Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
120
XXIV.
The
honest
fellow
who
comes
to
dig
in
my
garden
is
puzzled
to
account
for
my
peculiarities;
I
often
catch
a
look
of
wondering
speculation
in
his
eye
when
it
turns
upon
me.
It
is
all
because
I
will
not
let
him
lay
out
flower-beds
in
the
usual
way,
and
make
the
bit
of
ground
in
front
of
the
house
really
neat
and
ornamental.
At
first
he
put
it
down
to
meanness,
but
he
knows
by
now
that
that
cannot
be
the
explanation.
That
I
really
prefer
a
garden
so
poor
and
plain
that
every
cottager
would
be
ashamed
of
it,
he
cannot
bring
himself
to
believe,
and
of
course
I
have
long
since
given
up
trying
to
explain
myself.
The
good
man
probably
concludes
that
too
many
books
and
the
habit
of
solitude
have
somewhat
affected
what
he
would
call
my
"reasons."
The
only
garden
flowers
I
care
for
are
the
quite
old-fashioned
roses,
sunflowers,
hollyhocks,
lilies
and
so
on,
and
these
I
like
to
see
growing
as
much
as
possible
as
if
they
were
wild.
Trim
and
symmetrical
beds
are
my
abhorrence,
and
most
of
the
flowers
which
are
put
into
them--hybrids
with
some
grotesque
name--Jonesia,
Snooksia--hurt
my
eyes.
On
the
other
hand,
a
garden
is
a
garden,
and
I
would
not
try
to
introduce
into
it
the
flowers
which
are
my
solace
in
lanes
and
fields.
Foxgloves,
for
instance--it
would
pain
me
to
see
them
thus
transplanted.
I
think
of
foxgloves,
for
it
is
the
moment
of
their
glory.
Yesterday
I
went
to
the
lane
which
I
visit
every
year
at
this
time,
the
deep,
rutty
cart-track,
descending
between
banks
covered
with
giant
fronds
of
the
polypodium,
and
overhung
with
wych-elm
and
hazel,
to
that
cool,
grassy
nook
where
the
noble
flowers
hang
on
stems
all
but
of
my
own
height.
Nowhere
have
I
seen
finer
foxgloves.
I
suppose
they
rejoice
me
so
because
of
early
memories--to
a
child
it
is
the
most
impressive
of
wild
flowers;
I
would
walk
miles
any
day
to
see
a
fine
cluster,
as
I
would
to
see
the
shining
of
purple
loosestrife
by
the
water
edge,
or
white
lilies
floating
upon
the
still
depth.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
