A THIRD POT-POURRI.*
MANY ingredients and much skill are needed for the making of pot-pourri, and Mrs. Earle is a past-mistress of the art. Indeed, the subjects are still more varied than in her former pot- pourris. Here we have the rose-leaves of her own garden, the sweet herbs and spices of distant lands, while her numerous recipes and interesting information on all sorts of subjects furnish the salts without which potpourris would be insipid. In this third book she devotes much space to the merits of vegetarian diet, and no doubt many of us are guilty of eating more than we actually need. But these health chapters do not appeal to us much. Humanity needs sustenance to keep the machine going, but in itself the subject of food is somewhat barren of human interest. Taken at its best, it is only a question of differing flavours, or an ounce or two more or less of proteids or albumen. So long as the meals necessary to existence appear at seasonable times, and are sufficiently varied to com- mand appetite and keep the cook satisfied, the less thought given to the matter the better. The study of health can be carried too far, and a wholesome neglect is often more profit- able than the concentration of our mind upon our own symptoms. Then, again, everything that tends to lessen the variety of foods which the system can thrive on makes the world the poorer. By all means let us teach people that man does not live by meat alone, and that a proper amount of other things will sustain life equally well. Even Mrs. Earle would admit that the food of to-day is often found to be the poison of to-morrow, and if we give much thought to what we eat to-day we may have to give still more thought to what we must avoid to-morrow. There is much to be said in favour of the Plasmon lozenge carried in the waistcoat pocket, • A Third Pot-Pourri. By Mn. C. W. Earle. London : Smith, Elder, and Co. [7.- 6d-]
bringing with it entire immunity from anxiety as to our next meal, but no one would say that the diet was an ideal one except for gifted souls who have got beyond all the pleasures of the senses. True wisdom is silently to find out what seems to suit our own needs, while realising that those are best off who can assimilate the most varied diets.
Passing on to the other parts of the book, we find Mrs. Earle's Third Pot-Pourri as delightful as the first two. Her garden is quite as attractive to herself and as interesting to her readers. Valuable hints abound as to the growing and gathering of flowers. It may be new to some people that blossoming branches can be forced into bloom quicker and better in water than on the plant itself. Of course a hothouse is needed for this if it is to be done syste- matically; but much can be accomplished through simpler means by those who live all the year round in their country houses if they can arrange to have one room at an equable temperature day and night. Mrs. Earle's dislike of heating houses by means of pipes would stand in the way of this ; but if people are really anxious to obtain their ends on small means many ingenious contrivances may be invented. Among the plants she recommends for gathering before they bloom are Tasminum nudijloruna and Forsythia suspense, and for those who are not superstitious nothing is more beautiful than the common blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, with its branching sprays, which lend themselves to Japanese effects. " All stalks must be peeled," Mrs. Earle adds. Then, again, the smaller irises grow- ing in pots make charming room decoration. Iris reticulate and Iris persica Heldreichii are the best for this purpose. She gives, too, an excellent suggestion for growing Iris stylosa. " Like most Irises, they seem to do better if close to
some other plant and they will grow well on the sunny side of a yew hedge" ; but patience is needed, for they " never flower well till the second or third year."
Another point Mrs. Earle dwells on is that plants do very much better in the end when raised from seed. Tender plants unused to our English climate will often become hardy if grown in this way. But here, too, patience is needed, for many seedlings do not show flower for two or three years. Still, if the result is a hardy perennial instead of a half-hardy one, we shall have greatly added to our possessions. Mrs. Earle grew Eucalyptus Gunnii in her own garden from seed, and it only needs the slight protection it gets from other shrubs to hold its own through our English winters. Many plants, again, would do better with some slight protection. In Italy the peasant-proprietors spare no pains to protect their lemon crops from cold winds. Rough covers are used which are made from branches and coarse grass supported on poles. The demon of tidiness in an English garden forbids such means, but there are many plants which would live through our ordinary winters if some natural and inexpensive cover could be given them. Perhaps if our people are once more tempted "back to the land" the culture of plants will be undertaken in more scientific ways, and the money and time now almost entirely devoted to beauty of general effect may then be given to making each individual plant perfect, and to discovering fresh possi- bilities of enlarging the number of plants we can grow. But this requires personal attention and intelligence, and these are rarely to be found except in owners of gardens who live in them all the year round, or in the higher type of professional gardeners who have a leaning towards science. Wherever attention is really paid to individual plants and every shrub is carefully cut back at the right moment the result is wonderful. But much of this can only be done well in the spring, and in spring owners of good gardens are apt to be in London or on the Riviera, or, indeed, anywhere but in their own gardens. Mrs. Earle's advice in this matter of pruning shrubs is perhaps a little drastic. " The thin, well-ordered shrubbery, turfed underneath," which she recommends may be one of the beauties of a large domain, but in a humble garden of an acre or two shrubberies are generally canted to be fairly thick, though the individual shrubs should, as far as possible, be allowed to develop to their full capability.
