Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, hon. canon of Bristol, vicar of Bitton and rural dean, 1822-1916; a memoir. Edited by Arthur W. Hill

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

JLUB

CANON ELLACOMBE.

HENRY NICHOLSON
ELLACOMBE

Hon. Canon of Bristol

Vicar of Bitton and Rural Dean

1822 — 1916

A MEMOIR

EDITED BY

ARTHUR W. HILL

LONDON

PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICES OF " COUNTRY LIFE,"
20 TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.2 : AND BY
GEORGE NEWNES, LTD., 8-n SOUTHAMPTON STREET,
STRAND, W.C.2. NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

MCMXIX

/3X
5/99

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

PREFACE ........ 9

I H. T. ELLACOMBE n

II PEARSALL AND THE ELLACOMBES .... 32

III HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE . . . .40

IV TRAVELS ABROAD ....... 68

V THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS .... 115

VI THE BITTON GARDEN 133

VII CANON ELLACOMBE AND HIS PLANTS . . . 154

VIII CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW .... 163

IX THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 198

REPRINTED ARTICLES BY CANON ELLACOMBE

PIORA . 224

FIELD-NAMES 238

HOUSE MOTTOES 259

CHURCH RESTORATION 279

ROSES 292

APPENDIX. CATALOGUE OF TREES AND SHRUBS

CULTIVATED AT BITTON IN 1830 . .309

5

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE

1. Canon Ellacombe, from the pastel drawing made by Mrs.

Graham Smith in the summer of 1914 Frontispiece

2. H. T. Ellacombe, with his model, showing the proper

way of hanging a bell, from a photograph taken about
1850 12

3. H. T. Ellacombe, from a miniature painted in 1817 . . 30

4. The Vicarage, with Umbellularia growing by the Porch 38

5. Canon Ellacombe, from a photograph taken about 1870 68

6. A corner of the Vicarage Garden .... 134

7. The double form of Anemone blanda in the Garden at Bitton 142

8. Canon Ellacombe and Richard Ashmore in the Garden, from

a photograph taken by Mrs. Hiatt Baker in 1909 . . 152

9. The Canon standing beside a fine plant of Ferula glauca in

the Garden ........ 154

10. Viburnum tomentosum var. Mariesii growing in the border

against the Churchyard Wall ..... 162

11. Canon Ellacombe, from a photograph taken about 1906 212

12. The Catalpa with fruit and the chusan Palm growing on

the north side of the Vicarage .... 222

13. The Vicarage, from the east, with the Catalpa on the right 260

14. St. Mary's Church, Bitton, from the Vicarage Lawn. . 282

7

PREFACE

IT has rarely been the fortune of one individual to
exert on gardening in this country an influence
so wide and so beneficent as that wielded by the late
Canon Ellacombe of Bitton.

Many they were who during the course of his long
and honoured life were brought, through their common
interest in the oldest of human crafts, into contact
with him, or with his writings. Those whose good
fortune it was to hold direct intercourse with him
came as a result under the spell of his unique and
lovable personality ; acquaintance meant friendship,
and friendship deepened into an abiding and affectionate
regard.

" Petimusque damusque vicissim," the legend which
heads the Canon's manuscript garden-book, breathes
so truly his spirit and his practice that it may fitly
be placed in the forefront of this brief memoir, the
preparation of which has been undertaken in response
to the wishes of many of the Canon's friends, whose
desire it is to have some permanent record of what they
and the craft he loved have lost.

The compilation of the Memoir is mainly the joint
work of Mr. W. J. Bean and myself. For particulars
of the Canon's family we have received much informa
tion and help from Mr. and Mrs. Janson. The account
of the Canon's Travels has been drawn up from his own
diaries, supplemented by notes from Mr. A. C. Bartholo
mew and Mr. Hiatt Baker.

9

io PREFACE

To Sir Arthur Hort and Mr. Lathbury we are indebted
for the chapter on the Canon's books. Interesting
contributions have also been made by Mrs. Graham
Smith, Miss Willmott, the Rev. H. H. Winwood, Mr.
Wollaston, Mr. Elwes, Mr. Bowles, Sir Herbert Max
well, Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, and Sir David Prain.

Our thanks are also due to the Editor of the National
Review for permission to republish the Canon's articles
on " Field-Names," " Church Restoration," and " House
Mottoes " ; to the Editor of Cornhill for permission to
republish the article on Roses ; to the Editors of The
Guardian and The Pilot for allowing us to include the
articles on " Piora " and the " Muscera Pass " ; and to
the Editor of The Garden to publish the list of garden
plants grown at Bitton in 1830, and to The Gar
dener's Chronicle for the illustrations of "Double
Anemone blanda " (p. 142) and " The Canon and Ferula
Glauca" (p. 154).

The portrait of the Canon which forms the frontis
piece is taken from Mrs. Graham Smith's pastel draw
ing made in the summer of 1914. The photograph of
the Canon and Ashmore is from a snapshot taken by
Mrs. Hiatt Baker in the garden at Bitton about 1909.
The one of the Canon taken about 1870 was sent by
Mr. Bowles. The portrait of the Rev. H. T. Ella-
combe, as a young man, is from a miniature in the
possession of Mr. F. A. Janson ; the other photograph
taken about 1850 was sent by his granddaughter,
Mrs. Cockey.

ARTHUR W. HILL.

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW.
1919.

CHAPTER I
H. T. ELLACOMBE

THE Ellicombes were an old West Country family,
and came originally from Kenn, near Exeter,
holding in the latter part of the seventeenth century
a small property at Dunchideock, near the city.

The alteration of the spelling of the name to Ella-
combe was made by the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, the
Canon's father, who considered this to be the more
correct rendering, but other branches of the family
still retain the older form. It is probable that the
surname may be derived from, or have some connection
with, Ellacombe, which is now a suburb of Torquay.

Richard Ellicombe, the Canon's great-grandfather,
is the first member of the family to whom reference
need be made. He was either curate or vicar of
Stoke Canon, near Exeter, and married Miss Greene,
the great-great-granddaughter of Sir Hugh Myddleton,
the founder of the New River. Her father was clerk to
the New River Company, and she had as her dowry
four Adventurer's shares. It was for one of these
that the Canon sat on the Board as a Trustee, as did
his father before him. Of Richard Ellicombe' s family,
the only member with whom wre are concerned is his
son William — the Canon's grandfather. He first comes
into notice as curate or vicar of Thorverton, near Exeter,
when he married, in 1773, a Miss Rous, an heiress and
sole survivor of her family.

11

12 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

The following announcement of the wedding appeared
in Freeman's Exeter Flying Post of March 3, 1773 :
" Yesterday morning was married at St. Martin's
Church in this city the Rev. Mr. Ellicombe of
Thorverton to Miss Rous, an agreeable young lady, with
a very genteel fortune." The arms of Rous are there
fore entitled to be quartered with those of Ellacombe,
as are those of Greene and Myddleton. William Elli
combe shortly after (in 1780) became rector of Alphing
ton, a village two miles from Exeter, the living being
then in the gift of the Pitman family. He held the
living for fifty years and apparently acquired the advow-
son. Through his wife the patronage of Clyst St.
George, near Topsham, Devon, came into the Ellicombe
family.

William Ellicombe had seven sons ; the eldest,
William Rous Ellicombe, succeeded his uncle — Miss
Rous' brother — in the family living of Clyst St. George ;
a second, Henry Thomas, the father of the Canon,
became curate of Bitton in 1817 and later (1850)
was presented to Clyst St. George in succession to his
eldest brother; while a third son, Richard, followed
his father as rector of Alphington.1 Of the other sons,
Charles served under Wellington in the Peninsular War,

1 Both livings have now passed out of the family. The living
of Clyst St. George having been purchased by the Gibbs family,
who owned a good deal of property in the neighbourhood.

Mr. F. A. Janson, to whom we are indebted for many details
of the family history, married Miss Ellacombe, the Canon's third
daughter. He informs us that his grandfather was living in
Alphington and his mother was born there when William Elli
combe was Rector.

Mr. Janson's elder brother married the Canon's second daughter
and was appointed vicar of Oldland by the Canon, in which bene
fice he was succeeded by the late Rev. H. A. Cockey, who had
married Miss Frances Ellacombe.

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

With a model he made to show the proper way of hanging a bell.

H. T. ELLACOMBE 13

ultimately becoming a general, and had the K.C.B.
conferred upon him. Hugh Myddleton became an
attorney-at-law, and the two others died young, one of
them after seeing some service in the army.

The present rector of Alphington (the Rev. Bernard
C. Bennett) writes to Mr. Janson :

" My old gardener remembers Henry Ellacombe, who
told him he had dug the well in the garden himself,
and on a tree and on the shutter of the kitchen he has
cut his name.

" The trees in this garden (Alphington) are very fine,
Tulip trees, Cork trees, and many curious varieties,
all of which were planted by your people. ..."

Before passing to the main subject of this Memoir,
something must be said of the Canon's father, H. T.
Ellicombe. He was evidently a man of exceptional
talent and very varied activities, and no doubt exercised
a strong influence in developing the interests and tastes
of his son.

The Canon's father was born on May 15, 1790, and
was early intended to follow his father and grandfather
in taking Holy Orders. With this end in view he
went up to Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated
in 1812. He inherited, however, like his distinguished
brother, General Ellicombe, many of the engineering
qualifications of their ancestor, Sir Hugh Myddleton,
and being unable to resist his natural impulses he
devoted all his leisure time to mechanical drawing and
the construction of models.

It was while he was still at Oxford that he was given
the opportunity of an introduction to (Sir) M. I. Brunei,
and to him he submitted his drawings and models.
So much impressed was the engineer with the delicacy,
accuracy and beauty of the workmanship, that as we

14 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

learn from the "Life of Brunei/' he not only formed a
very favourable opinion of the young man, but offered
him a position in his office, and soon afterwards pro
moted him to be his confidential assistant.

His engagement with Brunei appears to have com
menced sometime in 1814, probably after the following
letter was written, which was addressed to him at
Oxford on June 17 of that year:

" If you can be at Portsmouth on Wednesday next
you shall have a chance of seeing all the great personages
again.

" I had a visit this morning from the Emperor and
Grand Duchess. I was highly gratified with both ; he
shook me by the hand and thanked me in a very polite
manner for what he had seen.

' I don't know how you can make your way to Ports
mouth ; there I can give you room for a week. Last
Monday I was introduced by the Duke of York
and Lord Castlereagh to all the illustrious visitors of
Woolwich including the Prince Regent.

' Yours in haste,
" M. I. BRUNEL."

At this time Brunei was engaged on his great works
at Chatham, and in 1816 we find Ellicombe at Chatham
as Resident Engineer.

While Brunei was in France in that year the Navy
Board wrote on May 9 to inform him that they had
" desired Commissioner Sir Robert Barlow to signify
to Mr. Ellicombe that his services are no longer required
at Chatham to superintend the works connected with
the saw mills." To which Ellicombe replied that being
Mr. Brunei's agent he could not abandon the trust
committed to him during his absence or without his

H. T. ELLACOMBE 15

authority. To this the Navy Board replied that no
salary would be paid to him as from the day on which
his services were stated to be no longer required.
Brunei on his return was dismayed to learn of the
dismissal of his resident engineer, and remonstrated
with the Navy Board as to the " nature as well as the
manner of their act." " If for so short a period," he
adds, " as two or three weeks, Mr. Ellicombe's exertions
and labours have not been so actively and usefully
employed as they were before, it is because others have
not been as expeditious in the execution of the works
they had to perform as I had expected."

' Mr. Ellicombe's services have not been continued
by me solely for the purpose of superintending the saw
mill, but for directing the execution of the works in
general, and for giving them the effect they should
arrive at before they can be left to the management of
others.

" No part of the work evinces greater proof of ability
and judgment, than the manner in which the timber-
lifting apparatus has been put up and brought into
action.

11 What remains to be fixed cannot be combined with
the existing works, nor connected as it should be, unless
I have the entire management of the concern, as I have
hitherto had, nor unless I have the choice of instruments
I think necessary to my purpose. Mr. Ellicombe being,
from his superior education, liberal connections, and
his uncommon acquirements, fitted in every respect,
I trust that, if your honourable Board has no personal
objection to him, he will be allowed to continue where
he is in the character of my confidential agent in
superintending my Chatham engagement until I shall
have completed it.

16 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" Waiting for your honourable Board's directions and
instructions, I have the honour to be, Sirs,
" Your most obedient and most humble servant,

" M. I. BRUNEL."
" CHELSEA,

May 15, 1816."

To Brunei's remonstrance, the Commissioners ex
pressed their consent to Mr. Ellicombe remaining a
further time in the superintendence of the works ; but
in their short-sighted eagerness for economy, they
desired to be informed " how much longer it is likely
that Mr. Ellicombe's attendance, at the public expense,
will be absolutely necessary."

Ellicombe, however, had already left Chatham in
disgust and returned to Oxford, where this letter was
forwarded to him.

He thus returned to study for ordination, not, as the
Navy Board put it in their letter to Brunei of June 17,
1816, ' 'from motives of self-advantage and convenience/ *
but, as he himself stated in his reply to the Navy
Board forwarded to Brunei — which was not, however,
sent, and for which Brunei substituted a letter of his
own — " from a conviction that if work and genius like
his (Brunei's) can meet with no better reward than was
fallen to his share it is not worth any man's while of
ordinary abilities to exert and harass himself for such
a trifling reward ; and therefore having obtained Mr.
Brunei's dismissal, I return to the profession of the
Church for which I was originally intended."

Brunei's letter to Ellicombe in reply is of interest
as showing the confidence he placed in him and the
high opinion he had formed of his abilities.

" Few, my good friend," he writes, " combine with

H. T. ELLACOMBE 17

a steadiness of mind those qualifications and acquire
ments you are blessed with. Few, indeed, unite in that
moral composition, the advantages you possess. To
divert all these talents from their useful course, is to
deprive your country of the benefit that must have
resulted from your labours, and yourself of that reward
which would ultimately have been the share of your
perseverance. To the five talents you have received
shall you not have to say, in return, Ecce alia quinque ?
As to myself, I must submit to the loss I cannot prevent,
and which I feel most particularly at this time. Alone
in the middle of the action, or at any rate, in the thickest
part of it, a great deal still remains to be performed,
before I can say I have closed the career in Chatham
dockyard.

" The share I had assigned to you, left me at leisure
to ponder upon what came next ; but now no one have
I at the helm — none through whom I can convey my
directions and ideas — and by the co-operation of whom
I can proceed with confidence. If you still continue
in your determination of returning to the Church, may
you, my good friend, prove as great an ornament to it
as you would have been in that most arduous career in
which you leave your very sincere friend, with one of his
lights out."

Thus the engineering profession lost the services of
a man well fitted by his natural endowments to have
made a distinguished position for himself, and though
the adoption of the clerical life led him into very differ
ent paths his mechanical tastes and engineering know
ledge were by no means lost to the country.

Ellicombe took his M.A. degree at Oxford and was
ordained in 1816 by the Bishop of Exeter to the curacy
of Cricklade, Wiltshire, and in 1817 was appointed

i8 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

curate-in-charge of Bitton by his friend Archdeacon
Macdonald, the patron of the living, who appointed
himself vicar of Bitton at that same time.1 In 1835 the
Archdeacon resigned the living of Bitton and appointed
H. T. Ellicombe vicar in his stead, and it is interesting
to record that the Canon was also presented to Bitton
by Archdeacon Macdonald when his father resigned in
1850.

While working at Chatham under Brunei, H. T.
Ellicombe became engaged to Miss Nicholson, a very
beautiful daughter of a Government contractor at
Chatham, who among other works built many of the
Martello towers round our coasts when there was the
fear of a Napoleonic invasion. Some of these, by
curious chance, were destroy ed by his grandson, General
Nicholson, a gunner, who with his brother, Sir Henry
Nicholson, were very dear friends of the Canon.

By this marriage there was one son (the Canon) and
five daughters. The Canon was born at Bitton
vicarage on February 18, 1822, and was christened
Henry Nicholson, the latter being his mother's maiden
name. Of his sisters, only one was married, her husband
being Mr. Welland, who held the living of Tollerton,
near Ottery St. Mary. There were no children, and

1 The Prebendal stall of Bitton is still so named in Salisbury
Cathedral ; it was endowed by the great tithes of Bitton, the
holder of it being therefore in the position of lay rector. Until
within recent years the Prebendal house at Bitton was called the
rectory, so that there were both a rectory and a vicarage in the
parish, an uncommon occurrence. The rectory has lately been
named The Grange in order to prevent confusion with the vicarage.

In connection with these notes on the parish of Bitton it is of
interest to record that Sir Bartle Frere's brother settled here in
1833, and lived at the rectory, an interesting old house, which
formerly belonged to the Seymours. The family is kept in grateful
memory by the almshouses which were their gift to the parish.

H. T. ELLACOMBE 19

she died after a long widowhood full of good works.
Another, Elizabeth, was a woman of great mental and
bodily activity, and in addition a very good linguist
and musician. She was devoted to Church work.

Elizabeth Ellacombe died in March, 1910. During
her long life she gave of her best to the Church in so
cfuiet and unobtrusive a manner that little is known of
her labour of love and life of self-devotion. A writer
in the Church Times of April i, 1910, writes as follows :

" Last week one passed away who has done more work
for the Church than is generally recognized, as, in
addition to great gifts and devotion, she possessed a
modesty and humility rarely equalled. To Elizabeth
Ellacombe the Church in England owes the introduction
of Dupanloup's Method of the Catechism, for it was
she who translated the book, though she suppressed an
edition on which the publisher had put her name. . . .
She was an ardent botanist and gardener ; the friend of
Mrs. Ewing and the Gattys, she knew the ' Soldiers'
children,' and other characters in those unrivalled
books. Some of the Tractarians were her friends and
guides, and few passes in Switzerland were unknown
to her. How many languages she studied and spoke it
would be hard to say, and late in life she learnt Braille
for the benefit of the blind ; but all her culture and
learning were for the good of the Church.

11 When I first knew her she lived in the house in
Great College Street where she died, and the comment
of a little maid she had gives the keynote of her life :
' Miss Ellacombe isn't any trouble to me. She never
wants hot water in the morning, for it keeps hot all night
in a basket. She doesn't have early tea ; all she cares
for is to go to seven o'clock service at St. Matthew's,
and she doesn't want anything cooked for breakfast.

20 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Then she hardly has any lunch, and she doesn't have
afternoon tea, and just something simple for dinner.
She isn't any trouble to me. . . .'

" Her Sundays put younger women to shame : 7
a.m. at St. Matthew's ; then at 9.30 she played for the
service at the Chapel of the Good Shepherd ; and later
read at the Grosvenor Hospital. In the afternoon she
played for the service at the Refuge, and when she had
passed seventy she spoke apologetically of having given
up her Sunday-school class.

" No one can say how great her influence was in
getting the daily Celebration at Westminster Abbey,
and when the Cowley Fathers settled in Great College
Street, she sent an ambassador to them, fearing lest their
daily Eucharist would diminish the number in the
Abbey. Perhaps it would be true to say that she lived
on the tenth of her income, and gave the rest away."

