342 THE: FLORIST. 
How. we-used: to enyy those, happy. flowers, rejoicing, ino the sunlight, 
dancing. in, the summer breeze, unconscious: of ,pothooks. and, hangers, 
emancipated from the thraldom of high-backed:chairs, perfectly indifierent 
as to the orthography of.the, word cat, and not caring one,dewdrop when 
who was king of where, or.which. was capital, of, what. The bees and 
the butterflies, when they came to call,upon the Rose; used to laugh, 1 
am confident, at our, bare; little legs, dangling |,from the, uncomfortable 
sedilia, just now alluded:to; the saucy sparrows twittered at our, state : 
and -the blackbirds, eyeing ‘us from,a contiguous Laurel, whistled comie 
songs at our expense. t tom blyede vite 
They are gone, the Roses of my childhood, deposed: by; fairer flowers. 
Where those six held dominion absolute, six| hundred distinct varieties 
have unveiled their beauty to the summer, moons... ‘They are gone from 
our gaze, but from our loving memory they shallnever fade. I haye a 
group of them, exquisitely painted by the ‘skilled, touch ofi.a vanished 
hand, in a dear old family, scrap-book, which I,,would not give-for any- 
thing in the Bodleian Library ; and I oft tum,to them with, a tender 
sorrow, a grief which is almost. gladness, haying a.\hope.as pure and 
beautiful as they. + acini mlekiie 
~*CHAPTER XV ie | 
And now* must I confess, with a blush upon my cheek as deeply 
crimson as Senateur Vaisse, just described in Mr. Cranston’s catalogue 
as “intensely glowing scarlet, much more brilliant than General 
Jacqueminot,” that for some fifteen years of my existence I walked “this 
goodly frame, the earth,” with about as lively an appreciation of the 
beauties of a garden as may be supposed to be experienced by a collared 
eel. Abruptly and completely, like a coquette deserting a baronet for a 
peer, I transferred my affections from Flora to Pomona, and became 
miserably oblivious of all flowers pleasant to the eye, in my absorbing 
greediness of all fruits, which I, erroneously, supposed to be good for 
food. Pinas 
Now I have not, my dear Brother Spades, I assure you, one un- 
kindly thought against Apples; I have not a detrimental remark to 
make against Gooseberries, however green. Childhood, I know, will 
distend its little self, boyhood will fill its large pockets, and youth must 
have its fling at the Pear-tree, whatever age may preach. For myself, 
so far from sermonising, I thoroughly admire that magnificent digestion, 
which is no longer mine; I fondly desiderate that glorious palate, for 
which no Magnum Bonum was too unripe; and’ I mournfully envy 
those noble grinders, which were not afraid to grapple even with the 
Peach’s iron stone. ; | : 
But while I speak approvingly of this early fondness for’ fruit, and 
say of it, as Sam Weller said of kissing the pretty housemaid, that “ it’s 
Natur, ain’t it?” I see no reason why a fondness of flowers should not 
be developed contemporaneously, or why in childhood and boyhood, and 
in many cases throughout manhood too, the sense of sight and of smell 

* This part of my autobiography has been told before, in an article entitled 
a eeania. about Roses, which appeared in the ‘“* Gardeners’ Chronicle,” in the 
year Loos. : ORR | YON ) peoryts 