Mrs. Earle also gives some useful suggestions for colour effects. Against old yews she would place groups of Nicotiana sylvestris alba, but it should be planted in large masses to be really striking. This Nicotiana is capricious in its flowering, and some years shows nothing but leaf, probably from having been too richly fed. Then, again, yellow and orange should be the colours used against deciduous trees and shrubs, so as to blend with autumnal colouring of the brown stems and fading leaves. Certainly they produce a far more pleasing effect than white or blue ones, which seem to call for spring and summer greens to show up their beauty. The complaint Mrs. Earle makes of the want of originality in English gardening is but too well founded. Even in large gardens effects are repeated with wearying sameness, and gardeners rarely think of making efforts to cultivate, in fresh circumstances, plants which have hitherto failed. The reason she gives is idleness and laziness, which no doubt account for much. But it is also through want of imagination. English people are seldom quick at invention, and they gain their ends more by sheer force of holding on than by adaptability or resource. If certain flowers have refused to grow under certain conditions, it rarely occurs to the average gardener to place them where these con- ditions are radically changed. He stolidly asserts that the plant " won't grow " with him, and there the matter ends. Even some of our greatest amateur gardeners are not wholly free from this tendency, for experiment is not very congenial to most English people, and it is often irritating to find that in spite of every effort some plants will not flourish with us which make our neighbour's garden a thing of joy.
But there are many other interesting questions raised in this pot-pourri besides gardening. Speaking of houses and
what they should aim at being, Mrs. Earle points out that far too little is made of beautiful chimneys, while a stupid conventionality generally places windows and fireplace in inconvenient parts of the room. But the amount of space she allots to windows seems to the present writer excessive. There is a want of cosiness in giving up to them most of our wall space. We shall get sun, no doubt, when there is sun to be got, but there is far more grey and wet weather in England than sunshine, and we want to be able to forget the absence of sunshine as well as to welcome its presence. It is true, too, that eaves are bad for creepers by keeping off the rain from their roots. But if the clever suggestion of per- forating the gutters that run along the edge of most eaves could be carried out, this difficulty might be solved; and if the eaves were sufficiently overhanging, any dampness to the walls might be avoided. The western aspect Mrs. Earle chooses for her dining-room is not, in our opinion, the best, unless the room is only usei in the evening. The morning sun goes far to produce that cheerfulness which is conspicuous by its absence from most English breakfast-tables. Then, again, there is no necessity for hall sitting-rooms to be dark. Of course, if they are absolutely shut in, they must be; but a clever architect can generally contrive that they should have some outside light. If this comes from a quarter which it is desirable to shut out, then the windows may have to be somewhat raised ; but it is also a gain when some sitting- room in the house is not entirely in view of the grounds. Privacy brings peace. We also question the objection raised to "a flat space in front of the house." Without a flat space, a house on a hill suggests no idea of repose. If we step out at once upon a slope, we find no natural halting-ground; and not only the idea, but the actual impossibility, of comfortably sitting down is evident. But perhaps we have read Mrs. Earle wrong, for she speaks of terraces being " far prettier if they slope away from the house than if they give the appearance of the house being in a bole." A flat space in front of the house need not give this appearance, especially if the ground is steep enough to allow of the terraces being made bold in outline.
At the end of her book Mrs. Earle prints the journal that her father-in-law kept of a tour be made in Northern Europe in 1825, which was first published in the Cornhill Magazine. She has also included some very interesting letters from her son, a gallant young officer in the Guards, who lost his life in the South African War. They help us to realise the hardships our soldiers had to endure, and how nobly they were borne.
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