INTRODUCTION
How often it is that Fate places us amongst people whose characters, pursuits, and tastes we do not know! We hesitate how best to melt that barrier of icy reserve and shyness behind which we English remain frozen. How can we speedily break through the reserve which rises up between us and the stranger near us? There is at least one subject of conversation which usually calls forth a response—it is gardening.
Whether our neighbour be politician, soldier, architect, or painter, he will surely listen with interest to the mention of a garden. He will tell us of some newly-discovered plant, a flower show that he went to see, or he will expatiate upon the beauties of South African bulbs. We may be sure that if he himself is no gardener, he has someone dear to him who is a lover of flowers. After a hard day’s work in the City, he will gladly turn his thoughts to the peace and quiet of a walled-in country garden, where the hum of bees and the scent of sweet briar or rosemary bring happiness and contentment.
It is the same with country people, who live in our quiet English villages that are as yet unspoilt by the dust of motors and the noise of holiday-makers. A little chat over the garden wall in the cool of evening, about the luxuriant growth of the peas, the beauty of madonna lilies gleaming white against the dark timber of the cottage, or the special size of this year’s roses, will often make a lasting friendship. No make-believe pastime is gardening with them; it is their true recreation. Their lives have been passed amidst fields, trees, beautiful hedgerows, and consequently they look upon these objects as friends. Surely this love of Nature is wholesome both to body and mind, and greatly to be encouraged by all who wish for the well-being of England and her Colonies.
Are we not shown the vast importance of keeping our rural population away from towns? Do we not thus endeavour with every means in our power to improve the cultivation of our land? County Council lectures, flower shows, cottage-garden competitions, Nature-study courses, training colleges are provided for this purpose. But, perhaps, the surest way of all is to make our boys and girls fond of bee-keeping, fruit growing, gardening and all other industries of country life. It is with them that future success lies, and by teaching them to tend small gardens of their own, and compete for prizes in tidiness and artistic arrangement of flower plots, we shall continue a love for the country in future generations. To keep them away from the gloom, squalor, and temptations of large towns is what we all wish to achieve. Well-tilled, wisely-worked farms, orchards, gardens, bring us prosperity; but we gain a love of Nature, too, from contact with such things. This must soften people. It brings us nearer God.
“A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Ferned grot—
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not—
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
’Tis very sure God walks in mine.”[1]
[1] From “My Garden,” one of the collected poems of T. E. Brown. By kind permission of Messrs. Macmillan and Co.
It is not alone amongst our village people that we hope for steady development in the cultivation of our soil. They unconsciously assimilate much from what they see carried out in the vicarage garden, the manor-house orchard, and the large park. These must set the example both in tidiness, artistic arrangement, and well-grown produce. Education in taste, as well as scientific knowledge, is required for the heads of these gardens. We know that in Japan gardening and flower arrangement have attained wonderful perfection. There it is necessary to learn for seven years before a requisite amount of skill is acquired. Not only are artistic effects studied, but flowers are used as modes of expression. Different colours and combinations convey distinct meanings.
Surely we Western races should also look upon a garden as of the same artistic value as a beautiful picture, or a many-coloured, skilfully wrought piece of embroidery? In short, so ancient a craft should be as intelligently and carefully studied as any Fine Art. A garden is a living picture. The painter having found a subject, studies each detail. Surroundings, background, the position it should occupy upon the canvas, what portion is to be accurately depicted, which objects are to be omitted or only faintly indicated: all these points are considered before he takes up his brush. A gardener must do likewise. Sometimes, when ground is not yet laid out, he must do more. He then has to think some years ahead and imagine what this bare piece of meadow will be when plants have grown in it. The lay of the land, the character of the soil, the relation of the house with the garden—all have to be weighed before planting is commenced. Therefore, our gardeners must be artists as well as successful cultivators of plants.
True gardening gives scope for much sympathy and feeling. There is a soft repose in grey and pale pink. An arbour with such colouring invites thoughtfulness, quiet contemplation; whereas orange or bright yellow may, in some sad moments, be obtrusive, or jar upon our feelings. A brilliant bed of scarlet poppies, if put in the right natural surroundings, are gay with joie de vivre, whilst gentle pansies appear to look with melting human kindness as they raise their little faces appealingly towards us. Good effects have been gained by planting large, bold clumps of Pampas grass in empty spaces. The situation must be very carefully selected or it is apt to strike a discord. In the solemn graveyard it soothes; the waving plumes seem to bow down in sympathy with the mourners.
A real artist gardener not only has aptitude for placing right lines, and forming rich, telling colour effects, but he also understands the personality of flowers, the sentiments of colours and scent. A painter’s instinct tells him where the varied colours of a mixed border are allowable, and how elsewhere a touch of strong, brilliant colour is wanted to lead again to a shaded path of mystery.
In order to successfully accomplish this Fine Art gardening, which we in England are now ambitious to have, artistic, well-educated, refined head gardeners are needed. From our Colonies, too, comes a cry for skilled and well-instructed “heads.” There they have plenty of hands to do mechanical work, numbers of “coolies” to do menial jobs, but they want more intelligent directors and guides to industry. Again, in our schools, we require for the children those who sympathise with school garden work and Nature-study.
These, then, are the ambitions of lady gardeners. They do not wish to supplant able, clever men head-gardeners, nor even to compete with them. They do desire, however, to assist as far as their strength allows, by lending intelligence, good taste, refinement, towards securing better cultivation of our great country. What they lack in physical strength they endeavour to compensate by other equally important, yet softer, womanly qualities.
This book has two objects in view. It hopes, by means of practical advice—in fact, by some it may be considered somewhat Spartan counsel—to draw attention to what is required of lady gardeners. The other aim is to show employers what would be gained by appointing them; at the same time to disarm any mistaken illusion which may have arisen that ladies wish to supplant men gardeners. They merely intend to supplement and increase the good work which men are doing for our land.
GARDENING FOR WOMEN
Part I
CHAPTER I
GARDENING AS A PROFESSION FOR WOMEN
Daughters of many professional men are obliged to earn a living. It often happens that the head of the family, after years of hard work, has to retire owing either to illness or age. His pension is a small one, and it becomes necessary for his daughters, as well as his sons, to make a career for themselves. They have been accustomed, perhaps, to a comfortable home, with a considerable number of luxuries, and the question as to the best method of earning a living must necessarily be a difficult one. In this connection it is, I hope, pardonable to quote a passage from Mrs. Creighton’s recent article upon women’s education, which created great interest among those concerned with the welfare of young women. She wrote:—“It is tolerably well agreed what men should be; but social conditions which produce a preponderance of the female population and make it impossible for some women, however much they may desire it, to be married, are inconvenient and disturbing to the views of most men.
