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TO OUR READERS. 
“ So you are at it again! ” 
Now, we wonder how many of our readers will guess correctly—if any of them take the trouble 
to guess at all—who saluted us very recently with the above abrupt exclamation. 
“Those,” said Swift, “who benefit themselves by reading my Prefaces will remember.” Now, 
that is what we also say on the present occasion. Those who have “benefited” by our Prefaces will 
remember, that exactly twelve months since—twelve months to a day—Miss Penelope Pomeroy, 
upon arriving as she does annually at this season from Cackle ton House, in Cornwall, warned us 
against changing from our old office to that in which we are now rooted. “ Well,” said Miss 
Penelope at that time, “ I would never do that. I would make a shift, and remain doing as 
you are.” 
In the present April the same kind lady gave vent to her conservative feelings on finding that 
we had ventured to adopt another title by saying as she entered—“ So you are at it again! ” 
“We shifted, Madam, to obtain more room and opportunity for our growth, and we have 
benefited by the repotting.” 
“All very well, but you need not have been rechristened. There can be no good in that, 
and I shall never call you anything but ‘ The Cottage Gardener.’ ” 
“Madam, so that you continue to call us, you may call us what best pleases you. But, as you 
have a wise regal’d for the opinions of those who are competent to judge of such proceedings, allow 
us to read to you brief extracts from two letters—one preceding our change of title and increase of 
pages, and the other subsequently to those changes. 
“ Before the change a literary gentleman wrote thus— 
“ ‘ I am greatly pleased to see that you are following the right policy—namely, increasing the size of your 
Journal as it prospers, and thus giving the public a share in its success : this will induce still further good 
feeling among its subscribers. I have long felt how entirely it has outstripped its original cognomen; and it is 
not conducive to your own interest to call it ‘The Cottage G-abuener,’ when, in truth, it circidates more ; 
largely than any other journal among professional gardeners and the gentry who delight in gardening.’ 
“ Subsequently to the change we have received this— 
“ ‘ You were always welcome before, you are still more welcome now; and I cannot conclude without express¬ 
ing my individual thanks for your making what was very good still better. Allow me to add that the change 
of title is part and parcel of the improvement—it suggests what you are. Sequoia was not so suggestive a title 
as Wellingtonia gigantea, though applied to the same tree.’ ” 
We purposed to conclude these few notes with the expression of our thanks, and of a few 
kindly parting words, to those who might justly take the opportunity of a New Series commencing 
to cease from a periodical which they had adhered to during a quarter century of volumes ;■ but 
i we know not of one to whom such parting words would be applicable. So far from there being 
a need for such parting words, we are able to tell our friends—and grateful indeed are we at such 
a truth—that the first and enlarged impression of the first Number of our New Series has been 
exhausted, and that a reprint has become necessary. 
To those who continue to patronise us under our new title, and to those many new friends now 
adding to our strength, we will say no more than that no change of title—indeed, no possible 
change—will ever be accompanied by any change of purpose. Whether labouring in the service 
of the Gardener, the Poultry-keeper, the Apiarian, or the Householder, we have had and always 
shall have but one purpose—the discovery of truth. We may miss that discovery sometimes, but 
rarely for want of the aid given by many sound heads and strong hands, and certainly never because 
interest bids us swerve from the discovery. 