A third sister, Jane Ellacombe, it is of interest to
record, was one of the two ladies who were the first to
enter the religious life on its revival in the English
Church, as a member of Dr. Pusey's first sisterhood.
The Canon's mother died when she was quite young,
and his father married twice afterwards. By his second
wife he had one son and one daughter ; the son died
while he was up at Oxford. By his third wife, who
predeceased him, there was no issue.

H. T. Ellacombe, as from now onwards the name will
be spelt, had not been long at Bitton before his interest
in works and buildings began to be re-asserted.

While at Oriel in the days of Provost Eveleigh he was
an intimate friend of John Henry Newman, and to this
friendship and to friendships with other prominent
members of the Oxford movement may be attributed
in some measure his practical interest in church building,

H. T. ELLACOMBE 21

and more especially no doubt the manner in which the
works were carried out.

This influence may be traced in his earliest work, the
restoration of the ancient parish church of Bitton. As
early as 1820 he made alterations in the interior
arrangements when the old double pews were swept
away, and the new life which was being infused into
the Church and her services was noticeable in all his
later work.

The parish of Bitton, when he was appointed vicar,
comprised an extraordinary area, to which the great size
of the churchyard still bears witness. The church also
is remarkable among other features for its fine tower,
and the old vicar was known to say that he could
almost worship the man by whom it was designed and
built.

Owing no doubt to the unwieldy size of the parish,
which rendered it impossible to be worked properly
by the vicar residing at Bitton, Mr. Ellacombe set out
to provide for the proper spiritual welfare of the more
outlying portions, and at the same time was able to
indulge his interest in church building.

The first example of his activity in this direction was
the re-building of Oldland Church in 1829, now for
more than half a century a separate parish. The
re-building of the church at Oldland involved the
taking down of the interesting little mediaeval chapel of
St. Anne, and the new edifice was considered in 1829 an
architectural triumph. In after life, however, Mr.
Ellacombe never ceased to regret the destruction of the
earlier building. All that can be said of the present
church is that for that period it certainly might have
been worse ! In 1844, he built Christ Church, Hanham.
Archdeacon Norris notes in his Register, under the date

22 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

September 3, 1887, that Pusey, Keble, Denison, and
others were among the subscribers. The almsdish
bears the inscription : " Dederunt Vicarii Bittonensis
filii filiaeque." In 1851, Warmley Church was conse
crated, the district having been formed a few years
previously in part from the parish of Bitton.

An interesting account of the vicar, written apparently
in 1847, and of his activities is given by " The Bristol
Church Goer " in His Visits to Bitton, etc.1

' ' The vicar of Bitton (who, by the way, I must not for
get to remark, read the lessons to my mind much too
rapidly) is one of the most indefatigable men in the world.
He is one of those men, who, if you placed him in the
desert of Arabia, would I believe have half a dozen
churches up about him in little more than that number
of years. I'm afraid to say how many he has built in the
parish of Bitton, which was once almost as bad as
Arabia ; but I think I am correct in stating that he found
it with one, and that he has managed to add four or five
others, and by the time he is gathered to his fathers
as many more will I expect stand as monuments of
his untiring, his unconquerable zeal and services to a
large district, once so destitute of the proper means
of public worship. Where he gets, or got, the money
for them all, heaven knows, I don't ; but I should say
he must have been a most intrepid beggar and indef atig-

1 The pamphlet bears the date 1849, and may have been pub
lished separately afterwards The date 1847 can be fixed by the
fact that on the Sunday " The Church Goer " attended service at
Bitton " the vicar announced that his son [the Canon] was a can
didate for Deacon's orders at the next ordination and solemnly
called on the congregation, according to the custom enjoined in
such cases, if they knew any cause why he should not take upon
him the holy office, in the Name of God to declare it." The Canon
was ordained in 1847.

H. T. ELLACOMBE 23

able man, to do what he has done ; he restored the
mother church ; he rebuilt Oldland ; perched a pretty
new chapel on Jefferies' Hill ; and planted another
amongst the coalpits of Kingswood ; and too good a
Churchman to confine his labours to his own parish,
he is setting one or two on foot at Siston, and in all he
is as cool-headed and as cool-handed as you can well
imagine ; he is too ' old a stager,' as somebody assured
me, to be put out by a trifle ; ' high and dry/ he rubs
on, enlarging the borders of the Church, while others
are squabbling about her — erecting altars, while others
are fighting about turning their faces towards, to, or
from them. His energy would make him a capital
Colonial Bishop, and if he could be tempted to take
Hong-Kong, the island, I'll be bound, would be full of
churches in less than no time. One only wishes he had
a more grateful and better field for his exertions, for
his parish is eaten up with Dissenters, whose ideas of
religious duty are comprised in a few hours' cleanliness,
on Sunday evenings, and ' sitting under ' a preacher
for some sixty minutes. It must be, and I doubt not is,
very disheartening to the vicar to see so scanty an
attendance of poor at the parish church ; for though
there are not many in Bitton itself, the poor being
principally in Oldland, more ought to come, and would
if they were not drawn off by the meeting-houses, with
which on a Sunday afternoon the region round about
is literally vocal."

Chanting in church was then coming into vogue and
meeting with some opposition, but from the " Church
Goer's " accounts some portions of the service were
chanted at Bitton, and had been for several years, and
he notes that " nothing could be more generally or
agreeably done."

24 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

In addition to his alterations at the parish church
and his building of three others, providing seats for
2,285 worshippers, he built a schoolroom for 820 children
and carried out numerous alterations and additions to
the vicarage.

With the vicarage the old vicar indulged his love
of building to the full. The " Bristol Church Goer"
remarks :

" I should hardly have known the vicarage as I passed
it on my way to the church. ... In my old friend
Mr. Curtis' time it was a plain building ; on the present
vicar entering it as curate it was tastefully improved,
but on his becoming incumbent, it grew with his growth
into quite a Gothic edifice, with a great array of Oriel
windows " ; and he goes on : "On this same progressive
principle I expect to see it a palace by the time he has
expanded into a bishop."

The following motto 1 on a shield in the courtyard of
the vicarage indicates that the main alterations were
completed in 1835 :

To MY SUCCESSOR.

If thou chance to find
A new home to thy mind
And built without thy cost —
Be good to the poor
As God gives thee store
And then my labour's not lost.
H. T. E. MDCCCXXXV.

H. T. Ellacombe was also keenly interested in music,
and was in particular a leading authority on church
bells and bell-ringing. The Canon inherited his father's
interest in church bells, and in response to a remark in

1 This motto was originally put up by George Herbert at
Bemerton. See the Canon's paper on House Mottoes reprinted in
this volume, p. 268.

H. T. ELLACOMBE 25

the Bristol Times and Mirror he wrote : " Bells were
rung on every occasion, and it was a sort of unwritten
law that any one who chose to pay the ringers might
have a peal for almost anything. My father, a ringer
from his youth, set himself to reform belfries, and to
make them as much a part of the church as the nave
or chancel. In 1848 he drew up a set of rules for Bitton
ringers which are still in force, and have been copied
in many other churches. The 27th rule runs thus :
' The use of the bells is to be strictly confined to
ecclesiastical purposes ; they are not to be rung for any
political matters, such as elections; nor law suits, trials,
and such like ; nor for prizes ; nor for any unusual
special purpose.' " This rule indicates fairly clearly
the various secular purposes for which church bells
were rung in the earlier part of the nineteenth century,
and their disuse for such purposes may no doubt be
traced to the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe's initiative. His
book, entitled Practical Remarks on Belfries and Bell-
ringers, with an Appendix on Chiming* reached a second
edition, and shows that his influence must have been
fairly widely dispersed. He also wrote accounts of the
church bells of Devon, Somerset, and Gloucester.
The study of bells also gave scope for his inventive
genius, as we learn from the Bristol Church Goer's
pamphlet that he was struck on entering Bitton Church
" with a very simple but curious mode of chiming the
bells ; one boy without the slightest labour chiming the
whole set." " The ingenious device/' he adds, " is, I
believe, the vicar's."
Among the Canon's interesting collection of bound

1 Practical Remarks on Belfries and Bell-ringers, with an Appendix
on Chiming, by the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe. Bell and Daldy. He
also edited The Ringer's True Guide, by S. Beaufoy.

26 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

pamphlets, a well-known feature of the library to the
Canon's friends, was an interesting sermon preached by
H. T. Ellacombe in 1862 when he was at Clyst St. George
on the occasion of the inauguration of the full peal of
six bells, one of which had been subscribed for by the
parishioners in memory of the Prince Consort and two
others had been added two years before. In the course
of his remarks on the music of bells and the sentiments
they awake he aptly quotes from the Merchant of
Venice :

" The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treason's stratagems and spoils,
Let no such man be trusted."

" Let us hope," he concludes, " that long may England's
bells ring on, telling of peace and happiness at home, and
above all proclaiming that she is a Christian land." l

By his will H. T. Ellacombe left his models of a
printing press and tower bells as well as his collection
of bells to the South Kensington Museum.

Another example of his mechanical genius was the
watch which he constructed and which the Canon wore
until the day of his death.

H. T. Ellacombe's interest in bells and bell-ringing
was no doubt partly stimulated by the opportunities
they afforded him to exercise his mechanical abilities,
but more especially we believe by his love and knowledge
of music. Not only did he introduce chanting in church
at Bitton at an early date, but he was a friend and
patron of Robert Lucas de Pearsall, the writer of madri
gals, whose work approaches very nearly in excellence
to that of the great Elizabethan madrigalists.

1 " The Bells of the Church," preached Monday, November 24,
1862. Bell and Daldy.

H. T. ELLACOMBE 27

Pearsall lived at Willsbridge House, Bitton, until
July, 1837, and Elizabeth Ellacombe, the old vicar's
daughter already mentioned, helped the composer in
writing out the voice parts of his compositions.

From the records of the Bristol Madrigal Society
we learn that two of the compositions which Miss
Ellacombe helped to copy, " An Ancient Norse Melody "
and '* Who shall have my Lady Fair," were first sung by
the Society on May 22, 1839.

Visitors to Bitton will remember that the table in
the dining-room at the vicarage was originally in
PearsalFs dining-room and was purchased by the Canon' s
father on the sale of Pearsall's effects. It may also
be noted here that the oak pulpit in Bitton Church was
presented by Pearsall in 1838.

The old vicar is also well known for his antiquarian
researches both at Bitton and at Clyst St. George. He
wrote a history of the manor of Bitton,1 a history of
the parish of Bitton, and a history of Clyst St. George,
and was an active member of the Society of Antiquaries.

The history of the parish of Bitton2 was privately
printed by W. Pollard, of Exeter, and consisted of two
parts. The second part, bearing the date 1883,

1 A Memoir of the Manor of Bitton, compiled from Ancient Records,
by the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, M.A., formerly vicar of Bitton,
1869. J. B. Nichols. This was first published in The Herald and
Genealogist.

2 Ellacombe's (Rev. H. T., F.A.S.) History of the Parish of Bitton
in the County of Gloucester, in two parts, comprising : Introduction,
The Common Meadows, Annals of the Forest and Chase of Kings-
wood, Manufactories, Appendix, Records relating to West Hanham,
Manors, Bristol, Barton, and Kingswood Chase, splendidly enriched
with numerous folding coloured maps and plans, coloured plates,
with copious engravings, exhibiting specimens of the architecture,
ancient monuments, etc., 4/0, newly and handsomely half bound
in antique calf extra, as new, privately printed for author, £2 2s.
Exeter, 1881.

28 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

commences with chapter vi. and contains an account
of the Manufactories, the Geology, the Flora, and the
Antiquities and Ancient Records. The Geological
chapter was contributed by the Rev. H. H. Winwood,
M.A., F.G.S., and the account of the Flora, consisting
of a list of plants with their English names arranged
according to their natural families, was drawn up by
the Canon. In a footnote the old vicar states : " I am
indebted to the filial courtesy of my son for this list of
plants." This is followed by the list of herbaceous
and bulbous plants grown in the garden of Bitton vicar
age in the year 1831 by the Rev. Henry Thomas Ella-
combe, then curate of Bitton. A list of the trees and
shrubs was printed in The Garden for July 31, 1880,
from a MS. catalogue dated 1831, and is here repro
duced as an appendix.

To these tastes and interests H. T. Ellacombe added
a keen interest in gardening, and there can be no doubt
that it was his example and his foundation of the fine
collection of plants in the vicarage garden at Bitton
that led his son and successor there into the paths of
horticulture and botany and into becoming one of the
most prominent figures amongst the amateur gardeners
of the Victorian era.

The trees and shrubs cultivated at Bitton afford a
good example of the interest taken in horticulture by
the elder Ellacombe, and many an amateur gardener
or botanical establishment to-day would welcome an
opportunity of recovering some of the interesting old
garden plants, and especially the roses, enumerated in
this list.

On leaving Bitton in 1850 for the Rectory of Clyst
St. George, a village near the old Devonshire town of
Topsham, he continued to keep up a lively interest in

H. T. ELLACOMBE 29

gardening and set about making a new collection of
plants there like the one he had established at Bit ton.
Neither was his interest in building and church restora
tion in anyway abated, as he carried out extensive alter
ations at the rectory and also restored the nave of the
church, and rebuilt the chancel.1 In 1860 he erected
a school-house and a residence for the master.

H. T. Ellacombe maintained an extensive corre
spondence with the leading horticulturists and botanists
of his day. Thanks to the generosity of the Canon,
we have at Kew a fairly complete collection of the
letters received by his father between the years 1828 and
1845, and it includes letters from W. T. Alton, of Kew ;
Anderson, of the Chelsea Physic Garden ; W. Baxter,
of the Oxford Botanic Garden ; R. Carr, of the Bartram
Botanic Garden, Philadelphia, from whom he received
a consignment of plants ; S. Curtis ; S. Benson and
later N. S. Hodson, of the Botanic Garden, Bury St.
Edmunds ; F. E. L. Fischer, St. Petersburgh ; J. S.
Henslow ; W. Herbert ; T. T. Mackay, Trinity College
Garden, Dublin ; Stewart Murray, Glasgow Botanic
Garden ; Mirbel, Jardin du Roi, Paris ; D. Moore,
Royal Dublin Society's Botanic Garden, with whom
he got into correspondence through the Archbishop
of Dublin ; Fr. Otto, of the Botanic Garden, Berlin,
from whom he received several parcels of plants ; R.
Sweet and others. From these letters it appears that
the first recorded sending of plants to Bitton from Kew
took place in the year 1828, when a parcel containing
twenty-one plants was " forwarded per Pickwick's

1 The vicar of Alphington, writing to Mr. Janson, says : " Henry
Ellacombe's love of decoration can be seen at Clyst St. George,
truly an extraordinary effect, and his tree planting there is mar
vellous."

30 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

coach to the Rev. H. Ellicombe, Bath." In the same
note a large number of desiderata are mentioned with
the note, " Mr. Aiton will be thankful for any species
of the annexed list that may be quite convenient to Mr.
Ellicombe to spare for His Majesty's Botanick Garden,
Kew." Kew also possesses another interesting collec
tion of letters written to the Rev. H. T. Ellicombe by
A. H. Haworth, the well-known authority on Liliaceae,
etc., between 1829 an(i T833- The letters throw an
interesting light on the wide botanical interest of the
Canon's father. His last letter to the Director of Kew
which has been preserved bears the date February 9,
1875, and was written from the rectory, Clyst St.
George, Topsham.

" Though it is a long time ago since I had any com
munication with Kew — not I think since Mr. Aiton' s
time ! — my name is not perhaps unknown to you as the
founder of the fine collection of herbaceous plants at
Bitton and the old father of the present gardener and
possessor.

" I therefore venture to ask if you can supply me
with any of the hardies in the annexed list ? 1 cannot
find them anywhere. The rose I left at Bitton. I
received it from Berlin, it has a red foliage like a red
beech. Aponogeton distachyon — this though a Cape
plant — was not injured by a hard frost in December, and
the blossoms were frozen in,and in bunches upon the ice.

" I shall be very thankful and gratified if you can
make up my wants, and do me the favour to allow
what you can spare to be sent to me. My address as
above and South Western Rail to Topsham. You will
very much oblige and gratify,

" Yours faithfully,
" H. T. ELLACOMBE."

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

From a miniature painted in 1817

H. T. ELLACOMBE 31

The Alton referred to was William Townsend Alton,
with whom he corresponded in 1828. W. T. Alton
succeeded his father, William Alton, as Chief Super
intendent of the Royal Gardens at Kew in February,
1793, and held the post until 1840, when he resigned
and was succeeded as Director by Sir William Hooker.

Henry Thomas Ellacombe lived and ministered at
Clyst St. George until his death in 1885 at the age of
ninety-five, after sixty-eight years of active service as
a parish priest, and was buried at Bitton. By his death,
as our record shows, there passed away a man remark
able both in his wide interests and in his conspicuous
ability who, had he so willed, might have occupied a
very important position in the public life of the
country.1

H. T. Ellacombe was a remarkably vigorous person
ality, and something of an autocrat in his ways, as
is suggested by the photograph taken about 1850
(p. 12). In contrast to the Canon, he was a short
man, and not so well favoured in looks, the Canon
inheriting his fine features mainly from his mother.
The miniature of him here reproduced, taken in 1817,
the year he went to Bitton, shows a very pleasing alert
face and gives evidence of the keen and active mind that
lay behind it.

1 A list of his books and papers is given in the Dictionary of
National Biography.

CHAPTER II
PEARSALL AND THE ELLACOMBES

THE following account of Robert Lucas de Pearsall,
the musician, who was so closely associated with
both H. T. Ellacombe and the Canon, has been contri
buted by Miss Ellen Willmott.

To write a narrative of the Ellacombe friendships
would be a formidable undertaking, for Bitton vicarage
was a centre to which gravitated so many of the notable
men and women of the time. The Canon's father had
a genius for friendships, whilst the Canon himself with
his wide and varied interests and his attractive person
ality won friends on every side throughout his life. One
of the great names of the early days is Robert Lucas de
Pearsall, a Gloucestershire man and a close and intimate
friend of the Ellacombe family. Born in 1795, he
owned Willsbridge, the adjoining village to Bitton, on
the Bristol Road. Willsbridge House, built on an
eminence high above the road, looks down upon the
picturesque little village below and over the tree-tops
to the ironworks, long since disused and nestling in
romantic seclusion by the large pool amongst the
trees.