“The existence of women who, whether they like it or not, are bound to work for their livelihood, is, as a rule, only unwillingly recognised as an exception; the existence of women who claim to have a life of their own is still more upsetting to all ideas of a well-constituted universe.”
A somewhat mistaken idea is sometimes held that women who are obliged to follow a definite career are less likely to marry than their sisters who remain at home in quiet surroundings. It is often found, however, that of the daughters, say, of a country clergyman living in some remote corner of England, it is those out in the world as secretaries, companions, or gardeners who do marry. Not only has a wider sphere of life brought them friends, but their knowledge of the world has taught them how to keep them. They have larger interests, broader views, and are therefore happier than their sisters, who remain at home in village surroundings. They should, too, be better helpmates to men leading active lives. If they are sensible, wise, good women, they should not lose by contact with people of different types any of that gentleness and softness which are the chief attractions of a woman.
The choice of a career depends largely upon the character and bringing up of a girl. Unless she is fond of out-of-door life, however, she must not think of becoming a gardener, and she will probably find that her parents look somewhat critically upon this profession. They have an uncomfortable feeling that the head of a private garden is only a kind of servant, and in market, jobbing, or landscape gardening they see a life of constant digging and delving; a struggle to compete with the strength of a working man. The disadvantages—many days of rain and wind, early rising, disagreeable menial jobs—all assume larger proportions to them than the benefits that are to be derived. Parents are perfectly right to point out all these drawbacks to their daughter. They should be fully realised and weighed before she embarks upon such a career. Professional gardening is no child’s play. It means at least three years of diligent study and hard work before any considerable remuneration can be sought.
Let the girl who is leaving college carefully view all sides of the question, and, above all, let her wait until she is twenty before she takes any decisive step. Having reached years of discretion, and being full grown and strong in health, the advantages of a gardener’s life will probably attract her. If, during her childhood, she has had the care of a plot of ground in the home garden, or has had bees or poultry under her charge, it will be pain and grief to her to leave these pursuits and live in the confinement of a town. The thought of a stuffy London typewriting office, and the long, dark evenings in cheap lodgings, will be repulsive to her. She will miss the wide, open stretches of sky, the coming and going of the seasons. How she will long for a sight of cowslips in the meadows and the fresh, sweet scent of gorse. Perhaps, if she is a governess or companion, she may live in the country and have all these pleasures, but will she fully relish them if she has no freedom? Her evenings may possibly not be her own, and during the day, too, she will have to accommodate her wishes to those of others. The well-known lines of Richard Jefferies will constantly recur to her, and she will see the wisdom of them. “Let us be always out of doors among trees and grass and rain and wind and sun. Let us get out of these indoor, narrow, modern days, whose twelve hours somehow have become shortened, into the sunlight and the pure wind. A something that the ancients called divine can be found and felt there still.”
THE “WALLED GARDEN” AT THE HOUSE OF F.M. VISCOUNT WOLSELEY, K.P.
THE ROSES WERE PLANTED AND PRUNED BY THE LADY GARDENERS.
Photograph by Pictorial Agency.
The profession of gardening offers a considerable amount of freedom, the refining influence of poetry and beauty, contact with intelligent, interesting people, and health and happiness to body and mind. These, to an active, out-of-door, young woman are very great advantages. Then, too, there are different branches of the profession, so that a selection is possible as to which best suits her talents. Should she be fond of teaching, she can hold classes in Nature Study or botany; if she has taste and talent for drawing, she can take up landscape gardening. With a small amount of capital to invest, she may start a market garden, with every prospect of success.
There are, too, the higher branches of horticulture, such as the treatment of rare greenhouse plants, hybridisation, cross-fertilisation, and the handling of orchids. All these intensely interesting, intellectual matters require such dainty skill, so much thought, that there is no doubt whatever they are suited to ladies. Many who practise in these branches employ women to execute the minute operations that are so often entailed, because their light touch is better adapted to the purpose than the heavy hand of a man. Few women have up to the present studied long enough to surpass men in these matters, but there is a certain future for them in such work if they persevere in study.
It must be borne in mind that horticulture is still a comparatively new profession for women, and that unless those who enter it strive to give full time and application to learning its details they cannot hope to be successful. Some few failures have occurred already, much to the regret of all keenly interested onlookers. These have been caused by anxiety to earn something before proficient knowledge had been acquired. It is the same, I believe, in all new professions; and it is only now, after many years of striving, that women have attained success as sick nurses, secretaries, and teachers. The first who went into the arena made mistakes, and possibly paved the way for their successors, who noted the causes of failure, and mended their ways. Let us hope that this will be the case in horticulture, for there is no reason why women should not succeed in it. Moreover, we have already some brilliant examples of success. Those who are thinking of taking it up should spare no pains to gain a complete education, for only then, when they are themselves worth something, can they expect remuneration.
CHAPTER II
THE TRAINING REQUIRED
There are various ways of obtaining the necessary training to be a lady gardener. Both at home and abroad numerous colleges and schools exist where young women are well instructed in all branches of Horticulture. A college course is necessary, but if a girl is not more than twenty years of age (and it is advisable that she should not be much younger when she commences her training) it will help her to be apprenticed for a year or two first in a private garden. Should she prefer, it will be better still to spend two years at a small school where instruction is more individual and personal than in a large college. Here the students are few in number, and carefully selected, and it is possible to learn in the same way that the working man learned, when he began as a garden boy. The pupil will be ordered to do menial jobs, such as turning manure, wheeling refuse, sweeping leaves, or mowing a lawn. This comparative drudgery must be gone through in order to understand how to direct others. Even wheeling a barrow full of soil and washing out pots is interesting if the heart be in the profession and there is the wish to succeed.
In a private garden or small school, too, it will be possible to follow the ultimate use the pots are put to, after they are washed, and the reason for each operation will be more easily made apparent than is the case in a large college, where lectures and theoretical classes are sometimes put before practice. When there is a large number of students, too, it is impossible that all should take part in each operation. Personal interest in the garden is apt to be lost sight of, and teaching becomes a “demonstration,” where the expert does the work, and the students look on. They cannot thus learn in the only thorough way, by working themselves.
