March 21, 1903. 
Hie Gardening World 
GENERAL, NOTICES. 
We would earnestly urge secretaries of societies to notify us as far in advance as possible as to dates of meetings, shows, etc. We desire to do all in our power to have these 
i jquately represented in the columns of The Gardening World. 
We respectfully request our readers, when they write to persons or firms advertising in this paper, to mention that their advertisement was seen in The Gardening World. 
jy will thereby not only oblige this paper, but the advertisers. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“March winds, April showers, bring forth May flowers.”— Shakespeare. 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World 
yill give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for 
:he best paragraph, or short article, sent 
jy readers during the week. The Editor’s 
udgment must be considered final, and he will 
ie at liberty to use any of, the contributions 
sent in. The paragraph, or article, must not 
SXCEED ONE COLUMN IN LENGTH, but the Value, 
rather than the length, of the article will be 
:onsidered in making the award. Competitors 
nay send in items of news or comments on 
lews; hints of practical interest to gar- 
leners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers; 
uecessful methods of propagating plants 
isually considered difficult; or contributions 
IN ANY SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE 
if gardening proper. Letters should be 
iddressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi- 
ton,” and posted not later than Friday night 
o ensure insertion in the issue of next week. 
1 , 
i 
Coloured Plates 
and Supplements. 
With our last issue was presented a Coloured 
late of NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. 
opies maybe obtained fiom the publishers, 
ice 24d. post free. 
With THIS WEEK’S ISSUE we present a 
mdsome Picture Supplement of A GROUP 
F DAVALLIAS. 
The SPRING .SPECIAL ISSUE, next 
2 ek, will contain a handsome Coloured Plate 
THE NEW ROSE “ CHAMELEON,” 
id, in addition, a beautiful Picture Supple- 
snt of the Gardens of Coombe Clitt'e. 
Vi cws and R eviews. 
The Gardener in Fiction. 
Those who care to leam somewhat about 
the gardener in fiction might follow us 
through the history of a Norfolk garden for 
a summer season. We have on former occa¬ 
sions dealt with the doings of gardeners in 
our pages, but they were cases in which the 
writers expressed their views on the excel¬ 
lences or shortcomings of their own hortu- 
lanus, who kept their gardens trim, or en¬ 
deavoured to do so, often under considerable! 
difficulties. Even in this case, though the 
character is a fictitious one, we suppose the 
writer has had some real live gardener in 
view. The story in which we find the gar¬ 
dener under notice is entitled “ The Diverted 
Village.”* The garden came as a legacy to 
a London family, and the story opens with 
the condition under which it was found when 
the owners went to take possession. 
The garden had been left veiy much to its 
own sweet will for three years previously, 
and the owners obtained the history of its 
neglect from the caretaker on their arrival. 
Tummus Matt, the gardener, had left his 
occupation on account of an incautious state¬ 
ment that was dropped by the previous 
owner. The Celery had not been earthed up 
to the requisite degree by 4 in. Tummus re¬ 
plied to this : “ I know my trade; that 
Sallery is in the right ’arth ; no more and no’ 
less,” and then declared that he would do 
no more work for the owner, and he cer¬ 
tainly kept his word. The tragedy of it. all, 
according to the caretaker, and also accord¬ 
ing to the whole village, was that both the 
owner and the gardener broke their heart 
over this little tiff. 
This Norfolk garden was near the sea 
coast and near the Broads, and sloped to the 
road close on the outskirts of the village. It 
was surrounded by a quickset hedge and had 
a lawn, shrubberies, rosery, pergola, and 
kitchen garden. Nature is an anarchist, 
however, and having for three years much of 
her own way, it may be imagined in what 
condition the garden was found. The house 
* “ The Diverted Village,” a holiday book, by Grace Rhys 
author of “The Wooing of Sheila” and “ Mary Dominic.’ 
With 32 illustrations by Dorothy Gwyn Jeffrey 5 . Methuen 
and Co., 36, Essex Street, London,iW.C. 1903. Price 6s. 
was smothered with Ivy, the Roses were long- 
legged and unhappy, the Pansies the tallest 
ever seen, with small and starved-Iooking 
faces, trying to look over the Groundsel, the 
Poppies over all the walks and everywhere, 
and the landscape near by looked* like a 
garden in comparison, while the garden itself 
was a disgrace to the village, a. fact well 
known to everybody, as most things are in 
village life. The garden was,, in fact, the 
place which all the village and his wife came 
to see upon occasion; and since .the new 
proprietors had taken possession they came 
pretty frequently. 
One of the first objects that engaged the 
attention of the new proprietors was to find 
a gardener, and arrived at the post office; 
which was also the village emporium, they 
learned that Tummus Matt was. the gardener 
at The Leys, and would not allow anybody to 1 
go there and meddle. There were no idle 
people in the village, every man had his job, 
and the gardening job was Tummus Matt’s. 
When asked why he did not attend, the reply 
was: “ Tummus Matt, he will come, sure 
enough; when he do make up his mind, 
Tummus do always come to his own job. He 
will be there, ma’am, Tummus will, one of 
these momin’s.” 
After waiting a week and seeing nothing 
of the gardener, the new proprietors had 
engaged a gardener from London, and pre¬ 
pared the cottage for his reception. Early 
on the Monday morning the whole house was 
put in a state of excitement by somebody in 
the garden mowing down the weeds, the Cab¬ 
bage and Turnips that were declared to have 
grown there for the previous three years. 
The master of the house went out to speak 
to him, but soon found that he had met his 
match. Finally, by way of circumventing 
the gardener, he said the mistress thought it 
would be well to save him the hardest part 
of the work, and as she was afraid Thomas 
was not coming she was getting—when 
Thomas broke in : “I be always sure to come 
at t’end of ut, and here I be.” “ Yes, hut 
Thomas—I think the mistress has-” “ I 
be come to stay,” said Thomas, fixing his eye 
on the master. The master, getting the 
worst of it, began to make comments about 
the soil being poor, but Thomas soon dis- 
