I came from London, to pass two or three days in the country and look after my garden, as usual. I make lists and decide on the seeds for the year, and look to the mulching of certain plants.

Hardly anything grows here to perfection when left alone. Most plants require either chalk, peat, leaf-mould or cow-manure, and half-tender things are now the better for covering up with matting or Bracken-fern. It is seldom of any use to come so early as this; but there has been no cold this year, though one feels it must come. Oh! such days and days of gloom and darkness; but to-day the wind freshened from the northeast, and I could breathe once more. How delightful it is to be out of London again ! There is always plenty to do and to enjoy. How the birds sing, as if it were spring! I love the country in winter; one expects nothing, and everything is a joy and a surprise. The Freezias are flowering well; they improve each year as the bulbs get larger. Cyclamens are in. the greenhouse, and a large, never-failing, old white Azalea, which forces faithfully and uncomplainingly every year, and from which we cut so many blooms.

The first Aconite ! Does any flower in summer give the same pleasure ? The blue-green blades of the Daffodils and Jonquils are firmly and strongly pushing through the cold brown earth; nothing in all the year gives such a sense of power and joy. One is grateful, too, for our Surrey soil and climate-to live where it never can rain too much, and where it never accords with Shelley's wonderful description of damp:And hour by hour, when the air was still, The vapours arose which have strength to kill. At morn they were seen, at noon they were felt, At night they were darkness no star could melt.

These mild winters have a wonderful effect on plant life. The Solarium jasminoides looks as fresh as in November, and as if he meant to stand it out; we shall see. In front of my window, on the ground floor, I have been rigging up a delightful arrangement for feeding Tomtits. I hang half a pound of suet and a cocoanut on either end of a piece of thick string. This should be long enough to reach the lower window when suspended from a small iron rod by a ring hanging at the end of it, the rod being nailed to the window-sill above. The string is passed through the top of the cocoanut, of which the bottom is cut off, making a hole large enough for a bird to get in. It greatly adds to the artistic effect to hang the cocoanut about a foot lower than the suet, or vice versd. The small birds cling to the string while they peck their food, and so make a continual and beautiful design. To help them to cling, a few little crossbars of wood are knotted into the string and form a sort of rough ladder. In really cold weather, or with snow on the ground, they become wonderfully tame. Another way is to plant a post in the ground with one or two cross-bars nailed to the top, on which are hung similar arrangements to those just described of cocoanut and suet, or an old bone.

This warm winter has suited the Christmas Roses, which are uncommonly good. The great secret in light soils is to mulch them well while they are making their leaves. Water them with liquid manure when their flower-buds are forming, and protect them with lights in the flowering season, especially keeping them from heavy rains or snow. For these reasons grow them in a bed by themselves. In the greenhouse I found a Choisya temata, which I had cut back hard last May, covered all over with its beautiful white flowers. It had been forced in the stove for about ten days. This is a most delightful plant in every way, easy to strike and to layer, quite hardy; though, when growing outside, the flowers are sometimes a little injured by hard late frosts. It is invaluable for cutting to send to London at all times of year, as it lasts for a long time in water, and the shiny dark-green leaves look especially well with any white flowers. The more it is cut, the better the plant flourishes. Every spare piece of wall should have a plant of Choisya against it. It is restrained and yet free in its growth, and is therefore even more useful in small gardens than in large ones. It does very well in light soil, but responds to a little feeding. I have some giant Violets which I got from the South of France; here, I believe, they are called 'Princess Beatrice' They are twice the size of Czars, and very sweet. They are doing well in the frame, but look rather draggled and miserable outside; after all, it is only the end of January.

In mid-winter my heart warms to the common Laurels. In wet winters, especially, they look so flourishing and happy, and they will grow in such bad places. I am sure I shall abuse them so often that I must say, however much they are reduced in a garden, keep some plants in places where few other things would flourish. They will always remain a typical example of Mme. de Stael's good description of evergreens:-'Le deuil de 1'été et l'ornement de l'hiver.' All hardy fruit-trees, like Jasminum nudiflorum and Chimonanthus fragrans, are better pruned in January than in February, if the weather make it possible.