In a college course, hours are often suited to the requirements of expert lecturers, and students are apt to ignore the fixed hours of work observed in a private garden. I have known students to whom it never occurred that it might not be agreeable to the family to hear the sound of raking on a gravel path outside the breakfast room, and who were unconscious of its being an offence against garden etiquette for them to shout remarks to fellow students across the flower beds. Then, too, fixed school holidays, which are necessary in large communities, sometimes interfere with the possibility of seeing certain operations performed.
I therefore strongly advocate a course of manual work, like that of the garden boy, as an introduction to more serious training. This routine work will enable the pupil to understand college lectures, when the time comes to attend them. Theoretic teaching can then be applied to the treatment of soil and plants.
Not possessed of the strength and facility for manual work of a man, the girl student must make up for this deficiency by intelligent reasoning. She should follow closely in the footsteps of science, and have a reason for each operation. What is heard in the chemistry laboratory has to be applied in practice in the garden. When the dismal herbaceous border, upon which so much money has been spent, is seen, the cause of failure will be known. After all the talk, trouble and expense, why does it lack colour? Surely some ingredient in the soil is missing—dress it with lime, put more manure or leaf mould, as the case may be.
I believe that some people imagine that a lady gardener is intended always to remain at work amongst the swept-up leaves and garden refuse! But if her intelligence is not sufficient to make her soar speedily beyond the powers of a £1 a week man gardener, she had better take up other work, for she certainly cannot compete with him in physical strength.
A course of study for two or three years, such as I have described, is certainly not too lengthy. Each plant, shrub, tree, goes through the same phases once in each year. Although these processes are repeated year after year, they may be subjected to variations of weather and temperature. Different treatment is probably necessary each year. Time only can show this. Books teach much and so also do lectures, but only when supplemented by practical experience, will they make a competent gardener.
The intending girl-gardener should make up her mind from the beginning that she must spend money on a three years’ course of training. It should be taken in the way that best suits the individual case; there need never be regret for the money spent upon it. It is only by skill and knowledge that employment will eventually be secured.
Therefore the beginner should do some practical work in a garden, and cram botany, chemistry, and physics into her head. When she has a free day, or if other opportunity occurs, visits should be made to other gardens. Then it will be possible to learn the names and habits of new plants, and, by studying a different treatment of them, the powers of observation will be increased.
After college training an effort should be made to get a subordinate paid post, for whatever branch of Horticulture it is decided to specialise in. No attempt should be made to superintend a large garden until, as they say of children, the student has learned “to feel her feet.”
I propose to give a short account of the different branches available from which a selection can be made. It will be convenient to divide them into two classes:—
A. Which require training and education only:—
I.—Landscape Gardening.
II.—Jobbing Gardening.
III.—Head gardener in a private garden.
B. Which requires capital as well as training and education:—
Market Gardening.
CHAPTER III
LANDSCAPE GARDENING
This wide field of study is one which women are well suited to, provided they have brains and good taste. In order to be really successful, imagination is required, as well as other qualities that are needed by an ordinary head gardener. No amount of study or training can adapt an inartistic woman to this profession, but given artistic feeling, the power of conveying her ideas to her employers and to those working for her, great possibilities are within reach. Many fail, perhaps, by a headstrong desire to carry out their own plans; they do not regard sufficiently the views and wishes of those for whom they work. A considerable amount of tact is necessary, in order to obtain the confidence of the owner of the garden. Having ascertained his requirements, and made these the centre of the scheme, the woman-gardener’s imagination should help to fill in all details.
MODEL BY MISS A. C. SEWELL OF A CHILDREN’S GARDEN, EXHIBITED AT THE WHITECHAPEL COUNTRY IN TOWN EXHIBITION.
ILLUSTRATION OF WHAT CAN BE SHOWN OF A GARDEN BY MEANS OF A MODEL.
Photograph by Clarke and Hyde.
I assume that the candidate for such a position has had a good general education, and is well grounded in botany and botanical geography. It is necessary that she should be able to draw, and a knowledge of simple plane geometry and geometrical drawing is essential. She must be able to make a sketch plan showing the proposed alterations with their measurements. In some cases, where the employer is not himself a draughtsman or does not read a ground plan easily, the lady gardener may find it useful to have recourse to a different system for conveying her meaning to him.
I have seen a rough model made in cardboard to represent the house, and real soil used to surround it, with little twigs placed here and there in imitation of trees or hedges. This is a somewhat childish means of experimenting upon future alterations, but in cases where the owner is undecided or unable completely to grasp the effect which will be attained by moving soil, or planting trees, the model may be exceedingly useful. The soil can be so easily shifted from side to side with the hands, a tree planted here, a dividing hedge placed there, until the desired effect is attained. Then, too, it may convey well to the contractor (who possibly undertakes the whole alteration) the exact amount of labour that he will have to expend.
Another way of conveying ideas for proposed alterations is by means of a “prophetic drawing.” That is to say, if a rose arbour is to be made, a sketch, with finished details of what it should look like two years hence, when the roses have climbed to the summit of the pergola, may influence the owner in his decision to put the matter in hand. It is important that all these methods of conveying intentions should be studied.
A slight acquaintance with geology will be useful in forming rock work. Most of these subjects, together with surveying, can be learnt at a Municipal School, but the more thoroughly they are acquired the better.
Methodical habits are essential. So many women, compelled to earn a living, fail in this. They do not note expenses carefully; they are not business-like in rendering an account of wages paid out; and they do not trouble to obtain estimates of work to be done. The education of women is much at fault in these respects, but certainly, until this lack of business qualities is replaced by methodical ways, we shall be considered the reverse of helpful.
It will greatly assist the young gardener if visits are paid to many gardens, both private ones as well as market gardens. Small cottage gardens or wayside hedgerows should not be despised; much can be learnt by looking at both. The plants that are natural to the climate and soil are at once detected in this way, and knowledge is obtained as to what will most speedily lend itself to an effect of foliage or colour. Often, the chance arrangement of a large mass of gypsophila with bright coloured nasturtiums interwoven with its feathery flowers, or pansies springing up between an old paved path, may give ideas for a large garden. The “Traveller’s Joy,” and blackberries, that grow so rampantly on chalk, will make a pergola look clothed before a rarer plant could grow three feet up it.