Pearsall's tastes being far removed from business, he
determined to close down the ironworks and devote
himself entirely to musical and literary pursuits. He
had been called to the Bar, but decided to give it up and

32

PEARSALL AND THE ELLACOMBES 33

study music seriously in Germany. Eventually he sold
the Willsbridge property, and some years later bought
the Castle of Wartensee, on the Lake of Constance,
Canton of St. Gall, Switzerland, where he passed the
last fourteen years of his life and died in 1855. At
Willsbridge he was in congenial surroundings, for the
Canon's father was himself musical and encouraged
music in his own family and in his church choir. Thus
the two forms of music in which Pearsall delighted
were fostered by his environment and could find daily
expression. He wrote madrigals and glees which were
sung at the vicarage and coached by him. Many
of his madrigals were written at this time either at the
vicarage or for the vicarage circle. Miss Ellacombe
had a beautiful voice, and her brother and sisters
all sang well. Musical cousins and friends often visited
them and then Pearsall was in his element composing
and conducting, and there was much part-singing. He
often wrote the music for special occasions of local
interest, thus the Bitton Clothing Club had its incidental
music, and a clever caricature of its members still
exists, but much of this music has been lost.

The following letter was written by Miss Saunders
to her mother on May 28, 1839, fr°m Bitton :

" As you wish to know about Mr. Pearsall I shall
begin by telling you that he is an oldish man of a middle
height, very fat and quite bald. He does not talk much,
but what he says is very agreeable and much to the
purpose. He sits all day when he is here composing
and copying music and practising madrigals with my
cousins and Miss Ellacombe, but he is a good deal away.
He makes this his headquarters and then goes away for
a few days at a time to stay with other friends in the
neighbourhood, and he is now away for a week. We had

34 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

a very pleasant little sort of party here on Thursday,
ten people singing the whole time. I have only seen
Henry [the Canon] two or three times and think him
an exceedingly nice boy with plenty of fun and a nice
open ingenuous-looking face. Jane has been in a
dreadful fuss about what she should do when Mr.
Pearsall, Miss Ellacombe and I are all gone after having
had such a house full/'

At this time Pearsall began to be interested in Church
music and set to work with the Bitton choir, seeking
to banish some of the many defects common at that
time in Anglican chanting. At the instigation of
Mr. Ellacombe he began writing " Observations upon
Anglican Chanting," with the intention of publishing
a book upon the subject. He worked upon it on
and off all his life and completed it at Wartensee, but
it was never published until, after being edited by
Mr. Barclay Squire, it appeared in the magazine of the
International Musical Society as a commemoration of
the fiftieth anniversary of Pearsall's death.

Some of the defects in Anglican chanting which
gave rise to Pearsall' s remarks are happily matters of
past history, yet as a scientific study of the whole
subject and as an example of the author's clear and well
expressed literary style, the essay can still be perused
with profit. The following extract from an unpublished
letter written by Pearsall less than a year before his death
to a friend to whom he had sent the MS. is of interest :
' You know already, I think, that in the autumn
of the last year I was visited by an attack of apoplexy,
and the consequences of that attack have deprived
me of everything like that sort of energy and activity
of mind which fit one for an active correspondent, and
independently of this misfortune, I have had other

PEARSALL AND THE ELLACOMBES 35

grievous troubles which make me sigh for nothing so
much as the release from this world of torment and
which make even the sight of the words of the old Roman
Catholic Requiem, ' Da nobis pacem,' a sort of consola
tion to me. As an unworthy member of our Church of
England religion I ought not to hold forth in praise of
that of Rome, but somehow or other the latter offers
great consolation to a man whose heart is attuned to
poetry and whose spirit is broken down by misfortune ;
under such circumstances even the signing a cross with
holy water on one's forehead seems to convey an assur
ance of comfort, and I can now well understand the
feeling of Henry IV of France when he made a cross
on his breast as he mounted the walls of a battery under
a heavy fire, although he was then only known as
a confirmed Calvanistic Protestant, and I like him all
the better for having in that manner given way to the
dictates of his heart. As to your question whether
I would like to publish my ' Observations on Chanting/
I thank you for bearing in mind my probable wishes and
answer that I should like it much, for if it proves
nothing else it will prove that I have not lived quite in
vain. But as you have had something to do with
carrying my ideas out I should like to do my best in
publishing to present myself as well as possible to the
musical world, for to do my best will be at least a
recommendation of my poor abilities, and I think that
in this cold-hearted world of ours no one should let
slip any opportunity of recommending himself, for no
one can guard himself against an hour of need, when
even the good opinion of a stupid churchwarden may
obtain him bread and cheese."

He had written many hymns for Bitton and arranged
several services. Some are still in MS., but the greater

36 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

part were unfortunately destroyed at the death of Miss
Ellacombe, the Canon's younger sister, who had lived
for many years in Great College Street, Westminster (see
p. 19). The Canon, who was ill at the time of her death,
was unable to go to London ; and thus many of Pearsall' s
letters, sketches, music, and other MS. were lost, while
some Miss Ellacombe had already given away.

Besides his work upon Anglican chanting, Pearsall
wrote much for the Catholic Liturgy and edited a hymn-
book for St. Gall, which was published after his death.
The greater part of his work in this direction, however,
is still in MS. He was one of those who was largely
responsible for establishing "Caecilienvereine," which
have so greatly influenced the direction of Church music.
It seems strange that outside Bristol PearsalFs name
as a composer should have been comparatively unknown
in English contemporary musical circles. The Bristol
Madrigal Society had indeed from time to time given
his part music at their concerts, and were always glad
to produce anything from his pen, and he always kept in
close touch with them; but away from this rather
restricted circle his name was scarcely known in
England, even as late as the first edition of Grove's
Dictionary. His retiring disposition, coupled with his
long residence abroad, may in a certain measure account
for this. Certain it is that he did not take the smallest
trouble to get his music published, and beyond
" Great God of Love,"
" The Hardy Norseman,"
" Take heed, ye Shepherd Swains,"
" When Allen a Dale went a hunting,"
" Oh, who will o'er the Downs so free/'
none of his compositions were published during his
lifetime.

PEARSALL AND THE ELLACOMBES 37

He left a mass of MS., and a certain number of his
madrigals, glees and part-songs were published by his
daughter, Mrs. Swinnerton Hughes, after his death.
It was in this very typical and English music that he
excelled, and for beauty, charm, imagination and variety
they can scarcely be surpassed. Since their publication
his name has become known wherever unaccompanied
singing is performed, and his madrigals and other part
music have taken the high place they merit.

Until comparatively recent years, Bristol was the
only town where his music had been heard. The Bristol
Madrigal Society was instituted in 1837 and obtained
a well-deserved popularity by the artistic rendering of
madrigals and part-songs. It is still in existence and
flourishing, and happily maintains its high reputation.
Pearsall, whilst he was living at Willsbridge, wrote for
the society

" Shoot false love,"

" All ye Nuns,"

" I will arise,"

' Why weeps alas,"

"I saw lovely Phyllis,"

and they were sung by it at Bristol in March, May and
June, 1837. Upon the occasion of his visits to England
Pearsall generally wrote something for the Society and
attended the performance. On one occasion it was
arranged that the vicarage party with Pearsall should
drive over to Bristol for the madrigal concert. The
Canon had ordered a carriage for the purpose, but the
coachman proved to be so hopelessly drunk that the
Canon had to take the reins himself and thus succeeded
in getting his party safely to Bristol and back. But
the great evening was the hundredth anniversary of
Pearsall' s birth, when the Society gave a concert of his

38 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

music. His younger daughter, Mrs. Swinnerton Hughes,
was staying at Bitton for the occasion, and she was
greeted with a great ovation.

On October i, 1915, the Society had the happy idea
of making a pilgrimage to Bitton and Willsbridge, and
singing some of the madrigals which had been written
there. Pearsall's study at Willsbridge House is just as
it was in his day and we were all greatly interested in
seeing it. In the garden the fine old mulberry tree still
flourishes as it did a hundred years ago when the
Pearsalls, Ellacombes and Creswicks used to meet for
alfresco repasts followed by part singing.

At Bitton vicarage the singers sat around the very
table at which Pearsall had written the madrigals, and
in church they sang the singing exercise which had
been written for the choristers to put them in good
voice before the practice.

On this memorable October i, 1915, occurred the
last of the Canon's hospitable gatherings at the vicarage.
He was as well and as bright as ever and seemed
thoroughly to enjoy the happy little commemoration
of his early friends. He spoke to us all individually
and we little thought the end was so near. The mention
of Pearsall's name always pleased him ; he said it took
his memory back to his young days, and he was never
tired of relating reminiscences of Pearsall. He generally
had some fresh anecdote to tell about him or something
to show me. He always brought out the Bitton
Chronicles ; folio volumes full of interest and illustrated
with sketches and prints added to from time to time by
the Canon or his father. One volume was written
entirely by Pearsall in his beautiful neat hand and clear
concise style. There were drawings of the picturesque
little church of Oldland with its most romantic old

PEARSALL AND THE ELLACOMBES 39

village as it was in Pearsall's day; even now it still
wears much the same aspect, although the interesting
old church has had to make way for a modern one, and
a few of the old cottages have disappeared. Hanham
Court, where dwelt the Pearsalls' nearest neighbours
and great friends, the Creswicks, has since been pulled
down. Pearsall had many stories and legends to tell
of the old place and its owners.

There is still much of an old-world atmosphere about
Willsbridge, Bitton and Oldland, the three villages
almost within a stone's throw of each other. Anything
more typical of rural England as it was a century ago
could scarcely be found. The steep wooded banks, the
various flowery chines and the little thatched cottages
in the villages all make that remote part of the country
one of the most romantic I have ever seen. Many a time
I have walked along the footpath and over the downs
from Bitton to Willsbridge through Oldland, so often
traversed by the Pearsalls and Ellacombes in those far-
off days, and I have in spirit pictured the light-hearted
young people laughing, talking and singing as they
returned from one of their musical gatherings.

CHAPTER III
HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

THE outline which has been given of the life and
activities of the old vicar of Bitton throws some
light on the character, tastes, and interests of Henry
Nicholson Ellacombe, his son, the memory of whose
life is a source of unfading joy to all those whose
privilege it was to be admitted to his friendship.

It has unfortunately been extremely difficult to
ascertain particulars of the Canon's early life. He
outlived all his early contemporaries, and the memories
of his later friends, so far as they are concerned with
him, do not go back much more than forty years. As
a matter of fact, Canon Ellacombe' s life was centred
almost wholly in Bitton parish, Bitton church, and in
his vicarage and garden. Full of interest and beauty
as was his life, it was not eventful in the ordinary
sense of the term.

He was born at Bitton on February 18, 1822, and
lived there quietly with his half-brother and sisters.
In fact, with the exception of the year he was a
curate in Derbyshire, Bitton was always his home.

His early education was no doubt received from
his father, who, by way of augmenting his income,
used to take pupils at the vicarage, and later he
was sent to Bath Grammar School, where he was
taught by Dr. Pears. In 1840 he went up to Oriel

40

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 41

College, Oxford, his father's college, where he gradu
ated in 1844. At Oxford his acquaintances among
the senior and junior members appear to have been
remarkable. Among various relics from those stir
ring days he preserved a letter, written by himself
from Oriel in 1841 to his father, relating how the
condemnatory judgment which followed the publi
cation of Tract XC., on being posted in the College
Hall, was forthwith torn down.

Like his father he was strongly influenced by the
Oxford movement, and may be classed as a High
Churchman of the old school. The views he formed
in these early days no doubt found expression in
later years in the character of the works of restoration
he effected at Bitton.

When he first went up to Oxford it was by coach,
and the route from Bath was by way of Cirencester,
where the midday meal was served. The driver
of the coach being a well-known character this
means of transit was a very popular one.

Among other reminiscences of the old coaching
times, the Canon used to tell how, in his very early
days when the family went to London, probably to
stay with his maternal grandparents, his father
used to book the inside of the coach and put them
all in — and it was a very close fit. Once, too, when
Ellacombe was returning to Bitton from Oxford the
coachman, who was very rheumatic, asked him if
he could drive four-in-hand. Ellacombe told him
he thought he could tackle his team, and so to rest
his aching arms drove it a considerable distance.

In 1847 Ellacombe was ordained deacon and priest
by the Bishop of Lichfield and was licensed to the
curacy of Sudbury in Derbyshire. While here he did

42 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

some tutoring in addition to his clerical work, and had
as his pupil Ernald Lane, who afterwards became Dean
of Rochester, and for whom the Canon always had a
very deep affection.

In after life he used often to stay with him at
Rochester, as he had done with his predecessor, Dean
Hole, the well-known writer and authority on
roses.

In 1848 Ellacombe took his M.A. degree, and in the
same year ceased to be curate at Sudbury and returned
to Bitton, where we believe he acted as curate to his
father until he succeeded him as vicar in 1850. He,
like his father, was appointed to the living by Arch
deacon Macdonald, who was still patron and Prebend
of Bitton. Now, however, the Bishop of Bristol, in
whose diocese Bitton is situated, is patron, and on the
Canon's death has presented to the living for the first
time.

The Canon had not long been vicar of Bitton before
he found it necessary to bring the needs of the parish
in the matter of education to the notice of his parish
ioners, and the following letter, which is as true to-day
as when it was written, is an interesting example of the
Canon's constant thought and care for the welfare of
his people :

To THE

LANDOWNERS AND INHABITANTS OF BITTON.
MY DEAR FRIENDS, —

I think it is my duty, as your clergyman, to set
before you a short statement of the education of the
poor in this parish. This is a subject of the deepest
interest to myself ; and as a new-comer among you,
it is most probable that I am struck with various things,
which many of you, who have resided a long time in the

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 43

parish have scarcely observed, while a state of things
has been growing up around you, of which few, I think,
can be aware.

By the exertions of my father, your late vicar, the
school buildings are very good and substantial. For
this I am most thankful. But I think few of you can
be aware of the great ignorance in which a large portion
of the children of this parish are sunk. I speak now
solely of the hamlet of Bitton (including Swinford,
Upton, and Beach), and almost solely of the boys. The
girls are not much better, yet their condition is some
what better than the boys, and is in a fair way towards
improvement.

Of the boys I can scarcely speak too strongly. Their
ignorance and idleness is most deplorable — their manners
are rough and uncouth in the extreme — of the common
duties of civility and kindness they seem to have little
notion — and the higher duties of truth, honesty,
obedience, and the fear of God are, I much fear, little
more than mere names to them. With all this they
seem to have little desire to improve themselves, and
we cannot but look forward with some dread to the
time when such boys become men, and husbands and
fathers.

The only remedy for this is a good daily school, and
I have a confidence that with God's blessing on it, that
is a remedy. And when I speak of a school, I do not
mean a place where the boys may merely learn to read
and write, but where they shall be taught something
that shall really enlarge their minds, and give them a
love of learning, some knowledge of their own and other
countries, some knowledge of other men and other times,
some knowledge of themselves, of their duties, privileges,
and responsibilities as English boys and Christian boys,

44 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

who are to be trained up to take their station as good
Christian Englishmen.

On the third of this month I opened a boys' school
in the village, having secured the services of a master
from Bath. But I need scarcely say that I cannot by
myself support the school. An inefficient school can be
easily supported, but in establishing a school which shall
do anything in the reformation of the parish, and be
such a school as I should wish to see, I cannot work
single-handed.

I must ask your assistance in the good work. If you
are already a subscriber to the schools in the parish,
I would ask you to consider whether you cannot
increase your subscriptions, or at least whether you
cannot give an extra donation for this year, which will
necessarily have heavier expenses than succeeding
years. If you are not already a subscriber, I would
ask you to become one at once, and I would do more
than this, I would press it upon you as your duty. It
is not for myself I am asking, but for those masses of
children living around you, who, if allowed to grow
up in their present state, will most assuredly be thorns
in your sides, and a constant source of fear and trouble
to yourselves and your children who shall come after
you.

In landowners (of every degree) I think it a positive
duty that they should do what they can in the cause
of education. And I think the case not much different
with tenant farmers, and inhabitants of the parish in
general.

I put it before you as a positive Christian duty and
a high privilege. But let me also call to your mind the
lower inducement, that it is far better to pay a little
money now to help to educate your labourer's children,

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 45

than to be forced hereafter to pay as much or more in
the shape of poor rates to support the same children,
when they, from being brought up in ignorance and
idleness, become pauper men, or it may be criminals
and convicts.

But it is not only by your money that you may
forward the good work ; each one of you may do much
to help it by persuading your labourers to send their
children to school, and by assisting them, if need be,
in that purpose. Indeed I know no better way in which
a master and farmer can reward a deserving servant,
than by paying either in whole or in part for the educa
tion of one or more of his servant's children. The
cost is small, while the benefit is incalculable.

I would wish to say much more on this subject, but
I have already written more than I intended. I only
beg of you to consider it carefully, and not to throw it
aside as a matter in which you have no concern. It
concerns every one of you very nearly.

For myself, if it please God to grant me health and
strength, I am resolved to do all in my power, and
knowing that it is His cause, I have a full confidence
that it cannot altogether fail. And I would beg all of
you, in whatever other way you may assist the cause,
to remember it in your prayers to pray that it may be
begun, continued, and ended in God, and bring forth
fruit to His glory. And may HE by His Holy Spirit
direct, guide, and assist you and me in this and all other
works, that we may do all as HE would have us to do.

I remain,
Your faithful Servant and Pastor,

HENRY N. ELLACOMBE.

BITTON VICARAGE,
February, 17, 1851.

46 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Unfortunately we have no record of the response
which resulted from this appeal, but the modern well
built school at Bitton no doubt can be traced to the
Canon's influence and to his efforts to provide for the
education of the children of the parish.

This interest in education he maintained to the close
of his life, for he was a member of the Managing
Committee of Kingswood Reformatory for Boys and
took a very practical part in the direction of its affairs.
A party of twelve boys from the institution, it may be
remembered, attended the funeral.

On October 5, 1852, Ellacombe married Emily Aprilla
Wemyss, daughter of General Wemyss, who served all
through the Peninsular War under Wellington. They
had ten children, the eldest of whom — a son — died at
the age of ten. Then followed seven daughters in
succession, the last two children being sons. Of this
family two sons and three daughters survive him, but
his wife died on April 30, 1897.

His son, Dr. Gilbert Ellacombe, of Livingstone,
Rhodesia, shares something of the Canon's botanical in
terests and has sent to Kew some interesting plants and
seeds from that region. From the seeds a new species of
Kalanchoe (K. Ellacombei) has been raised at Kew.

In 1874, Ellacombe was made Rural Dean of Bitton,
and in 1881 Honorary Canon of Bristol.

As to the interests of his early days we know that he
busied himself with unravelling details of the family
history, tracing out branches on female lines. He was
quite a good draughtsman and illustrated his book with
beautiful paintings of coats of arms. His botanical
tastes, which were the absorbing interests of his later
life, do not appear to have been fully aroused until
he became vicar of Bitton, when his father's collection

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 47

of plants came under his care. He contributed the
botanical portion of his father's History of Bitton, as
has been recorded, but it is probable that this was done
after he became vicar of the parish.

During the years that folio wed Ellacombe's marriage
in 1852 he lived quietly at Bitton. In these early
days he and his wife used to ride a good deal, and in
this way no doubt he acquired his intimate knowledge
of the countryside. He was a keen sportsman and
very fond of fishing, and used to go out with his cousin,
the late Admiral Nicholson. This interest is reflected in
the charming little book he published in later years on
Shakespeare as an Angler (see p. 124) . Shooting he never
took up keenly, though, as with most things connected
with outdoor life, he knew all about it. Another
favourite form of recreation was a walking tour with
a friend or friends, and these continued a lifelong
interest. His continental j ourneys, as we shall see, were
indulged in up to a time of life when most men have
abandoned active exercise, and the memory of his walks
and travels remained a constant source of pleasure with
him up to the end of his life.

