and her children, and by that mixed company of the brave
and the weak, the young and the old, the gentle and the
impatient,--and that grand touch by which the "Mr. Ready-to-Halt" of
the long Pilgrimage crossed the waters of Death without fear or
fainting.

* * * * *

Why should you think I should differ with Dante in his estimate of
sin? I doubt if I could rearrange his Circles, except that "Lust" is a
wide word, as = Passion I should probably leave it where it is; but
there are hideous forms of it which are inextricably mingled, if not
identical with Cruelty,--and Cruelty I should put at the lowest round
of all.

_Clyst S. George._ April 30, 1880.

* * * * *

We have had rather a chaff with Mr. Ellacombe (who in his ninety-first
year is as keen a gardener as ever!) because he has many strange sorts
of _Fritillary_, and when I told him I had seen and gone wild over a
sole-coloured pale yellow one which I saw exhibited in the
Horticultural Gardens, he simply put me down--"No, my dear, there's no
such thing; there's a white Fritillary I can show you outside, and
there's _Fritillaria Lutea_ which is yellow and spotted, but there's
no such plant as you describe." Still it evidently made him restless,
and he kept relating anecdotes of how people are always sending him
_shaves_ about flowers. "I'd a letter the other day, my dear, to
describe a white Crown Imperial--a thing that has _never been_!" Later
he announced--"I have written to Barr and Sugden--'Gentlemen! Here's
another White Elephant. A lady has seen a sole-coloured Yellow
Fritillary!'"

This morning B. and S. wrote back, and are obliged to confess that "a
yellow Fritillary has been produced," but (not being the producers)
they add, "It is not a good yellow." _Pour moi_, I take leave to judge
of colours as well as Barr and Sugden, and can assure you it is a very
lovely yellow, pale and chrome-y. It has been like a chapter out of
Alphonse Karr!

One of the horticultural papers is just about to publish Mr.
Ellacombe's old list of the things he has grown in his own garden.
Three thousand species!

* * * * *

I hope you liked that _Daily Telegraph_ article on the Back Gardener I
sent you? It is really fine workmanship in the writing line as well as
being amusing. I abuse the Press often enough, but I will say such
Essays (for they well deserve the name) are a gre