t which is beating on my
windows to-day. There was nothing to be done but to make my home of the
old coach-inn for the night; and for my amusement--besides the
slumberous hound, who, after dinner, had taken up position upon the
faded rug lying before the grate--there was a "Bell's Messenger" of the
month past, and, as good luck would have it, a much-bethumbed copy of a
work on horticulture and kindred subjects, first printed somewhere about
the beginning of the eighteenth century, and entitled "The Clergyman's
Recreation, showing the Pleasure and Profit of the Art of Gardening," by
the Reverend John Laurence.

It was a queer book to be found in this pretentious old coach-inn, with
its silken bell-pulls and stately parlors; and I thought how the
roisterers who came thundering over the road years ago, and chucked the
bar-maids under the chin, must have turned up their noses, after their
pint of crusted Port, at the "Clergyman's Recreation." Yet, for all
that, the book had a rare interest for me, detailing, as it did, the
methods of fruit-culture in England a hundred and forty years ago, and
showing with nice particularity how the espaliers could be best trained,
and how a strong infusion of walnut-leaf tea will destroy all noxious
worms.

And now, when, upon this other wet day, and in the quietude of my own
library, I come to measure the claims of this ancient horticulturist to
consideration, I find that he was the author of some six or seven
distinct works on kindred subjects, showing good knowledge of the best
current practice; and although he incurred the sneers of Mr. Tull, who
hoped "he preached better than he ploughed," there is abundant evidence
that his books were held in esteem.

Contemporary with the Rev. Mr. Laurence were London and Wise, the famous
horticulturists of Brompton, (whose nursery, says Evelyn, "was the
greatest work of the kind ever seen or heard of, either in books or
travels,") also Switzer, a pupil of the latter, and Professor Richard
Bradley.

Mr. London was the director of the royal gardens under William and Mary,
and at one time had in his charge some three or four hundred of the most
considerable landed estates in England. He was in the habit of riding
some fifty miles a day to confer with his subordinate gardeners, and at
least two or three times in a season traversed the whole length and
breadth of England,--and this at a period, it must be remembered, when
travelling was no holiday-a