Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

Last, but by no means least in its great utility, comes 1 A Handbook of Nursing for the Home and the Hos- pital/ by Catherine Jane Wood. Miss Wood was for years lady-superintendent of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, so she speaks with great authority. Though it has reached the eleventh edition, it is astonish- ing how many people have never heard of this first-rate little handbook. It is condensed and yet detailed, it is medical and yet simple and intelligible to a degree which brings it within the comprehension of anyone. In fact, I believe it to be the best book on nursing ever written. This little poem of Mr. Lionel Tennyson's has, I believe, never been published ; a friend gave it to me x 306 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN some years ago. I think it will appeal to many people as it does to me : — SYMPATHY In this sad world, where mortals must Be almost strangers, Should we not turn to those we trust To save us from our dangers ? Then whisper in my ear again, And this believe — That aught which gives thy dear heart pain Makes my heart grieve. God wills that we have sorrow here, And we will share it ; Whisper thy sorrow in my ear, That I may also bear it. If anywhere our trouble seems To find an end, 'Tis in the fairyland of dreams Or with a friend. 307 AMATEUR ARTISTS Amateurs — Want of occupation— Work amongst the poor— Music and drawing — Buskin's teaching— Technical skill — Natural and acquired talent —Leaving home— Water-colours versus oils. DRAWING and gardening are so intimately connected, and being able to draw is such a preparation to the study of gardening, that I have thought it worth while to bring in here part of an article I wrote last year (1896) in the ' National Eeview.' In it I tried to set down some observations on the subject of amateur art, having myself had a life-long experience of it, of its great joys and its many heart-burning disappointments and difficulties. The increased taste for art and many other causes have tended during the last twenty years to dimmish the number of those who draw for pleasure alone ; whereas public opinion and family pride, which once thought starvation and beggary more honourable than work, now no longer prevent our sons and daughters from earning their bread as professional artists, musicians, or actors. But it is not to these that I wish to allude. They have found their vocation ; their course is clear. I am speaking of the amateur proper, common enough a generation ago. Nine-tenths of the amateurs are women, and it is upon amateur art as an occupation for women that I wish to insist. I am more and more convinced of the importance to a girl of having an interest in life over and above her affections and the trifling domesti duties that may come X 2 308 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN in her way. If not, the time will come when, either as a young married woman whose husband's duties keep him absent during most of the day, or as one whom accident or choice has withheld from marriage, she will feel that desauvrement which drives so many women into frivolity and folly, and sinks many more into ill-health and fretful misery.