No events of outstanding importance appear to
have occurred, other than the births of his children.
His duties to his parish and his growing family occupied
his time, and he took an immense interest in restoring
Bitton Church. His love of the fine old church was a
very real thing. At the time it was being restored he
was always on the look out during his travels abroad
for features in the interior of churches he visited which
might be copied, or at least suggest something, for
Bitton. He decorated the chancel in large measure
at his own expense with Italian marbles, using first
Rouge Royal, and "afterwards employing Red Verona

48 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

marble for the altar steps. In his diary for 1904 he
notes : " If I am able to do any more marble work at
Bitton I shall try and get this." [The Red Verona
marble used in the Chapel of S. Felice in the Church of
S. Antonio, Padua.] In 1906 he visited the Church of
S. Anastasia, Verona, and writes : " I am quite pleased
to see that the altar steps are Red Verona marble. I
had not copied mine from there, but it was pleasant
to see that I had chosen right. The steps at S. Anas
tasia have rather deep noses. I prefer mine with the
plain edges, though, of course, the noses hide the joints."
He further notes the flooring and gives a coloured plan
showing the design which is formed by a succession of
red and white lilies. ' The upright lilies are red and
white alternately in the row, the reversed ones are dark
grey and black. Some day I may be able to use it at
Bitton if I live. The lilies would be quite appropriate
in a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The size of each square is eleven inches." It was on
this visit to Italy that he purchased a " Savonarola
Chair" for the sanctuary at Bitton, "as a small
thank-offering for the health and strength which have
enabled me this year to see so many and beautiful
works of God and man."

He himself drew all the designs for the oak bench
heads of the pews, and a village carpenter did all the
carving. These, and the fine pencil cedar roof of the
church, which was also put up by him, are lasting
monuments of his work at Bitton.

The Canon's views on the subject of Church Restora
tion are admirably expressed in his paper on the subject
contributed to the National Review in 1907 (see p.
279). Referring to Bitton Church, he remarks:

" In the last century, or at the end of the eighteenth,

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 49

the churchwardens destroyed the rood screen, the old
seats, and the old roof, and put up an elaborate Tuscan
reredos, very ugly, as we should say, but costly and
well worked. My father, in 1820, destroyed all their
work as far as he could, and did some excellent work
in the fashion of the day. Most of his work I destroyed,
and received his thanks and approval for so doing. I
have little doubt that my successors will undo much
of my work ; and the time may come when they will
restore the Tuscan reredos. To such an eVent I look
forward with a very light heart ; if the work is done
solely in major em Dei gloriam, I wish them all success. "

He was a thorough iconoclast in matters of restora
tion, and felt that the work done should express the spirit
of the times. He had no great reverence for early
work from the sentimental aspect, and considered it
should be removed if sufficient evidence of the need of
change were forthcoming. In his paper he points out
that but for this spirit which animated our great mediae
val church builders we should not have had our noble
churches and cathedrals, built often on the sites of
early buildings, which had been destroyed to make way
for them.

An important matter in connection with the life of
Canon Ellacombe was his association with the New
River Company until its absorption by the Metropolitan
Water Board. He sat on the Board as a trustee, as did
his father before him, in respect of one of the adven
turer's shares which was part of the dowry of Miss Greene,
his great-grandmother. He took a great interest and
delight in the work. An interesting fact about these
shares is that two of the four which formed the dowry
were kept in the family all through and were the only
ones that had never been sold. They are now converted

50 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

into prosaic Metropolitan Water Board stock. Until
a few years before his death, the Canon came regularly
to London to attend the Company's Board meetings
and, inconsequence, Kew got the benefit of many more
visits from him than otherwise would probably have
been the case.

There must have been but few visitors to Bitton
who were not reminded at some time or other of the
Canon's connection with the New River Company, as
the excellent cold boiled beef, always known as" New
River beef/' was often to be found on the luncheon table
and was very justly praised and enjoyed by the Canon
and his friends. The recipe was given to the writer
and is printed in the footnote, as it is too good to be
forgotten.1

In Bitton there are, no doubt, amongst his late parish
ioners, elderly persons who knew him longer than any
one else. But the oldest friend of his with whom we
have been able to communicate is the Rev. H. H.
Winwood, of Cavendish Crescent, Bath. To him we are
indebted for the following notes :

"It was my privilege to become acquainted with
Mr. Ellacombe soon after I came to Bath in 1861, and
from that time onwards until a few weeks before his
death my visits to Bitton were a source of delight
and instruction ; the extent of his knowledge on so
many subjects, whether architecture, archaeology, bot
any, or geology, always filled me with admiration. It
was principally natural history and its cognate subjects
that formed the bedrock of our intercourse. We both

1 To boil Salt Beef. — Tie beef in floured muslin cloth, plunge into
boiling water. Boil briskly for about five minutes and then draw
away from fire and allow to simmer gently, leave until the water is
cold. Add one tablespoonful of vinegar to the water, which im
proves colour.

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 51

became members of the Bath Natural History and
Antiquarian Field Club in 1861. After the death of
the Rev. Leonard Blomefield, in 1894, our friend became
president and held the office for three years. Owing
to increasing age, his name dropped out of the list in
1899. During those thirty-eight years he contributed
a series of most valuable papers on subjects principally
connected with the garden he so loved ; and in the
discussions which followed the communications from
other members on various subjects more or less con
nected with Field Club work, even on such a question
as ' The cure by touch/ he was always ready to take
his part and show how great was the range of his
knowledge. The first paper he contributed to the
Club was read in 1869 on *ne subject of ' The Common
English Names of Plants.' ' Remarks on the Study of
Varieties with reference to Field Club work/ ' Place-
Names derived from Plants in the neighbourhood of
Bath/ ' The Vineyards of Somerset and Gloucestershire/
and 'On Field-Names ' were amongst papers read at vari
ous times. The last contributions concerned the weather
and its effects on the garden : ' The Great Frost of
February, 1895,' and ' The Great Drought of 1896.'
All these communications were looked forward to by
the members with much interest. During one of my
visits to Bitton he told me of the visit of a man who
astonished the folk of the village by splitting with his
fist small boulders of hard quartzite called ' Bitton
Sawyers ' found scattered about in the district, a knack
which few men can acquire.

" Memory fails to recall many incidents of the fifty-
five years of my friendship with the Canon, which would
have been of value and interest if taken note of at the
time. Perhaps the last interview shortly before his

52 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

death may be worth recording. Hearing of his serious
illness, I visited the vicarage on November 24, 1915,
and found him reclining on his sofa in the well-known
room where we had chatted so often. A fall from a chair
had shaken him a good deal, but he was cheery as ever,
and the following anecdote showed how his memory
still remained good and accurate as ever. The mention
of the recent election of Sir Francis Darwin as a member
of the Cotswold Naturalists' Field Club recalled to his
mind the following occurrence. He was walking in the
garden (probably his own) with Charles Darwin and
Sir Michael Foster, who were present at the meeting
of the British Association in Bath, 1864, when the sight
of a gentian, the ' closed one ' — Gentiana Andrewsii —
led to their ' discussing ' the process of fertilization,
and how, in the case of this particular flower, it was
effected, as a bee was supposed to be unable to enter it.
As they were passing they actually saw a bee open the
flower, enter and fly out. This was my last visit ; he
was conscious that the crossing of the stream was nigh
at hand and with a handshake and a ' vale ' we parted.
It was his gain, but my loss ! "

The Rev. W. E. Blathwayt, of Dyrham Rectory,
Chippenham, sends the following note of his recollections
of the Canon, and in his letter mentions, as a character
istic example of the Canon's dash and vigour, how when
Mr. Blathwayt' s father was going up to London by an
express train after a visitation, the Canon gave him his
gown to throw out at Bitton station as the train went
through. The practice seemed well known to the
station-master, who was quite satisfied when he picked
up the gown and saw the label !

"It is difficult to give an adequate idea of Canon
Ellacombe to those who never met him. I first knew

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 53

him about 1875-6. Later on I became more intimate
with him and learnt to see how strong a figure he was.
What seemed to be his great characteristic was his
robust vitality. He might have been a brilliant country
leader, there was such a dash and elan about him. He
was a great reader with the power of reading quickly ;
some will remember his eagerness in turning the pages
of a book to find some passage and his quickness in
finding it.

" This vitality at times carried with it impetuosity,
he would discard a plant and then have to restore it
to his border,

1 Those who sat under him as a chairman will recall
the way he got through business, perhaps sweeping away
obstructions, and those so treated did not always
quickly recover their balance.

" Of his interests the number was great — archaeology,
architecture, natural history, the classics, objects of
beauty as china and glass, one and another claimed
his attention and were spoken of with zest and apprecia
tion.

" Again his likes and dislikes were sharply defined
and sometimes sharply expressed. His long experience
and retentive memory made his advice and companion
ship valuable. He was a great personality. His
vitality showed constantly. You saw it in his greeting
when visited, even in his farewell, when he sped the
parting guest. How that varied interest in things and
people was kept up to the last is amazing. Many
would have subsided when their sight was affected, but
he had the nerve and resolution to second the efforts
made to help it. I think we may feel how the trouble of
finding and putting on his different glasses would try
him, but he was brave and kept on.

54 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" The passing of such a man made a blank in the
lives of many and we shall look in vain for another like
him."

Both Mr. Winwood and Mr. Blathwayt have referred
to the Canon's many-sided activities in various branches
of natural history and other subjects, and a perusal of
the papers he read before the Bath Natural History and
Antiquarian Field Club shows that his interests were
grounded on a firm basis of knowledge and sound
learning. It must not be forgotten that in addition
Canon Ellacombe was also a fine scholar. He read the
psalms and lessons daily in Greek and Latin, and year
after year he would read his classics through, and his
retentive memory made ever present guests of his
favourite passages.

With one friend (Dr. Warre) he kept up a correspon
dence in Latin and generally in elegiacs, and his favourite
pastime in later life was to compose Latin verses when
resting on his couch before dinner. Quotations in
Latin or original compositions often occurred in his
letters and post-cards, and some of these are reproduced
in a later chapter.

The Canon's article on House Mottoes published in
The National Review and here reprinted (see p. 259)
affords an excellent example of his Classical interests
and wide knowledge of Greek and Latin.

" Canon Ellacombe," writes Sir Herbert Maxwell,
" was an excellent classical scholar. In 1905 I happened
to supply the Spectator with an English version (not by
me) of the lines which T. Wharton (afterwards Poet
Laureate) composed as an inscription for a statue of
Somnus. The Canon sent me a Greek version by him
self. In case you do not know them, I enclose all
three."

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 55

WHARTON'S LINES TO SLEEP.

Somne veni ! et, quamquam certissima mortis imago es,
Consortem cupio te tamen esse mei.
Hue ades : baud abiture cito, nam sic sine vita
Vivere quam suave est — sic sine morte mori.

ANONYMOUS ENGLISH VERSION.*

Come sleep ! though thou of death the image art,
O share my couch with me, nor soon depart ;
For sweet it is, while languid here I lie,
Lifeless to live, and without death to die.

CANON ELLACOMBE'S VERSION.

"YTTVC Trpoa-epxov /xoi OavaTov ryv ctKo'va fjLtvroi
ovra. ere crvyKOirov /ftnAo/xat C.LVO.L e/xou.
r)$s p.fvoi eXGwv. Te/D7rvu>s rfjv vv/cra Trapa/xi
£a)O<> aveu £10179, Ovyros avev Oa.vo.TOV'

Unfortunately but few of the Canon's verses have
been preserved, and unless he happened to send a copy
to a friend they were never written down. As will be
mentioned later his interests took him into the byways
of classical literature and caused him to turn his atten
tion among other works to Theophrastus, which eventu
ally led to the translation of The Enquiry into Plants
by Sir Arthur Hort.

Of his life as a parish priest and the father of his
flock we can unfortunately say little. As a preacher,
his sermons were all good and worth listening to, and
we believe that this side of his parochial duty was more
particularly congenial to him.

It was never the good fortune of the compilers of this
memoir to hear the Canon preach, but the following ser
mon, which is the only one of his we know to have been
published, is very characteristic of him. The occasion

1 The Canon's English translation of these lines is given in his
article on "House Mottoes" in The, National Review, reprinted
on p. 275.

56 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

was the death of Charles Ship, parish clerk of Bitton
from 1823-1853, and the sermon was preached on
Advent Sunday, 1853.

" That ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and
to work with your own hands as we commanded you ; that ye
may walk honestly towards them that are without, and that ye
may have lack of nothing. But I would not have you to be ignor
ant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow
not, even as others which have no hope." — i Thess. iv. 11-13.

There is something very remarkable in the connection
of these three texts ; things the most opposite seem
to be joined together in a way that at first sight seems
hard to account for. First, come rules for common
ordinary everyday life ; rules, it would seem, that would
suggest themselves to most thoughtful persons, " study
to be quiet/* etc., and then immediately follows a
discourse on the state of the dead, that none but an
inspired Apostle could write, beginning with those noble
heart-stirring texts, that have been the comfort of
Christian mourners for all ages, " I would not have you

1 The following prefatory note was printed on the cover of the
sermon : — Charles Ship was born in the year 1788 ; appointed Parish
Clerk of the Mother Church of Bitton in 1823 ; and died November
20, 1853.

By his uprightness, and quiet peaceable life, he had endeared
himself to all who knew him ; and, at his death, there seemed to
be one common feeling throughout the parish, that a good man and
a good neighbour had been taken from us.

He was buried on the Saturday after his death ; and on the
next Sunday I preached this sermon. It is now published with
the idea that many might be glad to have even this slight memorial
of him. When it was first proposed to me to publish it, I purposed
to enlarge upon it, by adding other points in his character besides
those I had mentioned in the sermon. But he was so well known to
all that, on further consideration, I thought this unnecessary. It
is therefore published as it was preached.

May God's blessing go with it, and may He raise up among us
more of such, His faithful servants, is my earnest prayer.— H. N. E.

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 57

ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
Him." Now this connection of the most solemn subject
that an Apostle could write of, with such ordinary rules
(as we should call them) as " study to be quiet," " do
your own business," and such like, has its lesson for
us. And if it means anything, it means nothing less
than this, that when we see men of quiet, humble
diligence, passing their lives in quietly and honestly
doing their duty in the state in which it has pleased God
to call them, then, when they are taken from us, we have
no need to sorrow for them as others which have no
hope ; we have a good hope that they are fallen asleep
in Jesus, and our faith bids us look forward to a joyful
and happy resurrection. And such an one has gone
from us. It has pleased Almighty God to take unto
Himself the soul of our dear brother, who for more than
thirty years has been the parish clerk of this church ;
and we, yesterday, committed his body to the ground,
earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and
certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.

There is, I think, no service so beautiful as our service
for the Burial of the Dead. There are, sometimes, it
is true, cases in which we can scarcely venture to hope
to apply some of its sentences to the dead, but in all
cases charity allows us to think the best, and bids us
to " hope all things." But when we are burying those
whom we have loved and honoured, and whose life
suggests nothing but hope, then it is a service that goes
home to the hearts of all. And such, I am sure, was
the case with all of us who were at yesterday's funeral ;
we all must have felt, as we left that grave, that we had

58 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

all endured a heavy loss — the loss of a good man and a
good neighbour — but all must have also felt that we had
grounds for a joyful hope ; we must all have felt that
he was gone at last to that Home of which he was ever
thinking ; he had entered into that happy rest for which
he had been for so many years preparing himself.

You all know how very unusual a thing it is to hear
in this church a funeral sermon. Such sermons, indeed,
are now very rare in any place. Clergymen feel there is a
certain unfitness in them. We feel that they are often
painful to the real mourner, and tedious to those who
are not interested in the subject. And, beyond all this,
we feel that, as we dare not utter a sentence of final
condemnation on any one that is taken from us,so neither
dare we to utter a sentence of final justification. That
is not our office ; it belongs only to our Lord and Master.
But something we may do. And our late departed
brother lived and moved among us so long, so known
and observed of all, so honoured and respected by
all, and died so deeply lamented by all, that I feel I
should scarcely be doing my duty, if I did not point
out to you some of these points in his character which
made him what he was ; and which have enabled us to
speak with such earnest hopefulness of meeting him
again in Heaven, if, by God's mercy in Christ, we our
selves ever reach that Home. And let me say at once,
very distinctly, that in speaking of him, I have no wish
to extol him — that would be but foolish waste of time,
for he is passed away from all our praise, and all our
judgment. But the reason I speak of him is that you
and I may endeavour to think of his example, while it is
still fresh in our memory, and where we find it to have
been according to God's commandments to go ourselves
and do likewise.

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 59

Now, the chief thing that struck most of us in the
character of Charles Ship was his strict daily observance
of the Apostolic rule, in the text, " study to be quiet, and
to do your business." I think I have never met with
a man so gentle, so thoroughly quiet-minded as he was.
He never seemed to be put off his guard by anything,
and I should suppose no one ever saw him in anything
approaching to passion. This was partly, perhaps,
constitutional, but it was, I know, to a very great
extent, the result of his own self-discipline and watchful
ness. He rightly considered it unbecoming in a Chris
tian man to let himself be put out by any trifles. He
deeply felt the value of the soft answer that turneth
away wrath ; he knew too well the worth of a good
temper to let himself give way to every provocation
to anger ; and he knew, also, that the giving way to
a bad temper was, in fact, a giving way to Satan. And
so he studied to be quiet ; he made it a daily lesson to
himself to be at peace with all men, and at peace with
all men he lived and died. And any one who has
studied the same lesson knows that it is not an easy
one. It is galling to the flesh to have to bear all
provocations ; it seems so much more natural to let
things have their course, and let trifles annoy us, and
put us out of temper with ourselves and all around us ;
and so it is more natural ; but the Christian's task is to
subdue his natural inclinations, to curb his passions,
and give no place to anger. And in the end he will
find it better too. There are real sorrows and troubles
enough through life to try the Christian, and if he is
tempted to murmur and be impatient at trifles, how
shall he stand when God's hand is laid heavily upon
him ?

And if we would know how our late brother was

60 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

enabled to bring to a sucessful issue his study to be quiet,
it was very much by following the Apostle's next rule,
" Do your own business." It seems a common rule, a
piece of advice that any man could give his neighbour,
and yet, I suppose, there is no rule more frequently
broken. It is the great evil of the age that man will
not do his own business, that he will not do his work
in an honest straightforward way, simply trying to
find out his duty, and then striving by God's grace to
do it ; but he will be for ever looking to his neighbour
(not merely from the wretched busybody disposition
of liking to know all about his neighbours, but really,
though none like to confess it), to see how his neighbours
do their duty to God and their neighbours, and to take
them for their rule, instead of God's word. Our late
clerk had no such rule for his religion. His earnest wish
was to do his duty to God, his neighbour, and himself ;
and he honestly sought for the paths of that duty, not
by seeing where his neighbours went, but by the
constant study of his Bible, to see where that directed
him.

