activity as any previous period. He never tired of his
garden, in which he succeeded in growing a number of rare and curious
shrubs and plants. Our mother shared his delight and interest in the
garden, and knew a great deal about flowers. She had an excellent memory
for their botanical names, and he often asked her the name of some
plant which he was pointing out to a friend and which for the moment he
had forgotten. She was very fond of roses and of primroses, and there
was a fine display of these flowers at "Old Orchard." She was successful
in "budding" and in hybridising roses, and produced several beautiful
varieties. She was proficient in raising seeds, and he sometimes placed
some which he received from abroad in her charge.

When he first came to live at Broadstone he frequently took short walks
to the post or to the bank, and sometimes went by train to Poole on
business, but he gradually went out less and less, till in the last few
years he seldom went outside the garden, but strolled about looking at
the flowers or supervising the construction of a new bed or rockery.
During his last years his gardener wheeled him about the garden in a
bath-chair when he did not feel strong enough to walk all the time.

In 1913, after his last two small books were written, he did no more
writing except correspondence. This he attended to himself, except on
one or two occasions when he was not very well or felt tired, when he
asked one of us to answer a few letters for him. He took great interest
in a small cottage which had recently been acquired on the Purbeck Hills
near the sea, and in September, much against our wishes, he went there
for two nights, taking the gardener to look after him. Luckily the
weather was fine, and the change and excitement seemed to do him good,
and during the next month he was very bright and cheerful, though, as
some of his letters to his old friend Dr. Richard Norris and to Dr.
Littledale show, he had been becoming increasingly weak.

* * * * *

TO MISS NORRIS

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. December 10, 1912._

My dear Miss Norris,--I am very sorry to hear that your father is so
poorly. The weather is terribly gloomy, and I have not been outside my
rooms and greenhouse for more than an hour a week perhaps, for the last
two months, and feel the better for it. Just now I feel better than I
have done for a year past, having at last, I think, hit upon a proper