Lord Rosebery, in opening the flower-show of St. George's- in-the-East
Winter Garden on Wednesday, said that London
was so rapidly eating up all the old-fashioned gardens, and pushing away the open spaces to greater and greater arm's- lengths, that the only compensation to be found was in bringing the flowers into London to make up for the gardens which were pushed out of London. He thought that a man fond of gardening could hardly be bad, though King Minos of Crete had the reputation of having combined gardening with a very malevolent character, and though Mr. Disraeli, who preferred peacocks to flowers, was probably an exception to his rule. But surely Lord Rosebery had only said that persons fond of flowers can hardly be bad men, not that all good men must be fond of flowers. Are not peacocks a very fair substitute for flowers P If the love of flowers is to be imputed to men for righteousness, may not the love of peacocks be imputed to a man for at least second-class righteousness P They are at least half-way between "Solomon in all his glory" and "the lilies of the field."
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