If possible, a trip abroad should be taken; it would give fresh ideas, if the fields of mauve autumn crocuses in France, or the terraces and vineyards of Italy, could be seen. There are so many different ways of building pergolas, training creepers, and tying vines to posts. If we adopt some of these foreign styles in England it gives a touch of Italy to our tame English gardens. Copious notes should be made of all that is seen, and the knowledge thus acquired can be readily applied to designs for gardens here.
All books on landscape gardening, new and old, must be studied; many old-fashioned plans of mazes and beds can so easily be used or adapted to modern grounds, and with some knowledge of architecture, it will be easy to place the right design near a house.
All gardens must be chiefly considered with a view to improving the appearance of the house. This must be the starting point and first consideration. Planting specimen trees and lovely plants is of secondary moment. No school or college can teach good taste; some people will learn it instinctively, others will never acquire it. With constant observation and copious notes, artistic feeling in gardening may certainly be increased. It will be helpful to know the habits, mode of growth, etc., of trees, shrubs, and garden plants. Their time of flowering, and appearance, are more important matters for consideration than the actual ability to grow them. A head gardener can cultivate them, when the broad effects of colour have been planned and decided upon.
As much knowledge as possible must be gained concerning soils, manures, road making, draining, pond making, levelling, embanking, and there must be the ability roughly to calculate the cost of such operations. By apprenticeship, or by going to watch someone who is making large and extensive alterations, much can be learnt. Facility is acquired in estimating the time that is taken in carting soil, or loading manure, by watching a large staff of men at work; experience can thus be gained as to the best method to map out work. It is so essential to save labour and untidiness. A job that has to be done twice over is distressing to all concerned. The organisation of work can only be arrived at by planning out each detail beforehand, and orders can at once be given as to where the excavated soil is to be placed so that it may, at a future time, be handy for a further development of the plan.
We are considering this branch of gardening as one that may be gone in for without capital. When the training is completed it will be best to advertise for work. The terms for paying a preliminary visit and giving general advice should be stated. After this, should an understanding with an employer be arrived at, the further charges will depend upon the way in which the work has to be carried out. Perhaps it may only be necessary to pay an occasional visit to the scene of operations and see how the head gardener is executing his orders. In this case a guinea or more a visit would be the remuneration. It may answer the purpose better to obtain the services of a local contractor, and having explained the whole plan carefully to him, let him quote a price for the fulfilment of the contract. The fees would then be so much per cent. upon the total.
Under all circumstances it will be necessary to deal tactfully with the men who do the work. The ideal way of carrying out landscape gardening would be to have a staff of permanent workmen, who would accompany the landscape gardener to the various gardens, and carry out her directions. How much more quickly things would often go, if she had her own men to rely upon. As this, however, means capital, it should not be considered here, and stress can only be laid upon the necessity for making orders concise and clear, and studying the characters of the various workpeople, so as to succeed in obtaining the largest value possible out of their services. The power of interesting them in their work is a useful adjunct. Often a friendly word, or placing some slight responsibility upon a workman, will double the amount he tries to do.
At first it will be difficult to obtain work. Any successful plans that are carried out gratis for friends are sure to lead to further employment, and each good thing achieved will bring other opportunities. Should there still be time on hand, perhaps an architect may be found who is willing to secure the help of a well-trained garden designer.
No fixed rules for obtaining employment can be laid down. Ambition and keen desire to get on will steer best to the right channel for seeking work. Several municipal authorities are willing to employ women as landscape gardeners. Should it be possible for women to make a success of private garden designs, it would surely help towards their appointment to larger spheres of landscape garden work. The laying out of parks, squares, and garden cities could be handed over to them, and what a large source of interest this would be.
It is unfortunate that we in England attach so little importance to the study of forestry. In none of our agricultural colleges is it taught in the same thorough way as in Germany. A great future might be open to a lady who studied this subject. It might be possible to induce a consulting forester in England, Scotland, or, better still, in Germany, to take a pupil. This subject, if fully mastered, would be of the greatest use in carrying out large alterations in public parks or private grounds.
To any lady with a love of nature, the possession of taste, and possibly the wish to improve and add to the beauty of our English country homes, this branch of gardening will greatly appeal. What a pleasurable sensation it is to see a lovely picture growing daily more like the plan that was roughly sketched out. How satisfactory to watch the building up of that stately terrace beneath the house, which puts the finishing touch to the beauty of the building itself. Without a terrace, the house would appear insignificant and poor—now it seems to have grown in dignity and stateliness. What pleasant days, too, can be spent in noting the happy results of garden-making, such as we see in the great yew trees of Levens, the grand Avenues of Le Nôtre, at Versailles, or the clever grouping of trees in many an English park. Here we, who come some two hundred years after, reap the full benefit of what then had the appearance only of a flat field dotted with stiff little baby trees. We can follow the old plans and ideas, but by using quicker growing materials it is possible to develop a picture under our eyes.
THE HANGING GARDENS, RATTON PARK, SUSSEX.
LAID OUT BY THE HON. MRS. FREEMAN-THOMAS.
Photograph by Pictorial Agency.
CHAPTER IV
JOBBING GARDENING AND FLORAL DECORATION
Often, as we drive through London suburbs, we see remains of some former stately Georgian house. Perhaps, a hundred and fifty years ago, when it was built, it stood isolated, with only a quiet country village near by. In the gardens were hedges of rosemary and lavender, fruitful pear trees were trained upon high walls, a slender little lady in a flowered brocade made sweet pot pourri with pink rose leaves. All that now remains of the garden is a small Adams summer house, built up into the wall, having a quaint shaped Dutch roof. A charming outlook it was when “My Lady” watched for “My Lord” riding home from London. All that now brings to us a touch of romance is the undisturbed yew hedge and a few box-edged formal beds. The garden has been divided off into villa plots.
Everywhere these villas spring up. We see long roads of them in each suburb; in seaside towns, watering places, and golfing centres we find them too. Each house has a garden, which is not necessarily large enough to supply the family with vegetables, but usually a small, level lawn is contrived for tennis or croquet; and a small portion near the road is kept gay with flowers. It is amusing, as we walk along, to compare taste in gardening at Clarence House with that displayed next door at Highclere Villa; to note how preferable is the natural arrangement of well-grown tea-roses in one, to the star-shaped beds of stiff geraniums in another.