And as it was in his religion, so it was in other things.
His office as clerk brought him into contact, in some
way or other, with nearly every family in the parish ;
and we know that, in several cases, the office may be
made an excuse for meddling and interfering with, and
uselessly prying into other men's business. That it was
not so in his case, all would bear me witness ; for he
knew he had his own business to do — that was enough
for him : and he did it as an honest Christian man
should.

One great assistance he had in this work was his exces
sive humility and meekness. He might have taken
for his rule a character of a parish clerk, laid down by

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 61

a good man more than two hundred years ago — that he
should be

" Humble-minded and industrious-handed ;
Do nothing of himself but as commanded." 1

This humility and meekness was a great help to him
in his study to do his own business quietly and peace
ably ; for there is nothing so bad as pride and self-
conceit in drawing a man off from his own business, and
making him meddle with other people's. A proud
self-conceited man is apt to think his own business
always well done ; to think that he is all right, and his
neighbours all wrong, until he comes among them.
Humility and meekness make a man do his duty, and
then say, " We have but done that which it was our
duty to do."

Our late clerk was for many years a bright example to
us of reverence in holy things. It is often found in
parish clerks that their necessary and constant attend
ance upon Holy services make them, by little and little,
less and less reverent, and get more and more to look
upon the services as irksome duties, tedious tasks
which must be gone through, and the sooner they are
over the better. We have had a better example before
us. Many of you, like myself, have been familiar
from our childhood with his constant attendance at his
post in church, and have been ourselves made to think
how holy was the place we were in, by seeing his
reverential and devotional behaviour. He really loved
the service of the church and all belonging to it, having
been, as I am told, brought up from early childhood to
look on the church as God's house. I met with some
lines lately written by a good American clergyman

1 The Synagogue, by Christopher Harvey, M.A. (1640).

62 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

upon another clerk, so applicable to ours, that I will read
them to you.

" In early youth his little feet
The Sanctuary pressed,
And there in age his hours were sweet,
With cherished memories blest.
He loved the Church with order due,
Altar and chancel, desk, and pew,
And priest in snowy vest.
He loved the prayers of his dear mother,
No better knew nor asked for other." l

And his reverence was carried out through all the ser
vices of the church. At the Holy Communion he was
a constant and reverent attendant. Whether it was a
funeral, or a baptism, or a wedding, his conduct was
always that of a man who looked on these as Christian
services to be performed in a Christian manner. He
considered that these services were not mere empty
forms that decency required to be undertaken, but that
they were full of deep Christian meaning, and would
bring comfort and blessings to those who performed
them as unto the Lord, and not as unto men. His ser
vices in this church are now over, and a bitter grief it
would be to us to say so, had we not a full and lively
hope that he still worships and adores God in a far
better and more glorious place than this earthly
tabernacle made with hands, and that he has ceased
to pray in the company of mortal, sinful men, only that
he may worship and fall down in the company of glorified
Saints and Angels before the Throne of the Lamb.
But though he is gone from us, I am sure we should do
well to keep alive the memory of his reverential
conduct in God's House, and in all things pertaining
thereto ; every such example is good for us, and I do

1 Poetical Remains of the Rev. B. D. Winslow, of St. Mary's Church,
Burlington, New Jersey. Published at New York, 1841.

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 63

not remember to have ever witnessed a better one. And
do not let us be induced to blame the prayers and ser
vices of the Church, if we find ourselves irreverent and
without devotion in them, and so failing to carry home
their blessing. The prayers are good and holy, and
heart- stirring, none more so ; and if we are restless and
listless during them, let us blame our own selves, and
not them. Men have been devout and reverent in the
use of the prayers of the Church ; why should not we ?
Other men have reaped abundant blessings from them ;
why should not we ?

I have kept, for the last, a very remarkable and well-
known part of Charles Ship's character, and one which,
I believe, had an untold influence upon his daily life —
and that was his constant looking forward to, and
preparing for, death. With him, it was no idle speech
to speak of this life as a life of trial to fit and prepare
him for another ; for he was always thinking of that
time when his trial should be ended. With him, it was
no idle speech to talk of the uncertainty of life and the
certainty of death ; it was with him a real active
principle of life. In all that he was undertaking he was
thinking of the uncertainty of his being allowed to
finish it, or to enjoy it ; in his favourite amusements of
planting and gardening, he was always thinking more of
those that would come after him than of himself ; and
when he was building the house in which he ended
his days, he was in the constant habit of saying, that
he was building a house not to live in, but to die in ;
and this when, in all human probability, he had yet
many years to live. And he honestly meant what he
said ; for he really looked upon his death as the only
event of any consequence that could happen to himself
in that house, and the chief thing he had to look forward

64 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

to. And now mark the consequence. Such frequent
thoughts of death did not make him gloomy, or inatten
tive to his daily duties while life lasted ; but the
consequence was this, that when death did come upon
him, many years before he might naturally have
expected its approach, it did not find him unprepared.
When all his friends were astonished, and shocked to
hear that the hand of death was upon him, he alone
seemed to think it no strange thing ; he had long schooled
himself to an entire resignation to God's will, he had a
most lively faith in God's promises and Christ's love
and he had never ceased daily to prepare for death, and
so, when it came, he met it with the same quiet calmness
that he had shown throughout all the events of his
life. And mark another consequence. These constant
thoughts of death had made him very careful that, when
it came, he should be in all points ready ; that, whether
his Lord's call came in the evening, or in the cock-crow
ing, or in the morning, he should not be found sleeping.
Now it pleased God that his last illness was of such a
nature that he was unable to bear much reading or
conversation, even on the subjects that he loved best,
and he often declared his thankfulness that he had not
left the thoughts of death till his last hours, otherwise
his illness would have prevented him from thinking of
them at all. Let us think of this, when we comfort
ourselves with the thought that we shall have full time
to make our accounts right with God when we are on
our death-beds. It can be so in very few cases indeed.
In the greater number of cases, illness does prevent a
man from thinking as he ought of those four last things
— death and judgment, and heaven and hell. They are
all too mighty to be thought of when " the whole head
is sick, and the whole heart faint," with the near

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 65

approach of death ; they demand our hours of strength,
and our years of health ; and if not listened to then,
there is little chance that they can find a proper hearing
when man is laid low on his last bed.

I said that this was the last point of his character that
I should mention, though there is much else that might
be said of him, — his constant endeavour to speak good
of all, his sobriety, his sound good sense, his kindness
to all, his great respect to all above him in worldly
station, his uprightness, his purity, in short many little
points that will suggest themselves to most of you, as
helping to make him what he was, a bright example of
a good, kind, Christian English Churchman. But I have
said enough.

And so he is gone from us. For myself, having from
my childhood been taught to respect him as a good man,
and having had constant experience in his faithful
services to my father and myself, how well he deserved
the name ; and having a hope that, if it pleased God to
spare my own life, I might have looked forward, for
many years, to having him as a companion in the
performance of my duty as your minister, his death
is to me a very grievous personal loss ; I cannot but
feel as if I had lost a most intimate friend. Yet not
for the gratification of my own private affection towards
him, nor yet to extol him, have I thus spoken to you of
our good old clerk ; but that you and I might profit by
his example, and, by trying to find out the secrets of his
cheerful honoured life, and his peaceful end, we might
get the same blessings for ourselves.

And here are the secrets — prayer to God, study of
the Bible, frequent communion, constant preparation
for death, " Study to be quiet and do your own
business."

66 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

And here is the happy end. " That we sorrow not
as those without hope for those that thus fall asleep.
For, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with
Him. Wherefore comfort one another with these
words."

Towards the close of his ministry he gave up preach
ing, as he found the strain too great, but up to the
last years of his life he nearly always read the lessons
and the Gospel in the church. In order to save himself
from undue fatigue he had arranged for him a sort of
couch in the chancel stalls from which he did not move
during the service.

In the hearts of his parishioners his influence was
great, and well it might be, since he had christened,
prepared for confirmation and married most of them, and
for many he had performed the last sad rites of burial.

Even in his last year he saw each candidate for
confirmation separately, and no real need of any of his
people fell on a deaf ear. He was fully cognisant of
their ills and troubles and they freely came to him for
help and comfort in all their trials and difficulties.

In one of his last letters to Mr. Bartholomew he
refers to his class of confirmation candidates :

" I am getting on very pleasantly with my thirty-eight
candidates. I shall have had about one hundred
interviews by the end of the week, and a good many
more before the 3oth. I enjoy it much. It has not
the least fatigued me — they are all so good."

As with his garden so with his parish he realized
the limitations, and placed a full confidence in his people
that they, like his plants, would respond fully to a proper
understanding of their needs.

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE 67

Nor was his belief misplaced, for in his constant
desire to foster and encourage all that was true and
beautiful he reaped his reward in the love and affection
of those to whom he was truly their father in God.

CHAPTER IV
TRAVELS ABROAD

DURING the last forty years of his life the Canon
took his holidays very frequently on the Con
tinent, usually in company with relations or friends, but
sometimes alone. Of many of these journeys he wrote
up a detailed record, which he preserved. Visitors to
Bitton Vicarage will remember a long row of these
black notebooks on one of the library shelves with the
country visited and the date stamped in gilt on the back.
From these diaries the following pages are mainly
compiled. As might be expected, his dominant interests
appear to have been ecclesiastical architecture and
gardening. But the most varied subjects claimed his
notice and his interests were very catholic. His
appreciation, too, of a good lunch or dinner was
always frank and evident, and his diaries are full
of valuable information as to the best places to
dine and sleep. So pleased was he at times with
the excellence of some particular hostelry that he
would make a point, on his next holiday, of paying a
visit to the same spot, where it is evident from his
diary that he received a very warm welcome. The
Canon must have been a joyous companion on these
excursions, out frankly to get as much health and
diversion from them as possible.

His first journey abroad recorded in these diaries was

38

CANON ELLACOMBE.

From a photograph taken about 1 870.

TRAVELS ABROAD 69

in 1873, when he went to Belgium in company with his
father. He was away from August 26 to September
10, and visited, among other places, Bruges, Ghent,
Oudenarde, Antwerp, Aerschott, Louvain, Tirlemont
Brussels, Tournai and Calais.

As an instance of the remarkable vitality of the elder
Ellacombe, then eighty- three years of age, it is interest
ing to notice in the entry in the Canon's diary of their
first day in Belgium that when they met at breakfast
" we found that we, all except my father, were very
tired after yesterday's journey."

" August 25, 1873. Lunched at Kew with Dr.
Hooker, who was as usual overwhelmed with work and
visitors, but was very kind and obliging. Returned
to London early and went to the Charing Cross Hotel.
Dined at table d'hote — a very good dinner, but very long
and very silent. My father came between seven and
eight and had tea. After tea Mr. Buckler came and
gave me a great lot of introductions to friends in
Belgium, and sketched out for us a good route.

" August 26. Up at six — and after breakfast started
by the express to Dover. This was a most pleasant
journey — through Chislehurst and Sevenoaks — a pretty
country all the way. We got on board the steamer and
started at 9.45. It was a beautiful and bright day-
wit h just enough wind to make it fresh and pleasant,
but not enough to make it rough. We could not have
had a more beautiful passage, there was not a pitch or
a roll the whole way, so that we were all on deck the
whole time and all well and enjoying it. We reached
Ostend at 2.15. The luggage was rapidly and most
politely examined on board, so that we soon landed,
and after waiting about half an hour at the station
we started. Through a dull flat country (reminding

70 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

me much of the North of Lincolnshire) we soon reached
Bruges, where we put up at the Hotel de Commerce.
We seemed to have not only the hotel but almost the
town to ourselves. After table d'hote dinner (only
ourselves, but a very good dinner) we strolled out
and called on Mr. Weale. He was unfortunately not
at home, and I was glad to get to bed early, very tired.
The drawing-room looks out on a small garden choked
with trees, chiefly umbrella acacias. I saw the waiter
pick pears from a tall pear tree in a new and clever way.
He had a long pole about 10 or 12 ft. long, on the top of
which was set a thin disc about six inches diameter
set with wooden teeth just like a hayrake. Putting
this under the pear so that the pear rests on the disc and
giving a slight twist the pear is at once detached and
brought down unbruised.

" The hotel is clean and comfortable, the cooking good
and the servants very obliging — but there are some
quaint points about it. The chief staircase has for its
banisters a succession of bright green bulrushes (in
cast iron) with their end placed in the mouths of swans
with very white bodies and very red beaks, in this way
cleverly placing the poor swans in almost the only
ungraceful position that is possible to a swan. The
washing arrangements are peculiar. A small jug and
basin are placed in a shallow tea tray inserted in the
washstand. I could not see the use of this tray till
by a happy thought I determined to convert it into a
sponge bath — faute de mieux. It did not answer per
fectly, as it was like tubbing in a saucer, but it was all
I could get.

" After luncheon we took a vigilante to call on Canon
Bethune. The drive took us along the Great Canal
and gave us an excellent idea of a Flemish town. The

TRAVELS ABROAD 71

sides of the Canal are planted with rows of trees at
intervals, chiefly poplars, and the houses are nearly all
of the old, high-roofed, cabre-stepped character. When
we reached the Grand Seminaire, which is a large, ugly
Franciscan convent, we found that the Canon was in,
but was, unfortunately, in retreat till Monday. So the
grim porter refused to admit us, saying, ' Cest impos
sible/ but a young priest undertook to convey the letter
to the Canon, who could only say that he was quite
prevented by his ecclesiastical rules from seeing us.
This was a great disappointment. In the evening we
walked about the streets. The town is very empty
and seems to be composed at least one-half of priests
and Sisters of Mercy. The priests are clear enough, but
we soon found that the usual dress of the Bruges peasant
women is a clean, white cap and a long black cloak
with a hood, which makes them all look very much like
' sisters.' The working men are all in blue cotton blouses,
which to English eyes make them all look like butcher's
boys. Men, women, and children of the poor all wear
sabots, certainly the ugliest and most uncomfortable
shoe ever made/'

1874

The following year, 1874, he went to France, his
father, although eighty-four years of age, again being
one of the party. He left Bitton August 17 at 7 a.m.,
and in the afternoon "called on Robinson (of The Garden),
Masters (of The Gardeners' Chronicle), Barr and Allen,
and afterwards met my father." The following day
they crossed over to France, and made their first stop
at Abbeville. On this journey the chief object appears
to have been to visit the French Cathedrals. Besides
that of Abbeville, which Ellacombe describes as " a
grand beginning of an unfinished work " they saw the

72 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Cathedrals of Amiens, Notre Dame at Paris, Chartres,
Angers, Tours, Alen^on (" a building in the extreme
style of flamboyant, ornament everywhere dabbed on
without meaning") L'Abbaye at Caen, and Rouen.

Under Paris, Monday, August 24, appears the follow
ing : " After breakfast went by myself to the Jardin des
Plantes ; there met M. Verlot and with him called on
Professor Decaisne. The professor was a charming old
French gentleman, who made me free of the garden ;
when I told him that I had visited the gardens on Satur
day and made a list of plantes desiderees to which I should
probably make an addition to-day, he at once opened
his arms to their full extent and hoped I should not
only make an addition, but a large addition, et tres large
addition. Then I went with M. Verlot to see the Alpines
and the more private collections — they have an immense
collection of plants, but very far from perfect, and I
expected to see a far better collection of Alpines. Still
I saw a great deal that was new to me, and M. Verlot
was most polite and obliging. At noon my father
came to the gardens and then we went home. I called on
M. de Vilmorin, but he was not at home. His foreman,
however, gave me all the information in his power about
the French gardens. We all dined at the Palais Royal
and then drove to the Garden of the Luxemburg Palais
— a very pretty small edition of the Tuilleries Gardens.

" Friday, September 4. We left Alencon at eleven,
finding nothing more of interest in it (the lace-work
is almost, if not quite, a thing of the past) and went on
to Falaise which we reached about three o'clock. It
was quite a relief to find a pretty little town with
very respectable hills and valleys. All the rest of
France that we have seen is more or less of a great plain.
The town itself is very old and full of quaint bits, but

TRAVELS ABROAD 73

the great object of interest is, of course, the Castle where
William the Conqueror was born. It is on a high hill
with a deep valley below on one side, and all the town
below on the other, and opposite the chief tower is a
grand rocky cliff of mountain limestone. The Castle
itself is not large, but is a very fine piece of Norman
masonry. We went through it with an old female
concierge — a very jolly old woman who chattered all
the time. It was very interesting to me to see the
castle covered with the Dianthus caryophyllus, and it is
a curious coincidence that its chief English habitat is
Rochester Castle, which was built by Guthlac, one of
William's followers. It is nothing impossible that
he may have brought away plants or seeds from Falaise
(as I did) and planted them at Rochester. In France it
is only found on old castles and walls. We went all
through the Castle and up to the very top of Talbot's
Tower. We were accompanied by two young soldiers
(one the sentry) who had never seen the castle. He
went to the top, but the other refused and was unmerci
fully c.haffed by the old woman of being afraid to go
where the old gentleman and young English lady had
gone."

1882

The next diary in point of time gives an account of a
journey in Ireland in 1882, on which he was accompanied
by Mr. Graham. Fishing appears to have been the main
object of this trip, varied, as always, by plant-hunting,
either cultivated or wild. Under May 12, 1882, he
writes : " Had a beautiful passage to Dublin, not a wave,
scarcely a ripple the whole way. But the Captain
complained bitterly of the loss of traffic occasioned by
the ' Irish troubles.' ' The following day, May 13, he
writes : " After breakfast took a car and drove to

74 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Glasnevin and called at once on Mr. Moore. I found
him a very young man, but very intelligent, enthusiastic
and civil. He took me everywhere as far as the time
allowed and I came away with the idea not only that
Glasnevin is the prettiest Botanic Garden I have seen,
but that the collection is most excellent and well cared
for. After lunch I called on Burbidge at the Trinity
College Botanic Gardens, where I found the old shrubs
against the wall were especially worthy of note and
Burbidge most attentive."

