 
everything a lawyer could do, and died in harness as Lord 
Chancellor. The other, of perhaps the greatest bishop of the 
century, Connop Thirlwall of St. David's. In the life of each 
we see how the mind of even men of their eminence delights 
to recruit and refresh itself with country pursuits, and even 
hobbies. Lord Campbell on coming to reside at his recently 
bought Scotch estate thus wrote —“ The house, garden, and 
pleasure grounds are in a state of neglect. I begin with some 
zeal to repair and improve. Though a decided lover of Lon¬ 
don life, I am by no means insensible to the beauties of Nature ; 
and although I could not write a treatise de utilitate stereo- 
randi , I have great delight in gardening. I have even a little 
farm in my own hands, and my heart swells within me when 
my Turnips are praised as the most luxuriant, and my stooks 
are declared to be the best to be seen in Teviotdale." Thus 
we see how the hard-headed ambitious lawyer turned with 
delight to a garden and a farm for genuine pleasure. But in 
regard to the bishop, a man of still higher class of mind, who 
might be thought to be above any love of pets, it is stated that 
he was exceedingly fond of dogs, cats, pheasants, and canaries ; 
and after breakfast he usually fed his geese, which flocked 
round him and tugged at his coat. 
Men of such exalted intellects found solace and delight in 
such things ; but it pleases me even still more that the delights 
of garden and home surroundings are open to and enjoyed by 
the humblest. I like to think of widely extended pleasures ; 
of the retired small tradesman, the mechanic, and the day 
labourer—all having a resource and a pleasure in the same 
thing. The recent census proved one thing to be true, that 
gardeners live longest, except agricultural labourers, and the 
length of the lives of the latter depend simply upon their so¬ 
briety or the reverse. Yes, alas! when the drink fiend comes 
in, then the lives of those who follow even the healthiest occu¬ 
pations are shortened ; but granted sobriety, and those who 
work on God's earth live the longest. Perhaps in addition to 
open air, the wondrous quiet life a gardener leads makes it the 
longest. Thinking, pausing, planning, working in hope ; 
knowing, though he cannot command success, yet he will try 
for it ; he continues to hope for the best, for the very essence 
of a gardener’s life is hope rooted in labour and trained by 
love. Is not such a life—when one thinks of the din and 
noise, and bad air in which so many labour with hand or brain 
—a life to be envied and praised ? 
It is with pleasure we see how the gardener is invading the 
town. We see his progress particularly in London. Battersea 
Fields, desolate and even loathsome, have long since become 
a beautiful park ; and beds of flowers glow and gladden even in 
places where rushing and roaring traffic is thickest and loud¬ 
est. Then how near to London. Manchester, and Birming¬ 
ham the gardener has made his way and holds his ground ! 
But in regard to suburban gardening I met with an idea which 
pleased me much, and which I should like to see take root in 
the public mind. It is, that instead of foreign shrubs being 
always planted in endless repetition in suburban gardens, that 
our own home products of shrub and tree should be there. I 
say, Plant English trees instead of foreign. Why an endless re¬ 
petition of Monkey Puzzlers, Rhododendrons, Sumachs, Laurels? 
and so on? Why not try trees where English birds will build? 
(they won’t in a Monkey Puzzler !) Why not plant English 
Hawthorns ? What tree is prettier in May ? They would re¬ 
mind the man obliged to live near London of the true and real 
country where he was born. If a tree is wanted, what better 
than the Lime, “ the murmurous haunt of summer bees ?" 
Then there is the old English Crab. Did evergreen, however 
far distant be its home, ever equal an English Crab when in 
blossom ? Then there is the common Briar. Can anything be 
prettier than a curved branch laden with flowers, swinging in 
the summer sun or wet with morning dew ? Barberry, Furze, 
and wild Broom might also be planted. If such trees and 
shrubs were planted sameness and stiffness would be avoided, 
and a pleasant English air be spread over all. If there is room 
for actual trees let the Elm and Oak be planted, and even I 
would not mind the Ash. All birds love these ; and if you 
have room for a shady walk let it be one of Filberts. At any 
rate have done with Cedars, and Conifers, and Laurels only. 
The idea of planting trees in streets is being carried out not 
only in London but in other large places. Portsmouth, thirty 
years ago one of the dirtiest and most loathsome of towns, has 
become pleasant and very healthy owing to the old close streets 
No. 80.—Yol. IV., Third Series. 
No. 1736 .—Vol. LXVII., Old Series, 