Who looks after these small gardens? Often an uneducated working man, whose chief idea is to keep them tidy. This is commendable, but tidiness is not the only pleasurable feature of a garden. To plan successful combinations of colour really brings happiness, to have means of tending little bits of tender, precious plants, gifts of friends, is what contents us. It would help many owners of such gardens to hand them over to the care of a lady. The size of the piece of ground is not too much for her to look after, the work is not arduous. In fact, she can limit her work to a given number of days a week, or even half days.
This kind of jobbing gardening, although well paid, would only content those who are obliged to live at home and require some light garden work, after their course of training is completed. It is remunerative, very little responsibility is entailed, and, to a certain extent, it is possible to combine it with home duties. The interest of it need not be restricted to the actual manual labour of mowing and rolling the small lawn and planting out seedlings. A small greenhouse is perhaps attached, and pleasant social intercourse may be had, if the owner is also interested in gardening.
To those who are ambitious for a wider scope to their capacity, this kind of jobbing gardening will be insufficient. If they have a little capital and some experience, it will well repay them to start a small nursery garden and not only supply labour for these villa gardens, but also sell plants to them. Some business capacity is necessary, but if, in addition, strong, healthy plants are raised, there is no limit to the possibilities of such a business. Should friends combine in such an undertaking, it can be worked without assistance from working men. If, however, as is very likely to occur, the staff of lady assistants is called upon to give advice in laying out small gardens, arranging plants in window boxes, decorating rooms for concerts, dances, etc., men would have to be employed to do the heavy work. The planning, organising, and directing is what ladies should excel in.
By procuring large instalments of bulbs, raising quantities of perennials from seed, keeping up a plentiful supply of bedding-out plants on their own land, a satisfactory effect can be produced in many villa gardens at comparatively small cost. For a fixed sum per annum the jobbing gardener could undertake to keep in good order, plant and tend all in each small garden. It is easily estimated that this kind of work becomes, after the first outlay, exceedingly remunerative and interesting. There is employment for old and young, strong and delicate; a happy combination of interests and tastes is what should perhaps be most sought for by the staff of ladies in such an enterprise. Secretarial work, planning tempting price lists, would fall to the lot of one, whilst landscape gardening would belong to another.
In all branches of horticulture the remuneration to be obtained by a lady should not be less than that earned by a man. She is indeed entitled to receive even more than a man head gardener, as compensation for her superior taste and good education. The particulars which I am able to give of Mrs. Chamberlain’s work on p. 257 show how large a sphere can be covered by jobbing gardening, and in Miss Agar’s account (p. 253) will be found particulars of the remuneration that can be usually claimed by a lady expert.
Floral decoration may be combined with jobbing gardening, or it may be undertaken apart from any other interests.
All will agree that the work of arranging flowers is undoubtedly suited to ladies. It needs good taste, an eye for colour, lightness of touch and great patience. These qualities are possessed by most young gentlewomen, but if they are not natural to them, practice will, as a rule, teach sufficient for the execution of the mechanical part of the work. The preliminary stage of training is perhaps least tempting, for it involves long, tiring hours, spent in a hot, unrestful florist’s shop. It will be found best to serve an apprenticeship in this way for some months. Possibly the people met there are not very obliging or polished; often work has to be done under extreme pressure, as many orders have to be ready at the same moment, and the freshness of flowers has to be greatly considered. Bouquets, dinner-tables, all have to be postponed until the last safe moment. Consequently there remains but little time for enjoyment of completed work, and there is very scant appreciation. Work which has to be hurried is seldom pleasing. Being chiefly mechanical, however, it rapidly becomes easier to carry out the different orders, and then real enjoyment begins. The business becomes interesting to the novice when she is sufficiently trusted to exert her imagination, and make suggestions as to blending different flowers and foliage. From the moment when she comes into contact with those who give the order, that best incentive, personal interest, is aroused. As in the case of jobbing gardening, it is possible for a girl to live at home and yet have floral decoration as a daytime interest. This, too, is a saving.
The premium for acquiring experience is a heavy one. It varies according to the position and reputation of the florist’s shop, but it is never less than £15, and it often reaches £50. During the first year it is not usual to obtain a salary. There are exceptions to this rule, as will be seen on p. 257, in the account of the Women’s Gardening Association.
Only those who have tried it know what tiring work flower arrangement is, and only strong, able-bodied girls should contemplate such a profession. Success, as in all undertakings, comes after long perseverance and patience. The ideal method of carrying on this business is to have a nursery garden and raise suitable flowers in it to supply one’s own shop. It is then merely necessary to superintend, and give general ideas as to arrangement.
With thorough business habits and very good taste, there is no saying what sum might not be realised by a woman in this direction. Like millinery or dressmaking, it needs a combination of qualities, and is essentially a woman’s art.
CHAPTER V
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY
When, at Christmas time, we search the shelves of a London book shop, to find fresh “Golliwog” adventures or new fairy tales, are we not struck by the importance given to another class of child’s book? “The Fairchild Family,” “Struwelpeter,” Hans Andersen’s tales, books that we were brought up upon, are superseded by a totally new kind. Anything relating to living things, birds, mammals, plants, wild flowers, fruit, is what we now give our children. In short, nature-study, and everything connected with it, is the fashion. It forms not only an important part of education, but it also is recreation. Possibly we encourage it as a reversion from over-much science and book-learning, which is apt to produce a somewhat unhealthy, overstrained, nervous condition. The philosophy of the “Simple Life,” which is preached so much, is a reaction from these abnormal conditions to the natural, healthy order of existence.
Up to now, we stand only upon the threshold of these new ideas, we hardly realise the wealth and meaning of this new philosophy. We only know that a still greater use is in store for it, and that, through it, greater happiness will ensue for us. The right application of nature study and all that it embraces, to the education of children, is one of the most important developments of our day. All those who are ambitious for the prosperity of our future England should give very careful consideration to these matters. More and more we learn that the first endeavour of a school is to teach people to live. This new study tends to connect school teaching with life at home. By means of such schooling, our children acquire from earliest days habits of observation. They appreciate all wonders and beauties of natural objects around them. Lovely wild flowers on our downs, many grasses in our meadows, clouds, stars, all become real friends.
Obs:
the wild clematis.
Ther: reg. 70½°.
July 12th
Obs: smut on oats.
It is a small black
powdery fungus.
Bar: reg: 30-1/20°
Ther: „ : 68°.
July 13th
Obs a chrysalis of the horse bot fly.
Obs evening primrose in a hedge.
Bar: reg: 30-1/20°.
