August 5, 1905. 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
G19 
OCCASIONAL 
m I NTERVI EWS e* 
Miss F. M. VERRAL. 
In the syllabus of the Croydon and District 
Horticultural Mutual Improvement Society 
there is this item : “ Should ladies take up 
gardening as a profession ? ” by Mr. G. Dray. 
Are you net rather late, Mr. Dray, in dis¬ 
cussing this question? For, as a matter of 
fact, women have already taken up this pro¬ 
fession ; for a good while past they have been 
studying horticulture, passing examinations, 
and securing posts as gardeners, and have 
proved they can hold their own with men, at 
any rate in certain branches of horticulture. 
The number of women gardeners is steadily 
increasing, and there is, without a doubt, 
opened up here a further wide field of employ¬ 
ment for them. And this recent innovation 
provides another instance of that emancipation 
a peculiarly appropriate vocation for women. 
It has already been remarked by those who 
have watched the new departure that in 
gardens and conservatories which show, not 
merely the work of men’s hands, but a 
women’s finer susceptibilities to what is lovely 
and orderly, horticulture seems to have 
gained, and has actually gained, a new ac¬ 
cession of grace and beauty. 
Yes, lady gardeners, or, as I prefer it, 
women gardeners, have come to stay. And it 
has been made sufficiently clear that your 
twentieth century woman is a very deter¬ 
mined individual. Where aforetime she was 
content to rule the roost, it might be, or de¬ 
liver interminable curtain lectures, she now 
asserts a rivalry with man which is getting 
Miss F. M. Verrall. 
of the sex which is one of the most striking 
features of the present age. 
Our preconceived notions of the fitness or 
propriety of things incline us to regard the 
association of women with gardening as a pro¬ 
fession as incongruous, and I have even heard 
some people express the opinion that it is un- 
feminine. But, then, so many people speak 
without thinking, and there is a great crowd of 
the ultra conventional who resent the remark¬ 
able modern evolution of women. But, if the 
matter be viewed without prejudice, and if we 
disabuse our minds of these misconceptions, 
which are the result of custom and habitude, 
we shall readily admit that floriculture and 
many other departments of gardening provide 
disconcerting, to say the least of it. The pre¬ 
serves formerly sacred tC' the once vaunted 
“ lords of creation ” are no longer so ; she is 
strenuously competing with them in innumer¬ 
able walks of life, from which she was not so 
long since rigorously excluded, and in some 
cases the “ better half ” is being ousted alto¬ 
gether. The prescriptive rights which man, 
till this topsy-turvy era, arrogated to him¬ 
self will soon all have vanished. It is 
“ place aux dames ” now as never before. 
And who shall say—“ Old Moore” may pos¬ 
sibly know—that the whirligig of time may 
not at a near date accustom us to women 
M.P.’s, to a woman in the Speaker’s chair, 
and possibly one on the Woolsack—that 
woman’s Millennium when the world’s 
transactions will be conducted by the daugh¬ 
ters of Eve, and when mere man will be rele¬ 
gated to the home to mind the babies and look 
after household affairs ! 
These disquieting thoughts occurred to me 
as I read the latest available statistics of the 
progress of women in their new profession of 
gardening; and an allusion to the brilliant 
achievement of Miss F. M. Verrall, who last 
year carried off the medal of the R.H.8. after 
a stiff examination in the principles and prac¬ 
tice of horticulture, suggested that 1 should 
seek an interview with that lady, and learn 
what I might at first hand of this further 
aggressive move of the “new woman.” 
With this object in view, therefore, I set 
out for Harrow, after having made an appoint¬ 
ment to see Miss Verrall at her parental 
heme. 
And it was a bit of an ordeal getting there. 
It was a sweltering day. the hottest day till 
then in this phenomenal summer, and the 
route selected as the quickest and most con¬ 
venient was by way of the old, much-abused 
underground railway, via Baker Street. The 
carriages were packed with limp, perspiring 
humanity, and the passage through this torrid, 
sulphurous tunnel was as bad as anything 
Dante ever conjured up. When Messrs. 
Yerkes and Perks shall have consummated the 
new order of things, they will have earned 
the gratitude cf the travelling public who use 
this line. 
Sunnysidc, where I met Miss Verrall, is a 
pretty semi-detached house surrounded by 
shrubs and trees, and situated in a road which 
runs under the well-wooded eminence of Har- 
row-on-the-H il 1. 
If 1 expected to see a blue stocking, or any¬ 
thing approaching to that unjileasant mascu¬ 
line order of womankind, I was most agree¬ 
ably disappointed when Miss Verrall, accom¬ 
panied by her mother, entered the room into 
which I had been shown. What I saw was a 
slim girlish figure, fairly tall, and gracefully 
dressed, not in the least peculiarly, but 
quietly, and with taste. One might easily 
deduce, from her finely-modelled head and 
strong, classically chiselled features, consider¬ 
able mental powers, and an evenly-balanced 
character. Determination, concentration of 
mind, artistic sensibility ire delineated here. 
The physiognomist can discern ambition, but 
ambition with plenty of good controlling com¬ 
mon sense. In repose her face wears a grave, 
abstracted expression, but when she smiles it 
lights up in a- charming and beautiful manner. 
She seemed to me to be of a naturally thought¬ 
ful and pensive temperament, but- appears, 
nevertheless, to enjoy a lively sense of 
humour, and her laughter was merry and 
pleasant to hear. Nothing mannish or harsh 
here in manner or countenance. Nothing re¬ 
motely like the typical new woman with her 
aggressive air of independence and stupid 
aping of the ways of men. 
After we had conversed for a few minutes 
on indifferent matters, with an inevitable 
reference to the weather, the door was sud¬ 
denly unceremoniously pushed open, and a 
little dog of a somewhat nondescript appear¬ 
ance bounced forward with a bark of inquiry 
£>s to whom the newcomer might be. I there¬ 
upon proceeded to ingratiate myself with the 
little animal, and, I think, succeeded in satis¬ 
fying him that my designs were pacific.' 
“ 1 picked him up in the Boyal Botanic 
Gardens,”. said Miss Verrall, taking the for¬ 
tunate little quadruped in her arms and 
bestowing a kiss, which it accepted with the 
coolest indifference. “ He was a waif and 
stray, and so I brought him home, and he be¬ 
came one of the family. Didn’t you. Tiny?” 