In 1882 the " Irish Question " was at an acute stage—
the Phoenix Park murders were only a year old. We do
not know what political views the Canon held, or whether
indeed he had any ; but the following extracts from the
diary show how sympathetically he appreciated the
situation in Ireland :

" Wednesday, May 24. Went out fishing by myself.
It was not a good day, but I managed to get about five
dozen. The trout in these lochs are small, but they
are very plucky, and our days on them were made
pleasant by our good boatman, Macbride. He was a
most intelligent and conversable fellow, anxious to know
all he could about England and we learned a great deal
about the life of the poor in his neighbourhood. Their
poverty is frightful. Their houses cost about £12 or
/i4 complete, often without windows or chimneys, and
they consist of but one room, which not only serves for
father, mother and all the children, but for the cow and
poultry also. Every house is built by the poor people
themselves, the landlord doing absolutely nothing, ex
cept raising the rent as improvements are made. In
Macbride's own case, he rented seven acres, of which
less than one acre was under cultivation, the rest bog
and heath. For this he originally paid us. 4^., which

TRAVELS ABROAD 75

was at once raised to two guineas when the one acre
had been cleared and the house built. J)

On May 27 he had reached Londonderry. " In going
along the quays," he writes, " we found that prepara
tions were going on for embarking a large body of
emigrants ; this takes place two or three times a week,
and sometimes oftener. The small steamer takes
them from Derry to Moville, where they join the large
emigrant steamer from Liverpool. We determined to
see the embarkation. They went on board in a long
stream, more than 300 in all, men, women, and children.
They were bound for the Devonia, of the Anchor
Line. It was one of the saddest sights I ever saw, but it
formed a fitting conclusion to our fortnight among the
poor farmers of Donegal ; for the emigrants wrere evi
dently not the very poor, there were no rags among
them, but they were all from the small farmer class.
They none of them seemed to have more baggage than
they could carry in their hands. Many of them were
broad-shouldered, active young men and healthy young
women, and it was sad to think that the country should
be subject to such a weekly drain of many of its best
people, and still more sad to think that every one went
out with a grievance in their hearts, a feeling that they
were being driven out of their own country and that
from the moment they embarked they were for the future
the determined enemies of England and English rule.
They all seemed determined to put a brave face on it,
but it was very easy to see that there were very sad
hearts both on ship and on shore."

Two days later, travelling from Portrush to Coleraine,
he records that " for travelling companions we had two
men, who both seeing we were Englishmen, prepared
to enlighten us on the Irish Question, but they took

76 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

totally different views and enforced them with a strength
of language against each other which few Englishmen
would have put it with. The one who was most
voluble was not a pleasant companion, but I was glad
to have met with such a specimen of an out-and-out
Irish politician. He was for getting rid of everything
English. He did not want them or their money and
still less did he want them as landlords, in fact he
would get rid of landlords altogether, and had some
scheme of buying them out altogether. He was a man
in good position, but he raked up all old facts and
laws of hardship against Ireland, such as the laws of
1782, and distorted them all. The other man was
quite distressed at our hearing such opinions, and when
he left us hoped we would not pay much attention to
such a fellow, ' for he was a fool/ which, I fancy, he
was not."

1889

In July, 1889, the Canon visited Switzerland, going
by way of Amiens to Lucerne. Fifteen years had
elapsed since his former visit to Amiens, and he
writes :

" I was glad to find myself again in the comfortable
Hotel du Rhin. When we came down to breakfast we
found that we had it almost to ourselves. We went
out and spent an hour in the Cathedral. Since I was
last here (in 1874) a great improvement has been made
by taking down the houses at the west end, so that now
it is possible to see it from some little distance. Cer
tainly the oftener one sees Amiens the more one sees
how grandly it compares with all others."

In Switzerland, architecture and the study of Alpine
plants filled up his time.

On this holiday, which took place between July n

TRAVELS ABROAD 77

and 31, he went from Lucerne to Hospental and thence
to the Furka, and so to Brigue, Finhaut, Geneva and
Berne ; on the way home he broke his journey at
Laon.

When at Finhaut he devised a very practical method
of carrying his collections with the minimum of trouble
to himself or damage to the plants.

" I adopted a plan to-day for carrying my flowers
as I collected them which I found most excellent.
Tying the four corners of my handkerchief together
with string, and then tying that to the head of my
alpenstock, I had at once a light basket always open
to take the flowers and carried at a most convenient
point. I then understood the meaning of the bundles
represented at the top of palmers' staves ; it was the
way they found most convenient to carry their little
baggage, and the alpenstock is of course identical with
the pilgrim's staff."

Of Laon Cathedral, which impressed him greatly,
he writes :

" The towers are unlike any others. The object
seems to have been to show as much blue sky through
them as possible and the result is very beautiful.
Ely has something of the same, but not to the same
extent."

The holiday of 1889 was evidently a complete success,
for his diary ends with a characteristic note :

" And so ended our pleasant holiday. Everything
has helped to make it delightful. We have had brilliant
weather with just enough of rain to lay the dust and
not to keep us in. All has gone without a hitch,
except for two or three little accidents, not much
worth thinking about, certainly not worth complaining
about. We have gone over a great extent of country

78 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

(about 1,500 miles). I have seen many wonderful
sights which will be pleasant memories to me for the
remainder of my life, and learned much that was new
to me, and so I finish with my mind enlarged and
thankful. Deo gratias."

1893

Four years later another visit was made to
Switzerland, which was reached by way of Boulogne
and Berne. Places not seen on the previous journey
were visited, amongst them Thun, St. Beatenberg,
Grindelwald, and, on the way back, Lauterbrunnen,
Miirren, and Rheims. His son Gilbert was his com
panion. Writing of the Lake of Thun he says :

" When we were at Thun we had admired the rich
blue of the Lake. It is as blue as the Lake of Geneva,
but a different sort of blue, not so dark and more of a
sapphire blue. I fancied it looked bluer the higher
we got (he was walking from Thun to St. Beatenberg),
and afterwards found that this was certainly the case.
We dined at the table d'hote, the English first and
the Germans by themselves afterwards ! "

" Tuesday, August 29, 1893. [St. Beatenberg—
to which they had come up the day before.] A fine
morning and a steady barometer determined us to
take a good walk and we started between eight and
nine for the Groennenalphorn — 6,770 ft. We were told
that the road was easy and well marked, but we did
not find it so. Here and there we found some stones
marked with red and yellow paint which were supposed
to mark the way, but they were few and far between
and we constantly lost our way, but with the mountain

TRAVELS ABROAD 79

before and the Reichenbach Valley to guide us, we
never went very far out of the way. We got, however,
at last near the top, and I did not altogether fancy
the climb to the very top. I was beginning to feel
very tired and done up, and found that it would have
been wiser for me to have rested a day after the hard
climb of the previous day ; so I sat down to eat my
lunch, but found I could eat nothing. I had tired out
my appetite. Gilbert went on to find a path to the
top ; he soon came back for me with the advice to get
to the top, as I should then hit upon a much better
path downwards ; so I struggled up and soon reached
it. It was well worth the climb ; the mountains of
the Bernese Oberland from the Wetterhorn and the
Niesen were beautifully clear and even beyond them,
while to the south were beautiful valleys leading down
to Lucerne. We did not stop long on the top, which
was all of peat with a carpet of Azalea procumbens
almost out of flower. We were not much more success
ful in finding our way down ; we soon lost sight of
painted stones and had to find our way through the
woods and bogs — fortunately the bogs were all dry —
and struggled home (or rather I did, for Gilbert was
very fresh throughout) and thankfully reached our
hotel about 5.30. It was a grand walk, and in spite of
my fatigue I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was glad to
have done it. About half an hour before the end I
experienced a very curious effect of fatigue. I was
lying on the grass and a few yards off I saw a rich bank
of heather with tall grasses, and a tall red flower which
looked like a foxglove. I even looked at it through the
glass, but could not make it out exactly, so I asked
Gilbert to pick it for me ; he said there was nothing
there. So I got up and found he was right ; there was

8o HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

absolutely not a flower there and I had been dreaming
with my eyes open."1

1897

In July, 1897, Ellacombe went to Switzerland, again
in company with his son. At this time his life had been
darkened by the loss of his wife, who had died about
two months previously. This visit was always held in
pleasant remembrance by him for his walk over the St.
Gothard Pass, from Hospental to Airolo — a very credit
able feat for a man turned seventy-five — and because
he then made his first acquaintance with Piora, a place
which he visited again and ever afterwards held in
affectionate regard. His love for Piora can be gathered
from the article which he published in The Guardian,
which is reproduced here (p. 224) by kind permission
of the Editor.

The other places included in this visit were Lugano,
Mt. Generoso, Arona, Orta, Simplon, and Berisal, the
return journey being made by way of Geneva, Dijon,
and Paris. The inclusion of Lugano was unintentional,
as is shown by the following extract from his diary :

" Lugano, Thursday, July 15, 1897. A glorious day
but rather foggy in the morning. It was no part of
my scheme to go to Lugano or near it, but we had been
forced into it ; and I intended to stay one night and
then on to Mt. Generoso, but it was otherwise ordered.
I suppose I had done too much the day before, so I had
an uncomfortable night, and awoke in the morning so
unwell that it scarcely required Gilbert's orders that we
should stay quietly at Lugano for the day at least,

1 Notes added by the Canon in his diary : " This is a strange
repose to be asleep with eyes wide open." — Tempest, a. ii. s. i.
"Falling into a trance but having mine eyes open." — Balaam.

TRAVELS ABROAD 81

perhaps for more. This was bad enough, but it became
still worse when he forbade my eating any of the
beautiful green figs which were abundant and served
at each meal. But it could not be helped and I passed
the whole day in my room, for the most part lying
down. I spent the afternoon chiefly in writing the
article on Piora for The Guardian, afterwards repub-
lished by Lombardi of Airolo."

Two days later he writes : "I remained indoors
except for about an hour in the garden and again I did
not find it wearisome. Wrote some letters and finished
my article for The Guardian. I shall always remember
Lugano, for it has taught me a good lesson — at least I
learned it there. I knew I was getting an old man. I
have learned that I am one now, and that it would have
been wise to have put in practice sooner what Miller
[his gardener at Bitton] has put so steadily into practice
for the last two years, that the time comes when it is
wisdom to take two days or more for work which you
could once do well in one."

1898

On April 29, 1898, the Canon joined a party on board
the steamship Goth at Southampton, bound for Holland
and Germany. In the party were W. Nicholson with
his two boys, Fred and Robin, Mr. Ellis Firmer,
of Ashmansworth, near Newbury, the Rector of
Yarmouth, I. of W., and Mrs. Speed, Miss Maturin,
of Lymington, sister of Mrs. Speed, R. H. Alexander,
of Goudhurst, Kent, and Ed. de Segundo. " Others
were expected, but were obliged to put it off, so the
party was a small one, but it was a very pleasant one
and we all harmonized admirably. Mrs. Speed and
her sister were good musicians and de Segundo was a

82 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

most accomplished pianist and singer, so that we
had good music every evening." He also mentions as
being on board " Gilbert, the captain's clerk, great on
the banjo."

They first visited Rotterdam, where the Canon was
struck with the " canals and barges in every part
of the town, and especially with the windmills working
in the very streets." He went by rail to The Hague,
Haarlem and Amsterdam, passing the tulip farms on
the way. Mere masses of colour, especially made by
cultivated plants, never attracted the Canon, and of
these farms he says : " They were gorgeous masses of
colour, but from what I saw I was not tempted to
repeat the visit."

At Amsterdam he was much interested in the
Museum, especially in the paintings by Rembrandt
and others of the Dutch School. Returning to Rotter
dam they went by the Goth to Hamburg, then on to
Lubeck, where they stayed a few days, getting back to
Southampton on May 10. " What struck me most,"
he writes, " both at Hamburg and the other towns, was
the apparent comfort of all the people. I saw no
beggars and all seemed well clothed and well fed.
The children especially were pictures of health and
happiness. . . . There were no old shops or local
work — all Paris and Regent Street. . . . Left the ship
with real regret, having had a very pleasant time and
quite new experience of life on board ship and a new
country unlike anything else in Europe. I went to
Ryde, lunched with Ewbank ; garden still very ugly.
To London in the evening, and the next day to Warley."

A little more than two months later, on July 28,
1898, with his daughter, Mrs. Cockey, as a companion,
he set out again for Switzerland and Italy, going by

TRAVELS ABROAD 83

way of Paris, Dijon, and Annecy to Chamonix. He had
a very pleasant time in the Mt. Blanc district, and
writing in his diary at Finhaut, says : " I had my last
look of Mt. Blanc. Shall I ever see it again ? It has
been almost a lifelong wish with me to be absolutely
under its shadow, and to have been there is a thing
to be thankful for, but I can scarcely expect to see
it again." At Vernayaz he was joined by Mr. A. C.
Bartholomew, from whom we have received the follow
ing account of the latter part of the journey :

" Our first trip together began at Brigue and ended
at Goeschenen. It occupied three weeks in August,
1898. Berisal, Simplon village, Domodossola, Orta,
Mottarone, Baveno, the Falls of Tosa, Airolo, Piora,
formed our route. None of this was new ground to
my dear old friend, but I think he found his compen
sation and his happiness in introducing me to all his
old haunts and acquaintances, especially the charming
landlady at Berisal, who had the gift — a gift, I am
told, possessed too by Mr. Gladstone — of making the
person she was for the time addressing feel that he,
or she, was everything in the world to her. His
memory, marvellous in a man even then nearer eighty
than seventy, enabled him to predict, as we passed
from stage to stage, the treasure we should find, and
rarely did he fail. His cheerfulness and sunny spirit
made each day a fresh delight, and no amount of
discomfort could ruffle his imperturbable temper.
One day, it was the day on which we in vain attempted
to find a Pass he had come from England to explore
— the landlord at Domodossola had provided him with
a vicious beast of a mule which for twelve hours made
unceasing efforts to break the Canon's leg — failing
in this he took his revenge by landing him in a mass

84 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

of filthy, ill-smelling mire ! — but this extracted nothing
but a smile. I am glad to say that five years later
the Pass was accomplished in company with Mr
Baker and another friend, and was a very treasured
memory.

" In 1897 he had planned a trip to the Falls of Tosa,
but so excessive had been the fall of snow in the
winter and spring that even in July the Falls could
not be visited. Some chance led him to try Piora, a
place then practically unknown to Englishmen, and so
delighted was he with his new acquaintance, that he
wrote an article in The Guardian, most strongly recom
mending the place to any who required rest or loved
rambling about in search of flowers on fairly level
ground. To such Piora is a Paradise. The article
bore fruit, and when we visited it at the end of our too
short trip we found it full of English, drawn thither
by the Canon's praises. There we had a happy week.
The hills were not too steep for him and we were out
all day, either rowing on the lake, or searching the
water's side for some new treasure, or carefully beating
the less steep hillsides, peering into each patch of
brushwood, in hopes of finding an Aquilegia alpina safe
from the tracks of indiscriminating goats. Troops
were out on the hills, engaged in autumn manoeuvres
and this added to the interest of the scene. Wherever
we went he found some friend or made some new and
pleasant acquaintances, and he was always being
applied to to name some unknown flower. Our last
day together was spent in a drive over the St. Gothard,
a drive for which the landlord refused to receive any
payment, out of gratitude for the influx of new visitors.
So we parted, for his holiday was not yet up."

TRAVELS ABROAD 85

1899

In 1899 he made as regards distance one of his
longest journeys, lasting from June 15 to July 12,
part of the time with Mr. Milburn, the curator of the
Botanic Garden at Bath, as his guest. From Boulogne
he went to Paris, Dijon, Geneva, Vevey, Brigue, Sim-
plon, then north to Constance, whence he followed the
Rhine to Cologne, coming home by way of Liege,
Brussels, Lille, and Calais — a very creditable perform
ance for a man in his seventy-eighth year.

" July 10, 1899. After luncheon I had a short
journey to Aix-la-Chapelle. This I only remembered
as one of the nastiest places with the nastiest hotel
that we visited in 1852 — but I wanted to renew my
acquaintance with Charlemagne's church, and went to
the Hotel Nuellens, which I found good in every way.
The church is unique — inside an octagon — outside six
teen-sided with late additions of choir, etc. Though
perfectly plain it is most attractive ; each side has
one large arch and above that two high triforium
arches, each side being divided into three by marble
pillars. But the great sight is the treasury, which
I saw under the guidance of a delightful priest, very
different from the verger of Cologne. The collection
is said to be the finest in Europe and I can well believe
it. The greater portion are reliquaries of many dates
and shapes, but all different and all exquisite specimens
of goldsmith's work.

" Tuesday, July n. Left Aix after breakfast, being
told by landlord, porter, chef de station, etc., that
the train was express to Calais and Boulogne ; but no
landlord knows anything beyond what he can see
from his own door. When I got to Brussels I was told
I had to change into another train and wait three

86 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

hours ; it was an express to Boulogne and Calais, but
only on Mondays, so I waited, and after more mis
directions from the officials I got off at last and reached
Boulogne via Calais, and so to the Folkestone boat —
a lovely evening.'*

Commenting in his diary on the whole journey he
wrote :

" June is certainly a good month for Switzerland.
It is cold in the higher parts and that must be provided
for, but it is far the best month for the majority of the
flowers. The hotels are not crowded, there is no dust
and there are no flies. Taken altogether the trip has
been most delightful, with splendid weather throughout
except one day of snow at Bel Alp and one of rain at
S. Bernardino. It has not been the less a success
because it has taught me rather sharply that I am
too old to take a Swiss trip for walks and climbs. If
I am spared to go again, I must go to one place and
stay there and admire mountains from a distance
without attempting difficult walks. Even if I am
limited to that I may well be content and thankful.
Deo gratias."

1900

In spite of the remarks just quoted and the cheerful
resignation they imply, the Canon was off again in 1900
on another trip as long and as arduous as usual. His
chief objective was the Dolomites, and he visited Paris,
Lucerne, Lugano, Milan, Brescia, Salo, Riva, Verona,
Trent, San Martino, Perarolo, Cortina, Innsbruck and
Bale. Mr. Milburn, of the Bath Botanic Garden, was
again his companion for part of the time.

"June 2$, 1900. I got to Milan about three p.m. and
went to the Hotel di Roma. I found it a small hotel,
and in the hands of the painters. It has no look out

TRAVELS ABROAD 87

and I was almost the only guest, but it was very clean,
the landlord was obliging, and the cooking most
excellent with plenty of fruit ; but I am too late for
the loquat and too early for the figs. I went at once
to the cathedral. On first going in it was so dark that
I could see nothing, but after a time I could see that
it was a wonderful piece of work utterly unlike any
other cathedral in the world ; but I was disappointed
with it, all the parts are so frittered away with endless
ornaments that it did not give me any idea of grandeur,
and it did not appeal to the religious feelings. In
themselves each part is beautiful, but the parts do
not work into a grand whole. I like the pierced patterns
in the groinings of the roofs, but thought the very
long capitals ending in a thin carved band of foliage
quite ugly. The tracery of every window seemed
to me mean, with very thin mullions — which added
to their mean appearance. Outside I thought the
west end ugly, but when I saw it in the evening, lit up
by the setting sun, it was striking.

. "A mount of marble, a hundred spires."

" All the other outside is full of beautiful points —
the endless pinnacles each topped by a saint — the
delicate parapets — the pierced flying buttresses — each
by itself is a thing of beauty — but they do not make
a beautiful whole — it is all too finnicky and lacey,
almost like a gigantic bit of confectionery and asking
to be put under a glass case. What it wants is a great
central spire or tower, that would harmonize the whole ;
now each pinnacle is a finish. With a great tower
they would all form one harmonious group. But it is a
building well worth seeing and it is clear that the build
ers, architects and sculptors gave of their very best.