Ther: 91°s
74sh
A PAGE FROM A BOY’S NATURE STUDY SKETCH-BOOK.
A PUPIL OF MR. J. P. WILLIAMS. HURSTPIERPOINT, SUSSEX.
(See opposite Plate.)
Love of nature, which familiarity with her beauty breeds, is not only wholesome for children of the upper classes. It is good for them, but more especially do we need an increase of such knowledge amongst the poor little waifs and strays of our great cities and towns, who have so few bright moments in their dull grey lives. If these nature study classes can help them, should we not do our utmost to encourage more ladies to take up this form of study in order to impart it to them with sympathy?
Wild Clematis
Smut on Oats
Stag Beetle.
A PAGE FROM A BOY’S NATURE STUDY SKETCH-BOOK.
A PUPIL OF MR. J. P. WILLIAMS, of HURSTPIERPOINT, SUSSEX.
Then, too, in our country villages, is it not wise to foster in young people a love of everything connected with country life? Will it not help largely to induce them to remain on the land and not migrate to the hardships and squalor of crowded towns?
The two chief aims of education are to draw out individuality and personality. This is certainly accomplished with success when we see representations as are shown herewith from a child’s nature study diary.
We in England are sadly behind Germany and America in this branch of education. It is only a short time ago that children in our schools were encouraged to bring objects from out-of-doors into the schoolroom for examination. They were asked to make collections of lichen, ferns, or wild fruits; and what charming devices one has seen, wrought by ingenuity out of all these lovely things. Now, however, we have made a decided stride, for by means of school gardens, which gradually replace the dreary bit of asphalt playground, we go out to seek objects in their natural surroundings. Soon, teachers in our elementary schools, possessing the Froebel and kindergarten certificate and a Government teacher’s certificate, will doubtless be fired with ambition; will vie with each other in improving upon this system of education. We shall have others following the example of the late Miss Lucy R. Latter. She it was who did such good work in this respect as head infants’ mistress of the Invicta Road Council School, Westcombe Park. Having carefully studied the question in Italy, France, and the United States, she was given a commission by the Government of the Maharajah to start school gardens in connection with the public school system of Mysore. Teachers were prepared by her to carry on the work; and let us hope that, although gloom has been cast by her sudden death, they will yet have been inspired by her to continue their efforts.
There is no doubt that the school garden successfully developed is the pivot round which nature-study revolves, and as time goes on it will be seen more and more that gardening and nature-study have much in common. Those ladies who have talent for teaching, and have been through a course of gardening, will find many openings for work. A garden, although artificial, is far less so than a schoolroom, and it combines scope for general education, quite apart from mere manual horticultural teaching.
I am informed by one of the greatest authorities upon this subject that science mistresses do not exist in sufficient numbers to supply the demand for them. In this country it is a great recommendation for a woman to be able to teach nature-study, and there is no difficulty in the way of a post being obtained by one who possesses knowledge and who can impart it. As new training colleges and secondary girls’ schools are instituted, the demand will become greater, and it is in the realms of possibility that there may be women teachers of nature-study wanted in South Africa and in India, though Canada and Australia are capable of supplying all the teachers they want themselves.
Those who are interested in this subject will do well to read the Notes in the Swanley College and other reports in the second part of this volume.
CHAPTER VI
SOME HINTS UPON TAKING UP A POST AS HEAD GARDENER
I assume that a candidate for a position as head gardener has been through a two years’ course of study at one of the Horticultural Colleges or at a school, and has been under-gardener for a year or more in a private garden. No doubt she has learnt how to grow flowers, vegetables, and fruit, but it is possible that she does not know much about the routine work which she will now have to superintend. As principal of the Glynde School for Lady Gardeners, I have had to study this subject, and the following notes, some of which are compiled with the help of a former superintendent, Miss J. S. Turner, are offered for use.
A lady gardener is still somewhat of an experiment to owners of gardens, and, therefore, each one who takes up the work is, in a sense, the pioneer of a new profession for women; it rests with her to make or mar the success of future lady gardeners. If she is a failure, or does not give satisfaction, it may prevent other employers from engaging lady gardeners. This should not, however, be allowed to discourage or intimidate an applicant for such a post. There is no doubt that a lady, with superior education, tact and taste, should succeed where many men have failed. It must be borne in mind that the employer’s pleasure has to be studied, and that the men will have to be managed with firmness and strict fairness. Where these points are carried out intelligently, the success of an intensely interesting career is fairly secured.
If possible, it is advisable that the duties should commence at Michaelmas, which is the beginning of the agricultural and horticultural year. If a start is made in the spring, most of the praise or blame that ensues during the remainder of the horticultural year belongs by right to the previous gardener.
Autumn and winter are the seasons for laying a good foundation, for forming plans, and cleaning up. “Well begun is half done,” but it is more than “half done” in gardening. Unless the winter foundation is correctly laid, the summer superstructure will be wrong, or there is a chance of there being no structure at all.
The first thing for a lady “head” to do is to have a good look round. She must see what crops are still on the ground, what preparation has been made for winter and spring crops, and the state the houses and frames are in. Everything under her care must be clean and in good order.
Her aim is to fulfil all requirements of the family which she serves, and, in order to succeed, she must ascertain their wants. These vary with each family, and it is not possible to lay down any fixed rules. Many questions that will need answering should be noted down, and an interview should be requested of the lady of the house, or whoever is most interested in the garden.
I will only draw attention to a few points which need consideration, and these can either be decided by the gardener herself, should she be given a free hand, or settled by the employer.
(1) The hours of work and holidays for the garden staff. Arrangements should be made also for power to dismiss any subordinate who is lazy or misbehaves; and this should be acted upon without hesitation upon the first proof of neglect.
(2) The payment of men, and the number of extra ones allowed for additional work. In large gardens, this matter comes under the estate department, but in small gardens the head gardener deals with it.
THE COUNTESS BATHURST’S GARDEN, PINBURY, NEAR CIRENCESTER
Photograph by Pictorial Agency.
(3) The days and hours that will be most convenient for the despatch of routine work, such as mowing, tidying, etc. Some ladies have weekend parties, and require the place to look especially neat on Sundays. There may be small but necessary rules about sweeping and tidying the carriage drive, cleaning and washing garden steps or benches, the position of seats, tents, croquet hoops, marking tennis courts, etc. The employer’s wishes should be ascertained, orders given accordingly, and it should be seen that these are carried out.
