September  10,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OR  FORTIC^t-LTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
255 
MEMORIES  AND  MORALS  OF  BOTHYDOM. 
^  Continued  from  page  222.) 
Cheap  literature  is  a  feature  of  our  own  times  ;  but  it  is  a 
blessing  so  qualified  by  the  enormous  amount  of  trash  befouling 
the  purer  streams  that  the  advantages  are  seriously  discounted. 
Onr  lads  of  the  bothy  do  not,  as  a  rule,  plunge  into  the  deepest 
■mire  ;  but  the  fact 
remains,  and  may 
be  frequently 
noticed,  that  a  good 
deal  finds  its  way 
into  bothy  dom, 
which,  if  not 
exactly  pernicious, 
is  at  least  useless. 
This  taste  for  light 
reading  has  been 
probably  brought 
to,  rather  than 
acquired  in,  the 
bothy.  In  our 
knickerbocker  days 
the  adventures  of 
“  the  proud  pirate  ” 
or  “  the  bold  buc¬ 
caneer  ”  have  en¬ 
thralled  us,  and 
although  the  thrill¬ 
ing  biographies  of 
these  gentlemen  no 
longer  charm  there 
are  heaps  of  subtle, 
if  more  refined, 
rubbish  ready  to 
take  their  place. 
This  not  only  takes 
the  place  of  neces¬ 
sary  and  wholesome 
mental  food  but 
destroys  the  palate 
for  it.  I  am  not 
only  anxious  to 
mention  this,  but 
to  suggest  the  pos¬ 
sibility  of  some 
supervision  being 
employed  by  those 
better  able  to  dis¬ 
criminate  and 
guide  in  wisdom’s 
ways. 
On  one  occasion 
when  the  question 
of  remodelling  a 
bothy  was  under 
consideration,  and 
those  whom  I  then 
served  were  suffi- 
‘Ciently  interested 
in  the  welfare  of 
their  employes  to 
receive  any  sugges¬ 
tions  that  were 
reasonably  ad¬ 
vanced,  permission 
was  given  for  the 
purchase  of  some 
suitable  books,  and 
a  small  press  was 
also  sent  from  the 
mansion  to  accom¬ 
modate  them.  As 
well  as  some  of  the 
standard  gardening  works  which  were  selected,  variety  was  provided 
by  a  set  of  “  Chambers’  Miscellany,"  with  a  few  other  works 
« qually  interesting  and  equally  sound.  Modest  as  was  this  small 
library  it  was  I  know  appreciated,  and  probably  yielded  as  much 
profit  to  our  young  inmates  as  a  more  pretentious  lending  library 
which  some  may  have  access  to,  and  indiscriminately  wade  through 
a  considerable  amount  of  matter  with  but  little  or  no  benefit.  In 
a  more  pretentious  bothy  c  ntaining  a  library,  the  shelves  of  which 
were  filled  with  a  promiscuous  assortment  which  had  been  turned 
out  from  the  ball  for  the  sole  purpose,  apparently,  of  filling  the 
shelves,  one  work  alone,  amongst  the  many  it  contained,  had  any 
particular  attraction  for  the  lads,  and  that  from  the  pen  of  Fielding, 
the  father  of  English  novelists,  they  would  have  been  better 
without. 
That  bothy  literature  should  be  limited  to  gardening  works 
would  be  as  unreasonable  to  expect  as  it  would  be  unwise  to 
advocate.  We  want  our  boys  to  catch  the  spirit  of  noble  minds 
who  have  laboured 
in  other  fields,  and 
their  minds  to  ex¬ 
pand  under  such 
themes  as  Sir 
Robert  Ball’s 
“Story  of  the 
Heavens.”  One  old 
labourer  I  worked 
with  (and  argued 
with  as  a  boy) — 
one  who,  struggling 
under  the  mists  of 
ignorance,  would 
acknowledge  no 
world  but  what  he 
knew,  and  the  chief 
of  that  was  in¬ 
cluded  under  “  f  ur- 
rin  parts  ”  —  in¬ 
sisted  that  there 
was  no  star  “bigger 
than  a  bullock’s 
eye,”  and  endea¬ 
voured  to  prove  it 
by  seeking  for  a 
•tar  he  saw  “  fall 
amongst  the  Tur- 
mits.”  Actually 
sought  for  it,  and 
sought,  too,  for 
truths  too  strong 
for  a  starved  mind 
to  assimilate.  But 
all  boys  now  are 
reading  boys  ;  they 
have  splendid  op¬ 
portunities  for 
sound  instruction 
and  wise  recreation. 
The  cream  of  all 
that  has  ever  been 
thought,  or  said, 
or  done  is  open 
to  them,  but  they 
want  direction. 
We  old  boys  are, 
as  a  rule,  diffident 
of  peeping  behind 
the  scenes  of  bothy 
life  when  the  young 
actors  are  spending 
their  leisure  after 
working  hours  — 
diffident,  as  pre¬ 
viously  remarked, 
to  a  fault.  But  I 
think  that  if  even 
the  sternest  of  dis¬ 
ciplinarians  could 
or  would  occasion¬ 
ally  unbend  and 
enter  a  little  into 
this  inner  life  it 
would  have  an  en¬ 
couraging  and  salu¬ 
tary  effect.  It  is, 
too,  a  fine  field  for  observation  of  character,  as  well  as  opportunity 
for  a  little  right  direction  of  what  is  often  misspent  energy.  Our 
boys  may  have  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,  but  there  is 
a  vast  amount  of  latent  energy  again  asserted  after  the  bothy  tea. 
There  can  be  but  little  objection  to  a  boy  riding  a  hobby  if  it  does 
not  run  away  with  him  from  his  course  in  life  ;  yet  this  sometimes 
appears  to  be  imminent,  for  there  are  instances  in  which  the  pluck 
and  perseverance  shown  ii  worthy  of  a  better  cause.  The  hou’'a 
and  hours  that  one  lad  consumed  with  a  wheezy  concertina  niuet 
have  amounted  to  weeks  in  the  aggregate,  but  he  managed  it — 