" The same afternoon I saw, but only the outside,

88 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

the Grand Hospital, said to be the finest in Europe—
a very grand building, but I did not go beyond the first
quadrangle in which are six or eight magnolias of an
exceptional beauty.

' Tuesday, June 26. I left the hotel early enough
to see the east end of the Duomo lit up by the sun,
and it was wonderfully beautiful. I took a fiacre to
S. Maria to see the Coenaculo. I knew it was but a
ruin, but I am very glad I saw it. I have never seen
any engraving or copy of it which gave the full beauty
of Our Lord's perfect calmness in the midst of the
terror shown on every other face. It is of course a
sad ruin but is well worth a journey to see it. The
Crucifixion at the other end of the refectory is a
wonderful picture. I do not remember ever to have
seen an engraving of it, but I was very much impressed
with it, every face and figure is so full of character and
it is in very good preservation.

" From the Coenaculo I walked to S. Ambrosio,
certainly the most remarkable, and perhaps the earliest
church I have seen. The outer court (atrium) ending
in the true west end is unique ; the Galilee at Durham
is a faint copy of it, and the church inside is wonder
fully simple and very grand. I made a point of seeing
the altar — the fee is five francs — which at first seemed
too much ; but it is a long business to uncover it, and
the priest who showed it took every trouble to show
me all the parts. It has the reputation of being the
finest piece of goldsmith's work in Europe. All four
sides are of gold with different subjects in many com
partments ; it is all beaten work and the dividing
bands of mosaic are most delicate. There is an
abundance of grand jewels, cameos, etc., and altogether
it is a grand example of the way in which those early

TRAVELS ABROAD 89

Christians thought nothing too good for the service
of God. I had not time to do more than just look
very hurriedly at some of the other treasures in pictures
and frescoes, then went back to my hotel.

" And so my pleasant trip has come to an end, and
again I have nothing to record but almost unmixed
pleasure. I have seen Milan, Verona, and the Dolo
mites. I have had delightful weather throughout,
my companion has again been all that I could wish,
and I have added very largely to my knowledge of
plants in their native habitats. It would have been
worth a longer journey to have seen, as I have, such
things as a wood full of cypripedium, meadows of
scarlet lilies at their best, and Phyteuma comosum —
and I have seen a great many more than these.
Add to these delights the meeting with many friends,
making many pleasant acquaintances, and meeting
everywhere with kindness, I may well say that my
foreign trip of 1900 (probably my last) has been a
great success — for all which Deo gratias.

" P.S. I took as my book companion Horace and
read through the Satires and Epistles twice and many
of the Odes. I am delighted with my old friend-
he is as fresh as ever — and my opinion of him is much
raised.

" For the plants I took Woods' Tourist's Flora and
was well satisfied with it. The descriptions are very
short, only giving the differences, but even so I found
it very helpful.

" I ought to name among the good things of my
trip that throughout I was in excellent health. The
only thing I had to guard against was over-fatigu e,
but I never felt that to any great extent. There
were times when I should have been glad of a new

90 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

back and a new pair of legs, but by never doing more
than half a day's work in a day (except on the long
drives) I got on very well with the old back and legs.
And I never felt that insatiable thirst which was so
trying in 1898, and which drove Bartholomew and me
to such endless limonades gazeuses.

" Before I left home I had been told that I should
have great difficulty in Tyrol with the language. I
never had any real difficulty, nearly everywhere there
was some one who could speak English or French.
In a few places where nothing but Italian or German
was spoken, I found that my French with a mixture
of very elementary German and Italian from me, and
occasional interjections of English fromMilburngot us
through. Where both sides are doing their best to
understand each other, the desired result comes sooner
or later."

1903

In February, 1903, he left London for a journey to
the French and Italian Riviera, visiting Paris, Dijon,
Avignon, Nimes, Carcassone (where he spent his
eighty-first birthday) and Aries on the way. He was
apparently alone, but met Miss Willmott and other
friends during the journey, and stayed with Sir Thomas
and Lady Hanbury at La Mortola.

" February 14, 1903. The railway embankment
near Lyons station is one of the few places where
Genista horrida is found. I looked for it, but did not
expect to see it from the carriage windows, and did
not. But I noted that the soil was liassic, so that
accounts for its doing so well at Bitton."

" February 16. I have long desired to see Nimes,
but as years have gone by it did not seem likely. Now

TRAVELS ABROAD 91

I have seen it and the impression left is that in spite
of the wonderful Roman remains you do not feel your
self in a Roman town as you do at Verona. There
you would not be surprised to meet Horace or Catullus
at the corner of the street ; but you would at Nimes ;
they would be out of place. Perhaps to a great extent
this arises from the fact that Nimes nowhere enters
into Roman history. The beautiful buildings are
there, but they have no connection with any great
Roman, nor any special episode in Roman history. At
Verona the modern buildings do not look as if they
belonged to the town ; at Nimes it is the old buildings
that seem out of place."

" February 18. Murray specially calls attention
to the beauty of the Arlesian ladies. I saw none,
though I had exceptional opportunities, for a very
smart wedding was going on in the hotel, and I found
myself very much de trop mixed up with the bride
and lots of bridesmaids. The bride's train was at
least three yards long and it was the prettiest part of
her."

By March 2 he had reached Nice and was detained
a few days by illness. " My illness," he writes, " was
aggravated by the mosquitoes. I lost my umbrella,
I lost my money, and have not recovered either.
From Nice I went to the Garavan station at Mentone,
where I met Sir Thomas and Lady Hanbury and
drove with them to La Mortola. I took a short walk
with Sir Thomas in the garden before dinner ; enough
to show me that I was in an exceptionally beautiful
place, every yard full of interest to a gardener. I
cannot describe the beauty of the position of La Mor
tola or the charms of the house. Of course it is all
more or less marble, but from Sir Thomas' long inter-

92 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

course with China it is full of all sorts of interesting
things from China and Japan (including two sets of
lovely Chinese drawings of flowers — among them a
rich blue tree paeony — which the Chinese ambassador
assures Sir Thomas is a reality but very rare). My
bedroom is lovely ; one window looks upon the moun
tain and the other on the sea, and no mosquitoes/'

"March 3. In the morning walked in the garden
with Sir Thomas and everywhere saw plants of which
I may have read but have never seen. The whole
place was full of flowers, but I think the speciality
of the garden is the wonderful collection of Cape succu
lents. The aloes were a revelation to me. They were
of every size and of every colour, and were for the
most part suggestive of kniphofias of the most brilliant
colours. I had no idea such things existed. Part
of the garden is still in its wild rocky state and it was
delightful to me to see growing wild the asparagus,
smilax, Pistacia Lentiscus, Arisaema vulgar et Allium
neapolitanum, and a host of other things which are
among my chief treasures at Bitton. At luncheon
we had Buxton, and in the afternoon Lady Hanbury
had an at home at which it was pleasant to meet
Dr. Hugo Miiller and family, Mrs. Boyle, Mr. and Mrs.
Rowley of Cirencester, and a Mrs. Coneybeare whom
I had met years ago at Avening. The porch of the
house was filled with an abundance of cut flowers for
the visitors to take away with them.

" March 4. After breakfast, Miss Hanbury kindly
took me a walk through the grounds, and of course I
saw heaps of things which I had overlooked before.
After lunch Sir Thomas Hanbury took me down to
the bottom of the garden which is bounded by the
sea. It was too delightful. I cannot attempt to

TRAVELS ABROAD 93

name all the rarities and beauties that I saw — among
other things the fruit of the new Cydonia sinensis and
of Ficus repens ; but the walk by the shore was most
beautiful, Cineraria maritima was very abundant.
It's a stiff walk up and down, but I was none the
worse for it. Sir Thomas and Lady Hanbury pressed
me most kindly to stay on, but I went away after
afternoon tea, Sir Thomas sending me to Cap Martin
—a most lovely drive along the shore of the bay.
I got to Cap Martin in good time, and found a gigantic
hotel full to the top, but they had kept a good room
for me."

On March 19, he was back at Bitton and writes :
' With the exception of my illness and consequent
weakness at Nice, I have had a delightful holiday.
I have travelled 2,000 miles and seen a great deal
that was not only beautiful and interesting but entirely
new to me. In fact, the Riviera, though within
twenty-four hours of London, is practically a different
world. It has been a great delight to me to see it.
It has an abundance of beauties, but I should not
choose it as a place to live in or die in. ... In the
five weeks that I have been absent from Bitton I
have not seen a drop of rain. I have made several
good friends and made many pleasant acquaintances.
Deo gratias"

On June 25 of the same year, 1903, the Canon set
out on a second trip abroad, this time to Switzer
land ; returning home on July 9. His chief object
on this journey was to cross from Switzerland to Italy
by the Muscera Pass, a feat he had long contemplated.
His companions were Mr. Hiatt Baker and Mr. E.
Lascelles. Writing in The Pilot for August 8, on his
return, he says :

94 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

THE MUSCERA PASS l

I am sure that very few, if any, readers of The Pilot
have crossed from Switzerland to Italy by the Muscera
Pass ; and I am sure that a great many have seen
and passed by the commencement of it. Standing
in the doorway of the good little Hotel Fleitschorn,
in Simplon, one sees immediately in front but on the
opposite side of the valley a long grassy slope, leading
to a col between two high points ; this col leads to
the Muscera Pass. The pass is now very little known ;
Baedeker and Murray take no notice of it ; Ball walked
over it many years ago, and gives a short, sketchy
description of it ; but I have never met with any one
else who had taken the walk, and have failed in finding
a guide over it either at Simplon or Domodossola.
Yet I feel sure that before the grand military road
from Brigue to Domodossola was made the Muscera
Pass must have been one of the passes, and a very
important one, over which passed the great traffic
that is known to have gone over the Simplon in me
diaeval times. The col, as seen from Simplon, must
have had an inviting look, while a passage through
the Gondo Gorge must then have been absolutely
impossible, though, perhaps, it might have been
circumvented. Since the road has been made the
Muscera Pass has been entirely neglected and almost
forgotten ; and my knowledge of it came from the
possession of one of the pretty model plans of Switzer
land which were made in the beginning of the last
century. In my model the pass is distinctly given,
and for many years I have had a desire to make the
walk ; for I felt sure, from the different contours,

1 This article was published in The Pilot, of August 8, 1903.

TRAVELS ABROAD 95

elevations, and aspects, that it must be a good hunt
ing ground for Swiss flowers. Three times I have
failed in the attempt : once I was stopped by weather ;
once by the illness of my companion ; and the third
time by the misdirection of the landlord at Domo-
dossola ; but I got through it on Tuesday, June 30,
and all my expectations have been more than realized ;
and I now propose to give a short sketch of the walk,
and to say why I recommend it to others.

But, before I begin my sketch, I must say some
thing about the Simplon Pass itself. Every one
admires the grand drive from Brigue to Domodos-
sola ; but I have heard many say that from the point
of view of flowers, it will not bear comparison with
many other good drives, especially in its higher parts.
That is so if the drive is taken in August and Septem
ber ; at that time I know few more dreary parts than
the mile each side of the hospice. But in the end of
June and beginning of July the scene is very different,
especially in a backward season like the present.
Taking the highest point, that is, the half-mile each
side of the hospice, and leaving out such things as
the great masses of Alpine rose, gentians, and Trollius,
there can be found in that mile and close to the road
such good Alpines as Senecio incanus, Loiseleuria
procumbens, Ranunculus pyrenaeus, Viola calcarata,
Lloydia serotina, the white Pinguicula alpina, Achillca
umbellata, Salix reticulata, and others. But, to my
mind, the great interest of the Simplon now centres
in the wonderful landslip from the Fleitschorn, which
took place last year close to the village of Simplon.
I had, of course, read of it, but the impression left on
me was that it was the fall of a great glacier ; but it
was much more than that. It was the fall of a large

96 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

portion of the mountain, and in its fall it brought
with it the glacier that covered it. It dashed down
into the valley, damming up the Krummbach, and
forming a lake where the river had been, filling the
valley, and destroying the road so that all traffic
ceased for two months. Whether the great rock
toppled over or slid down I do not know ; probably
it did both ; at any rate, the glacier is now for the
most part the lowest stratum covered with the masses
of broken rock. The road is carried through it, but
subject still to constant changes and anxious watch
ing ; it may be said to form the base of a triangle,
of which the apex is in the head of the valley above ;
and some idea of the extent may be gained when I
say that at my request my two companions, tall men,
stepped it for me, and made it about 730 yards ; and
the distance from the base line to the apex must be
at least double that. The pretty valley is now a
valley of desolation, and so it must be probably for
many years. The little Krummbach soon recovered
itself, finding a new way through the rocks, and especi
ally through the glacier which gave the fewest points
of resistance, and which bridges it over in many parts ;
but the glacier melts very slowly, and until it has
entirely melted the rocks that are in it and over it
cannot come to their final resting places. It is alto
gether a stupendous and fearsome sight, and impressed
me more than anything I had seen previously with
the truth that our earth, and the scenery of it, is still
in daily process of formation and change.

I must return to the Muscera Pass. It was impos
sible to get a guide, but the landlord found a wiry
elderly man who looked intelligent and active ; he
confessed that he had never been over the pass, but he

TRAVELS ABROAD 97

knew the first part of the walk, and with that we had
to be content. We left the hotel a little after six
a.m. — my two companions, who are young, walking,
and I, who am not young, riding. I could not get a
mule, but the landlord brought out a petit cheval that
did not look promising at first ; but I saw that he was
a well-built, short-jointed little horse, with a bright,
cheerful eye, and so I entrusted myself to him, and
my confidence was not misplaced ; I shall have more
to say of him. We left the main road near Algaby,
and at once began the ascent, and reached the col we
had seen from the hotel, known as the Furgge or
Furka (6,175 ft.) with little difficulty. From that
point we descended rapidly into the Zwischenberg
Thai, through which runs the river that comes out at
Gondo. Here we were almost on the same level again
as our hotel, and we had a steep but not difficult
mount to the Posetta Huts. It was now nearly
twelve o'clock, so we called a halt, and datur hora
quieti and lunch. I made a delightful couch in the
inner part of the chalet from the fine hay there and
got a short nap ; but was soon roused by the guide's
" Montez, monsieur — il faut partir, il pluit " ; and so
it did for four or five hours, with short, sharp thunder
storms. The last part of the ascent was along
the side of a barren-looking mountain, but it was
not really barren ; the snow had only just left it,
and the grass was brown and crushed ; but already
Primula farinosa and P. minima had pushed their
rosettes through the soil and were in flower ; and the
dwarf larches that had been under the snow were
putting out their fresh green leaf-buds. We got to
the cross which marks the summit (6,946 ft.) between
one and two p.m., and then we were in Italy. Here we

G

98 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

began the descent, and at once our difficulties began.
The guide knew nothing of the route, and there was
no visible track ; but we were between two rivers,
and ought to have taken the one on the right, but we
took the one on the left, and soon got into trouble.
The prospect was not pleasant ; the short thunder
storms still went on with heavy rain ; there seemed
no possibility of recovering the route, and at length
the poor guide gave it up, threw down my alpenstock
that he was carrying, and took to his prayers. Fortu
nately, a woodcutter's hut came into sight ; we went
into it, and found about a dozen men round a wood
fire ; they were most kind and attentive, and three
consented to guide us out of our difficulties, which
they did by making us climb through a steep rocky
wood all of large boulders covered with underwood,
almost back to the summit, and to a rapid rocky
river, which we had to cross. Then they led us by a
fairly marked path to the Chapel of St. Bernard.
This chapel we ought to have reached under an hour
from the summit — we had taken over four. It was
the great landmark of our walk, and from it we went
by an easy incline to San Lorenzo, a little village
perched up high, and only approached by a path of
cobbled steps, I should suppose nearly two miles
long, which are not pleasant either for walkers or
riders. However, it came to an end at last, and we
found ourselves going through and under the pretty
vine pergolas, with the hemp and maize in the gar
dens, the maidenhair fern on the walls, and in the
cottages the beautiful children with their large blue-
black eyes — all telling of Italy. We reached Prestino
about seven o'clock ; there our carriage met us, and
we soon got to Domodossola. We were, of course,

TRAVELS ABROAD 99

wet and tired ; and as to myself, I was so stiff with my
twelve hours in the saddle that I had to be lifted out
of it ; but I was delighted to have done the task that
had hitherto baffled me, and thankful to have been
able to do it, and to see such beauties of scenery and
flowers.

Such was our walk over the Muscera Pass, and the
reader may well ask what there was in it to distinguish
it from many other Swiss walks. There is this. In
all my walks in search of flowers I have never and
nowhere seen such a wealth of flowers as I saw there ;
from beginning to end there were scarcely any gaps
—and not only did we see an immense variety of
species, but in each species a large abundance of indi
viduals. The pastures were full of Trollius and St.
Bruno's lilies. The yellow anemones (with the re
mains of A. vernalis out of flower, but easily distin
guished by its beautiful silky involucrum), the gentians,
both G. acaidis and G. bavarica, and the bird's-eye
primroses were with us all day. At the top of the
pass was an abundance of the white Crocus vernus,
with Ranunculus pyrenaeus, R. parnassifolius and
Gagea Leotardi ; and on the Italian side were meadows
really full of orchids of many sorts and colours, and
all at their best ; and in some places both sides of
the valley were brilliant with the broom, which I
suppose to be ours, but it was quite dwarf and pros
trate. . I have no space to mention more, but before
leaving the flowers I must say that we returned the
next day by the road, and four flowers that we saw
deserve notice — Opuntia vulgaris was in flower ; it is
not a native, but is completely naturalized on the
walls and rocks near Domodossola. The large rosettes
and grand spikes of Saxifraga Cotyledon were wonder-

ioo HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

ful in every coign of vantage in the deep rocks. The
orange lily (L. croceum) was in full beauty, of a far
more brilliant colour than we know it in England,
generally but not always growing alone on inaccessible
ledges of rocks, and so differing from its near relative,
L. bulbiferum, which, owing to its bulbils, increases
rapidly, and fills the meadows in Tyrol and elsewhere ;
and near Simplon was Streptopus amplexicaulis, which
I look on as showing some of the most curious freaks
in plant life, but I have no space to speak of it further
here.

I must find room, however, to record the virtues
of my horse. He was twenty years old, and had
never been on such a trip before. But he was perfect.
He went up and down steep, rocky, stair-like paths
like a goat ; he showed no dislike or fear of rain and
thunder-storms ; he took me through the rapid river
with a rocky bottom and the water up to my stirrups,
and a bad take-off and landing as if he liked it ; he
walked over fallen trees as if they were the proper
things to find in a road ; he took me into and out of
the low narrow doors of the woodcutters' hut, and
stood by the fire like a statue ; uphill or downhill
were the same to him ; and his pace throughout was
never jumpy, but smooth and easy — altogether a
wonderful little beast, of whom I shall always have
a grateful remembrance.