(4) The days and hours for picking flowers for the house. If it is the gardener’s duty to arrange the cut flowers, this must be gone into carefully, as it is probably one of the most important matters in the eyes of the lady of the house. Should the family be in London, there will be fixed days for sending flowers, vegetables, and fruit to them; all these matters have to be carefully noted. The amount of green foliage required for mixing with cut flowers also varies with different people’s taste. It must be ascertained whether many pot plants are required in the sitting-rooms, or if cut flowers are chiefly used; and if so, which are the favourite kinds and colours. It will then be easy to decide which plot of ground should be used as a reserve garden for cut flowers, and what proportion of mignonette, violets, lilies of the valley, etc., will be needed for decoration.
(5) Another matter, which only the lady of the house can decide, will be the arrangements for bedding out, or the grouping and colouring required for herbaceous borders. If she has taste, and is artistic, it is necessary only to carry out her plans. Possibly she may leave the matter to the gardener; in which case visits should be made to a few neighbouring gardens to ascertain what plants and climbers are best suited to the climate and soil. Having put the plans on paper, an estimate can be formed of the quantity of bulbs, plants, shrubs, or climbers required for the whole garden. The autumn is the best time to order these. There remains then a further point upon which advice should be asked.
(6) The ordering of seeds, plants, tools, and garden requisites may be in the gardener’s department, or it may be managed by the estate. In any case, it will be a good plan to touch upon these matters to the employer. Unimportant as they may appear, it is wise for him to deal with local tradesmen, and, therefore, a stranger to the neighbourhood will have to learn their names, and what things they each excel in. The carting of purchases from the station to the garden is a matter for careful consideration. Should this be done by the estate, it must be borne in mind that, when the yearly accounts are sent in, the estate will wish to appear economical as regards its own requirements, and if the gardener is not on good terms with the agent or bailiff, it is possible that the total at the bottom of the garden expense column may be surprisingly large. My advice, therefore, is to make friends with the estate department. When pea boughs, and timber for rails are needed, when locks are to be repaired, or hinges fixed, it is good to have a friend at court.
(7) Occasionally matters are put under a gardener’s direction which can hardly be called garden work. The washing down of drains, cleaning away leaves from the roof gutters, brushing snow off the roof, emptying receptacles of refuse, burning waste paper from the house, may fall to a lady gardener’s lot. In any case, when specific duties are ascertained, no responsibility connected with them should be handed over to subordinates. Washing a drain down is not, perhaps, an especially elevating task, and it may be urged that any fool can do it. It will only be done, however, and well done, if the men know that a look-out is being kept for their neglect or carelessness. If they are sometimes unexpectedly watched it will be found that the work is well done, and instead of their thinking less of their “head,” they will respect her all the more.
If a holiday is asked for them sometimes, or a kind act is performed for their wives or children, they will work with a good will which should be encouraging to their chief.
It is not very probable that anyone, after only two or three years’ training, will soar at once to the height of being head gardener on an estate, or of having the direction of many labouring men. I have noted most of the points of importance for a start in the garden profession; they must be added to from experience as the ladder is mounted towards success.
I have not, so far, touched upon the main point for consideration, whether the garden be large or small. This is the vegetable garden. It will be necessary, without loss of time, to interview the cook, and ask what vegetables are most required.
“Different people, different opinions; some like apples, some like onions.” Do not grow what is not wanted. It is well to try and make friends with the cook, for if not, any failure in the vegetable course at dinner will be laid to the gardener’s door. They will be too young or too old, too tender or too tough, or it will be said that the cook has expressed an opinion that “no one couldn’t cook them vegetables which that there lady gardener sends in.” Therefore, spare no pains to be friends with the head of the kitchen, for success or failure may depend much upon her opinion. A few compliments upon her skill in cooking will be a good preliminary to any explanations that may have to be made in introducing a new vegetable to her notice. I have heard of a sad instance of the Mont d’Or butter beans that were given to the pigs “because they were yellow.” In this case, had the cook been interviewed beforehand, those lovely golden beans would not have been cast “like pearls before swine.” The requirements of houses as regards flowers and vegetables vary very much, and it will only be by asking advice of the lady and the cook that a gardener can guess at all what she is expected to send into the house. The first year will naturally be somewhat of an experiment in this respect, and it will be well to point out these difficulties to the employer, for fear he considers that there is either undue extravagance or too economical a saving of produce.
Having interviewed the cook, the next thing is to arrange the crops.
For an ordinary kitchen garden of one acre, the following should generally be ordered.
| Peas | 6 | qts. |
| Broad Beans | 2–3 | qts. |
| French Beans | ½ | qt. |
| Runner Beans | ½ | lb. |
| Spinach | 1 | qt. |
| Winter spinach | 8 | ozs. |
| Mustard and Cress | 1 | qt. each. |
| Beet | 2 | ozs. |
| Carrots | 2 | ozs. |
| Leek | 1 | oz. |
| Lettuce, Summer | 1 | oz. |
| Lettuce, Winter | ½ | oz. |
| Onions, Spring | 4 | ozs. |
| Onions, Autumn | 1 | oz. |
| Parsley | 2 | ozs. |
| Parsnips | 1 | oz. |
| Salsify | 1 | oz. |
| Turnips | 4 | ozs. |
| Endive | 1 | oz. |
| Radish | 1 | pint. |
| Kale | 1 | oz. |
| Brussels Sprouts | 1 | oz. |
| Cauliflower (of sorts) | 1 | oz. |
| Broccoli (of sorts) | 1½ | ozs. |
| Cabbage | 1 | oz. |
| Red Cabbage | ½ | oz. |
| Savoys | ½ | oz. |
| Celery | 1 | pkt. |
Cheap plants can be bought of these latter, and also marrows and cucumbers. If the garden is a small one, it will be more economical to do this than to raise them from seed. The above are ordinary vegetables; for special ones, such as cardoons, chicory, etc., a small packet of seed will be sufficient.
There are three vegetables not usually grown, but which are most useful. They are:—
Phœnix Kale.—Will stand the most severe winter, and the more it is cut in the late winter or spring, the more it will shoot.
Seakale Beet (not Spinach Beet).—Can be cut all the autumn. It will stand an ordinary winter, and will furnish another cut in spring when vegetables are scarce. It has a broader midrib than spinach beet, is perfectly white, and is cooked like seakale. The green blade can be used as spinach.
