Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

More than thirty years ago the following little poem was given to me as having been written in fun by James Spedding, the distinguished author of the Life of Bacon. I thrilled with excitement when I first read it, which will not surprise anyone who remembers the position between youth and age fifty years ago. The young were supposed to be foolish, the old to be all wisdom and experience. Now this is so changed that the old are having rather a bad time ; and the truth contained in this poem still appeals to me, though from an entirely different point of view. Whether we are so fortunate as to have children, or so unfortunate as not to have them, it makes, in my opinion, no difference. Once we have reached a certain age, the sensible thing is to acknowledge that our lives are more or less over. The best way we can then serve our country, or give dignity and happiness to our old age, is to lend all the help in our power to the young — in fact, always to be ready to open the door to those who are knocking. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN When I was a freshman, old age did appear A reverend and beautiful thing ; For knowledge must gather as year follows year, And wisdom from knowledge should spring. SONS 275 But I found the same years that supplied me with knowledge Took the power to digest it away, And let out all the store I had gathered at college Through leaks that increased every day. So I said— and think not I said it in jest (You will find it is true to the letter) — That the only thing old people ought to know best Is that young people ought to know better. T2 276 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN FUENISHING Books on furnishing — Smoking — Morris's 'Lectures on Art' — London houses — New and second-hand furniture — Curtains versus blinds — White paint — Bookcases — Bed-rooms — Bath-rooms — Bedding — Useful tables— Kain-water. I MUST give you a few of my views about furnishing, especially as I cannot say to you, ' Get such-and-such a book, and you will know all I know.' I can name no book that seems to me at all satisfactory on modern furnishing. One published in 1887 and called ' From Kitchen to Garret,' by J. E. Panton, has gone through many editions, and contains useful and practical hints, but I do not at all agree with a good deal that it says. It recom- mends what I call upholstering far too much, and the overcrowding and decorating of rooms, and is not nearly simple enough. I should say to any young housekeeper, * Get the book and learn what you can from it, but reserve to yourself a very keen judgment about many things that it advises.' As an example, I will mention that the author grudges a man, as a matter of expense (!), his cigarette and cigar. I know no one single thing that gives a woman half the pleasure that smoking gives a man ; so, as an economy, many things in a house might be given up first. If smoking is supposed to be bad for a man, persuade him to smoke less ; and I believe there is no better way of inducing him to do this than to allow him to smoke in every room in the house — drawing-room, dining- room, mother's bedroom, nursery. There is no greater FURNISHING 277