Couve Tronchuda.—Is used much in the same way as seakale beet. Cut the lower leaves first, and use the thick fleshy leaf-stalks; when the lower leaves are done, there still remains very good cabbage on the top. Sutton calls it “rather tender,” but it is not always necessary to protect it in winter.
It will be found useful to obtain a large chart of the vegetables usually grown, and the time of sowing, planting, and cutting. This can be obtained from the Stores (Book department).
If a rough plan of the garden can be obtained, it will be of help; if not, a copy book should be bought, and on one page a rough sketch made of each plot, with the length and breadth marked upon it. This need not necessarily be drawn to scale. Upon the opposite page should be put the crop which is on the ground. Probably someone can supply information as to what crop was previously there, and when the ground was last trenched and manured. Any notes that can be made in this respect will be useful. It is a good plan to divide the garden under cultivation roughly into four quarters, disregarding, for the moment, that part which is under permanent crops, such as asparagus, rhubarb, etc. By trenching and manuring one plot every year, it can be arranged for each quarter to have a good dressing at least once every four years.
Bastard trenching is generally better than trenching; and the more constantly the ground is stirred the better.
As farmyard manure is often scarce, and labour for thorough trenching is expensive or difficult to obtain, it will be found that doing a quarter of the ground each year is a sure way of getting it all under cultivation. This, and digging in the refuse, will supply the necessary humus. Between times dig as deep as possible and use artificial manure.
The reason for ascertaining the crops that have been grown before is to enable some sort of rotation to be practised. It is impossible, in gardening, to do this as perfectly as in agriculture, but there are a few things which it is well to bear in mind. The three fundamental rules are as follows:—
(1) Plants of the same natural order should not follow each other.
(2) Crops which have occupied the same ground for several years should be succeeded by others of short duration. This gives an opportunity for constantly stirring and cleaning the ground.
(3) Plants grown for their roots, or bulbs, should not be followed by others grown for the same purpose. Plants grown for their seeds should also not succeed each other.
THE YEW TREE AVENUE KNOWN AS “THE NUN’S WALK,” IN THE COUNTESS BATHURST’S GARDEN, PINBURY, NEAR CIRENCESTER.
Photograph by Pictorial Agency.
In a small garden, it is best to grow only early potatoes. Others can be bought as cheaply as they can be grown, and the space they would occupy is valuable. A piece of ground may be under early potatoes these should be cleared by the middle of June, when a sowing of peas can be made, selecting one of the early varieties for a late crop. When they come off, they can be followed by turnips, which are drawn off during the winter. In January the ground can be bastard trenched, but not manured. Let it lie fallow awhile; then put in carrots, parsnips, or beet. The order can be varied indefinitely, so long as the rules are followed, and the plot of ground kept well trenched, and manured every fourth year.
The next things to consider are the crops still on the ground, and those coming on. In a fairly well-managed garden late peas, runner beans, cauliflowers, and marrows all “in cut,” should still be found in the autumn. The runner beans and the marrows should bear until they are cut down by frost. Their bearing capacity can be prolonged by careful picking, by a mulch of well-rotted manure, or with a drenching of liquid manure, according to whether the season is wet or dry.
If there is likely to be a shortage of winter stuff, fully ripe marrows can be hung up in an airy place, and runner beans put down with salt. A breadth of celery should be found coming into use, and parsnips that will stand until they are required. The main crop of carrots and beet will still be there to store, and there should be a break of sprouts, kale, and other things to come in later. If the supply is likely to run short, it will not be too late to plant cabbage and colewort.
First then, clear off all crops that are over, such as peas, early cauliflower, and potatoes. Burn all this refuse, as well as the weeds, and return it to the ground. Keep on hoeing. If there is no winter spinach in, make a sowing at once, and also make a sowing of turnips.
October is the great storing month. Take up all beet, carrots, and parsnips; but artichokes and salsify are best left where they are.
Corn salad can be sown, to come up in early spring. Cauliflowers should be pricked out into a cold frame where they can be protected from frost.
All leaves should be swept up and stored in a heap, to make leaf mould. In the process they will generate steady heat, and if a frame can be spared it should be put over them. Tender plants can be stored in it, or winter salad grown in it.
By now the work will have got into swing, and the routine of it has consequently been acquired. Any mistakes or omissions that have occurred will have been rectified.
As the crops come off, settle what it is intended to put in next, and prepare the ground accordingly. Some things require little or no manure; others need much. All ground is better for being stirred, therefore keep on digging. War must be waged against all weeds between the rows of greens, decayed leaves should be removed. All crops that are likely to be injured by frost must be protected.
Now is a good moment to see about obtaining a supply of pea and bean sticks, flower stakes and canes. Two important matters can be done in bad weather, when the land cannot be worked. Stakes may be sorted out in sizes, pointed and tied into bundles, and put away in a shed. Any painting of stakes, tubs, or labels can also be done, and it will be found a good plan to go over the stock of tools.
There is much more work that I could suggest, but if the hints already given are carried out, a good start will have been made. By taking in a practical garden paper, such as “The Gardener” (1d. per week), “The Journal of Horticulture” (2d. per week), or the “Gardener’s Chronicle” (3d. per week), a reminder of the regular rotation of work will be secured. By reading these it will be seen exactly when to harvest fruit, prune shrubs and roses, clean over borders, layer carnations, etc. All details connected with these different operations will have been learned at college, so I need not add another to the many gardening books that will already have been read.
I want to draw attention to one quality that a lady head-gardener may find herself in need of. It is humility. I do not know a profession in which this is more necessary than in gardening. Because all difficulties of the soil in a chalky southern county have been learned, the requirements of that poor land mastered, and preparations made to guard against the violent attacks of the south-west wind, do not suppose that these same torments exist necessarily in other counties. Enemies and insect pests will be found, but they may not always be the same kind. The good advice and hints, therefore, that may be obtained from smock-frocked residents in the neighbourhood should not be despised. They have, perhaps, never been further than the nearest town close by; reading and writing are difficulties which they cannot overcome, but they have fully taken in how to grow vegetables and flowers on their own bit of land. Watch the time of year they undertake different simple operations, and learn to do likewise. Disappointment may be saved if they are humbly watched. Bitter experience has taught these men, and, by taking their advice, one may learn quickly what a lifetime has shown them.
MISS E. DOUGLAS IN HER GREENHOUSE AT SHEDFIELD GRANGE, BOTLEY HANTS.
Photograph by Pictorial Agency.