To finish* my paper, I may say that if any one is
tempted by my description to take the same walk, it
is by no means necessary to do the whole. A very
pleasant walk of a few hours' length could be made
from Simplon to the first col and back ; or from
Simplon to the Italian frontier and back, between
breakfast and dinner ; and on the Italian side a good

TRAVELS ABROAD 101

walk of not more than four or five hours might be
made to and from the chapel of St. Bernard. And I
must warn the reader that, though I found the walk
wonderfully rich in flowers, it is not always so ; it
would be quite possible to take the same walk later
on and find almost nothing. The flowering period
of nearly all Alpines is a very short one ; they have a
special work to do, and a very short time in which to
do it ; but they do it and do it beautifully.

H. N. E.

The following note on this journey has been sent
us by his companion, Mr. Hiatt Baker :

" Canon Ellacombe had always had a fancy to go
over the Muscera Pass from Simplon to Domodossola ;
it seems some ancient writer had said that it was
very rich in flowers ; and having been on three occa
sions baulked by adverse circumstances, he asked
Lascelles and me to see him over it.

" We duly arrived at Simplon, and there slept the
night. Inquiry produced a horse, but no one had
ever been over the pass, which was unused these
hundred years or more, since Napoleon made the
excellent road that avoids the two low mountain
passes across which, before this time, lay the only
way into Italy.

' We started at about six o'clock, and all went well
over the first pass, which was obvious from the hotel,
but having got down into the next valley, our route
was by no means certain. We pushed on through
deepish snow to the top of the next ridge, and on the
other side we got into a tangle of torrents running
through boulders and rhododendron scrub, and to
add to our difficulties it thundered and rained for all

102 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

it was worth. The Canon was quite placid, sitting
his horse as if he were part of it (it was as often as not
on its head or its knees !) a huge white cotton umbrella
over his head, and continually shouting, ' Baker !
Baker ! What's that flower ? ' I may say the water
was streaming down my back-bone !

" He was not even much moved when our so-called
guide, casting his staff from him, fell on his knees in
prayer. (One does not altogether like one's temporal
guide to turn in obvious despair to spiritual resources !)

" I was beginning to be really alarmed, afraid that
at any moment he might come down and break his
bones. Finally we got to a place where we could not
possibly get the horse down; what we should have
done if some charcoal-burners had not come to our
rescue, I don't know. After retracing our steps for
some way, we came to a track — the first we had seen
that day — and the rest of the way down was fairly
simple. We did not get in till after six, and, except
for half an hour for lunch, the old man was in the
saddle all the twelve hours. He was down before
us the next morning, and was in no way the worse
for the expedition, which I think at his age was really
remarkable.

" We found among other interesting plants a beau
tiful patch of white Rhododendron ferrugineum."

1904

In 1904 the Canon was away from Bitton from May
ii until June 9, visiting in the interval France, Italy,
Switzerland, and Germany, and, as he says, enlarging
his acquaintance of Europe by visiting for the first
time Les Barres (Maurice de Vilmorin's place), Tres-
serve (Miss Willmott's), Cenis, Susa, Turin, Aosta,

TRAVELS ABROAD 103

Fribourg, Strasburg, and Baden Baden. He was
apparently alone most of the time, but was joined by
Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt Baker at Aix, and saw Miss Will-
mott and the Berkeleys of Spetchley at Tresserve.
He started with a cold, which hampered his movements
for a few days. Under " Paris, Sunday, May 15,"
he writes : " Stayed in all day ; cold still bad." Mon
day : " Very uncomfortable, sent for doctor (Miiller).
After examination this was his verdict : ' Your tong
is clean ; your temperatt and pols is normal ; your
longs is quite clear ; your eye is bright ; you have
no cough or pains and your heart is splendide ; it
does belong to a strong man of twenty. Que voulez
vous m'sieur ? You can go where you like, and you
shall live as many years as you shall like ' — I felt
myself an impostor. ... I took a long drive in the
Bois — at this time of year it is lovely. There were
several Paulownias and Judas trees in flower — and
all in the most beautiful order."

Two days later he visited the Salon in Paris, driving
back from which he says : "I had a bad cocker who did
not know his business. In turning out of the Rue de
Rivoli a motor charged into us full tilt ; the horse
went down like a ninepin, but no more damage. It
was, however, too close a shave to be pleasant."

On the i8th he went with M. de Vilmorin to Les
Barres, where the wonderful collection of shrubs much
interested him. " In the evening we all went to
supper at a neighbouring chateau about five miles off.
I had not before seen much of French chateaux so I
was glad of the opportunity. The chateau was of
the usual type, a long front with a large tower at each
end topped by a short spire. The owner is a Count
Hardy de Puniri of a very old family connected with

104 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

the Montmorency and Coligny. They were all most
polite and kind and thoroughly French. I took Mdme.
la Comtesse into supper, but as she could not speak a
word of English and I could only hear a very little of
her French, she must have found me very dull and
stupid. But it did not affect her good temper or her
appetite. The four children, eldest about ten, were
evidently much awed by me. They did not keep their
eyes off me and did not speak ; but de Vilmorin tells
me that is the rule with French children at meals.

" Saturday, May 21, 1904. Spent the day at Tres-
serve. Went up after breakfast and found Miss Will-
mott and the Berkeleys ready for us. The place is a
delightful one ; the house on the top of a low hill and
the garden reaching down to the pretty lake Bourget,
which, with the fine hills behind, that separate the
lake from the Rhone, makes an ideal setting for the
garden. The garden is intersected throughout by
long shady walks, and there is a marvellous abundance
of flowers revelling in the soil and climate. We had
come at the exact time for the irises of which there is
a splendid collection ; also a great variety of roses,
but we were too early for the great collection. But
after seeing the Les Barres and Tresserve collections
of roses I have come to the conclusion that, as I have
long suspected, I know very little about roses ; and I
really think there is no one who is a complete master
of them."

On May 30, he reached Aosta. " After lunch I
went to see the Roman antiquities ; first the Porta
Pretoria, which like the Porta at Susa was evidently
something of a barrack, then to the Triumphal Arch.
This was the thing for which I have always wished
to see Aosta. I knew it from a beautiful drawing of

TRAVELS ABROAD 105

Uncle G.'s — now with E. l It is a splendid specimen
of Roman work — remarkable for the simplicit}^ of
the design and the wonderful perfection in which it
now is. It looks as if it might have been made quite
recently. From the Arc I went to the Eglise St. Ours
— chiefly remarkable for its grand Lombardic detached
tower. The interior is horribly spoiled by modern
decoration of the vulgarest kind. From there to the
cathedral. This also has two striking Lombardic
towers. These Lombardic towers with swelling bases
and with no decoration whatever on the lower half
and the upper half divided into three or four stories
each with its pretty open-work arches, always have
an attraction for me. I wonder they have not been
copied in England. Inside the cathedral the piers
are Romanesque and square, but all spoilt by decora
tion — the square piers covered with red baize ! The
decoration throughout is sadly mean. In neither of
the churches did I go into the crypts, but saw enough
to show that they were simple and rather grand. At
St. Ours I went to the cloister, which I much admired.
It was of simple Romanesque arches, the capitals well
carved, but so screened off that I could not examine
them as I should have liked to have done.

' Wollaston arrived in the afternoon, having crossed
from Martigny with the report that it was impossible
for me to go over the pass. He had come through
four hours of deep soft snow up to and over his knees.
That certainly would not do for me, so I had to give
it up ; it was a great disappointment but unavoidable.

1 This drawing and its companion Venice, which used to hang
over the study mantlepiece are now in my possession, having been
presented to me by Mr. and Mrs. Cockey shortly after the Canon's
death.— A. W. H.

io6 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Wollaston said that I might perhaps cross in a chaise
d porteur, but I should feel ashamed of myself to cross
in that way. I should have been very uncomfortable
and it would be very expensive, requiring four or five
porters. They might fail in the attempt, and what then ?

" Thursday, June 9. New River board and home.
So has ended my little trip of 1904. It has not been
altogether a success ; yet in spite of drawbacks — some
perhaps rather serious — and some disappointments, it
has certainly not been a failure. For a great part of
the way I have had delightful companions. I have
seen many plants in their native habitats that I had
not seen before, and I have had, with one day's excep
tion, perfect weather, though often hotter than I quite
like ; and though occasionally rather weak, I have
never been over-fatigued. So, if my life is spared, I see
no reason why I should not cross the Channel again—
perhaps more than once — but not alone. Deo gratias."

On Monday, September 12, 1904, three months
after his return he set out alone, however, for Venice
via Lucerne, Lugano, Milan and Verona, returning by
way of Padua, Ravenna, Milan and Paris.

" Monday, September 19. Left (Milan) after an
early breakfast for Venice, but stopping at Verona.
I got to Verona before midday ; every shop was shut
and it all looked very dreary, but I went to S. Anas-
tasia to see my church floor. I find that I was mis
taken in the three colours — the light colour is not
a buff, but pure white, for the most part discolored
by age, which accounted for my mistake. Again I
was much impressed with the whole building and if
I am ever able to get a new west door or choir stalls
for Bitton, I shall go to S. Anastasia for my model.

" September 22. Gave up the day to a trip to Padua

TRAVELS ABROAD 107

and was delighted with it. From the station I drove
at once to the Botanic Gardens which are the oldest
Botanic Gardens in Europe. The collection was
an interesting one, but for the most part the things
are shown in the usual continental fashion, i.e. starved
in pots standing on the gravel paths. But the trees
and shrubs were splendid — majestic magnolias, Lager-
stroemia out of flower but of great size, and a Salis-
buria, probably the finest and oldest in Europe. It
is about 90 ft. high and was covered with fruit, of
which I gathered some. There was a fair collection
of herbaceous and Alpine plants, but nothing particu
lar and many wrongly named. From there I went to
S. Antonio. Externally it has no beauty, but the
interior is very striking, and the chapel of S. Felice
is most beautiful. I particularly admired the red
Verona marble, which is abundantly used ; it is of a
very rich red, richer and less brown than the rouge
royal that I have been using at Bit ton, almost as
red as the Numidian marble. If I am able to do any
more marble work at Bitton, I shall try and get this."1
The Canon does not seem to have enjoyed his only
visit to Venice. " I am very glad to have seen it ;
it is so absolutely unique — no other place in the world
like it. I found it very depressing ; certainly I could
not live there — a town with no horizon, no hills nor
trees, no horses, but on the other hand no dust and
no motors. It was very cold when I was there/'
From Venice he went on to Ferrara, " a good specimen
of an old Italian town with many quaint buildings.
The cathedral alone well repaid me. The west front
is most beautiful with a succession of arcades which
run practically all round the building."

1 I have used it since for the altar steps.

io8 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

He arrived at Ravenna on Monday, September 26,
and the next morning " after breakfast I drove to the
tomb of Theodoric, a little way outside the town. This
I have always longed to do ever since I first read of it
in Gibbon. It is at the end of an untidy garden and
certainly has no beauty, but it has great interest.
The roof is a puzzle of engineering, but there is really
nothing to see in it but its massiveness."

He returned to England on October 3. Although
now approaching his eighty-third birthday he appears
to have been alone all the time. This and the lateness
of the season seem to have made his journey less
enjoyable than was usual with him.

1906

In 1906 the Canon was away on the longest (in point
of time) of all his continental visits, leaving Bitton
on April 25, and not returning until eleven weeks after,
on July ii. Three weeks of this he spent at Florence
where he had Mr. A. C. Bartholomew for a companion.

" May 9. " Left Paris at noon. I have been there
just a fortnight and I can't remember ever to have
spent so idle a time. I have seen very little and done
very little and have not cared to see or do much more.
The weather has to some extent caused this, but in
addition I have not felt quite up to the mark. Nothing
much the matter but a lassitude and indisposition to
do much. On the whole, I have not found the ' sweet-
do-nothing' altogether unpleasant/'

He then went on to Dijon, Lyons (" I had my hair
cut and, as I left the coiffeur to his own devices, I left
his shop as bald as a coot "), Aix (" was warmly wel
comed as usual by the pleasant landlady "), Turin and

TRAVELS ABROAD 109

Genoa, arriving on May 16 at Florence where he was
joined by Mr. Bartholomew on June I.

" June 7. Spent the morning with Bartholomew
at the Uffizzi Galleries. It would take many weeks
to exhaust all its beauties. In the afternoon went again
to the Via Romana, to get a Savonarola chair for
Bitton church, and an old bureau for myself.

" I have placed the chair in the sanctuary at Bitton
as a small thankoffering for the health and strength
which have enabled me this year to see so many
wonderful and beautiful works of God and man.

" On the way (to Saltino) we found the following,
which were new to me in their wild state — Cistus
ftorentinus, abundant in sunny banks, Nigella (love in
a mist) and Orniihogalum pryamidale in the cornfields.
There was also an abundance of an upright heath,
Erica arborea, which was not in flower/'

We are indebted to Mr. A. C. Bartholomew for the
following notes on his sojourn with Canon Ellacombe
at Florence and Genoa :

" Eight years later and we were again together,
this time in Florence. He had many friends in
Florence and the neighbourhood ('all widows/ as
he laughingly observed) and paid frequent visits to
their lovely gardens, which they were only too proud
to show him. On one occasion the owner pointed
to some very fine delphiniums and pleased him much
by adding, ' Those came from Bitton/

" The fireflies in the Cascini Gardens interested
and amused him, and he pointed out with great glee
large patches of Capparis spinosa growing out of the
wall on the road up to Fiesole. The ordinary sights
in Florence, churches, galleries, etc., I did not visit
with him — probably he knew them well from pre-

no HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

vious visits and was content to renew his acquain
tance vicariously through my eyes. We left on the
Qth for Pisa, and after a day there, much of which
was spent in the Campo Santo, passed on to Lucca.
His only regret was that we had neither of us heard
of^ the camel farm and so missed paying it a visit. The
next stage was Spezia, and here we would gladly have
stayed longer, had plans permitted, the wide open
level space, tree planted, between the hotel and the
sea pleased him much, and he drew my attention to
the remains of the mole which Napoleon built across
the mouth of the harbour. He had found the heat
a little trying, but here it was mitigated by the sea
breeze. As the line between Spezia and Genoa largely
consists of tunnels, he determined to go by road, making
a two days' drive of it and passing the night at Sestri
Levante ; and a very enjoyable drive we had, mainly
through woods of Spanish chestnut. Serapias cordigera
was in great beauty by the side of the road (and I was
glad to have it named). Apparently the season on
this part of the coast was at an end ; the hotel could
only muster a slatternly boy and a no less untidy
cook, but the place is so lovely that we were indifferent
to creature comforts and a plunge into the sea only a
few feet from one's bed made amends for all short
comings. The second day's drive we both found hot,
dusty and uninteresting, relieved at times, however,
by splendid masses of Tecoma. We were both glad
when we reached Genoa. We paid an early call on
the director of the botanic garden and he arranged a
delightful excursion. We went by train for some ten
miles and then hired a trap which took us to the top
of Monte Creto, over which we rambled for some
hours, astonished at the wealth of the flora. Some

TRAVELS ABROAD in

thirty species of orchis were in flower, but the two finds
which seemed to give him most pleasure were Catananche
caerulea in every instance growing as a single plant,
and a very dwarf growing, almost creeping form of Rosa
gallica with large dark crimson flowers, an ideal
rockery plant.

" Milan was our next stopping place, and finding I
had never seen Verona, he treated me to a visit, draw
ing out a programme to enable me to make the best
use of the time available. The weather was extremely
hot and he did not accompany me. Our final stage
was Lugano, from which we made an expedition to
Monte Generoso that he might show me the paeonies."

Mr. Bartholomew adds : " I fear it is not easy to
put on paper the pleasure a companion enjoyed from
being with one who was determined to be happy what
ever befell him and who was sure of a warm welcome
wherever he went — a welcome generously extended to
his fellow- traveller. "

' June 15. Genoa. Penzig pointed out to me a
specimen of the typical indigenous cypress. It is not
upright and fastigiate as commonly seen, but spreading
like a yew. He says that the upright form was pro
duced by many generations of trimming ! Now the
upright trees produce seed which generally, but not
always, produce upright seedlings ; sometimes the
seedlings revert to the type." *

1 This is the most extraordinary case of " inheritance of acquired
characters " we have ever heard of. Of course, there is not an
atom of truth in it. The fastigiate cypress is a natural variety of
Cupressus sempervirens, which normally has spreading branches.
The fastigiate form, being the more impressive, is much more
generally cultivated. It can be raised from seeds, which largely
come true, or by cuttings. The Monterey cypress (C. macrocarpa)
is represented by two similar forms. — A. W. H.

na HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

"Saturday, June 16. After an early breakfast
went by train to Verona. There Bartholomew got
out at the wrong station and we missed each other, but
met two hours later in S. Anastasia. This fine
church was as attractive as before and I was quite
pleased to see that the altar steps are of red Verona
marble. I had not copied mine from there, but it was
pleasant to see that I had chosen right. The steps
at S. Anastasia have rather deep noses. I prefer mine
with the plain edges, though of course the noses hide
the joints/'

This was the Canon* s third visit to Verona and he
gives sketches of pavements in both diaries.

" Wednesday, July n, home. My long holiday has
come to an end, and it has given me many pleasant
memories. I have seen Florence and Pisa and a good
deal of the Apennines. I have seen for the first time
many beautiful plants in their native habitats. I
have met with several friends and made some pleasant
new acquaintances, and have been everywhere treated
with the greatest kindness. I have had, with the
exception of a few days at the beginning, excellent
weather. I have been fortunate in always getting
comfortable and uncrowded carriages on the railways,
I have been very well and never was really fatigued.
Deo gratias."

1907

The last of the Canon's diaries is headed " A short
Swiss trip." He had with him his daughters, Mrs.
Janson and Mrs. Cockey. They reached Lucerne
by way of Nancy and Bale and after a few days*
stay there went on to Lugano, " which I still
consider one of the loveliest places in Switzerland.'*

TRAVELS ABROAD 113

From Lugano they went to Bellinzona, Biasca and
Faido. " We stopped some time at Giornico to see
the church of S. Nicolas. It is now disused but very
well worth seeing and indeed one of the most curious
churches I have seen. It must be one of the very
earliest of the prevailing type in Lombardic churches."

At Goeschenen, his knee, which had troubled him
earlier, became worse, and he gave up the idea which
he had entertained of going up the Goeschenen Alp
However, on July 27, he writes : ' I went a shor •
way up and was pleased to be amongst my old plant
friends again, such as Campanula barbate, Alpine rose,
Sempervivum arachnoideum, S. Doellianum, Luzula
nivea, Digitalis hitea and others. The flora is evidently
very similar to that of Piora and probably as rich."

He reached home again on August 2, and he writes :
" This little trip, though not a complete success, owing
to rain in the Ticino Valley and my weak knee, was
very pleasant. We were especially fortunate in our
railway journeys, nearly always having a compartment
to ourselves, and very fine weather, except a day and
a half in the Ticino Valley."

So ended the Canon's many peregrinations abroad.
He was now in his eighty-sixth year and time at last
won its inevitable victory. But through them all and
to the very end he remained the invincible optimist.
However unpleasant the circumstance of the moment
might be he maintained an unbroken cheerfulness and
a determination to make the best of things. His
philosophy was based on the conviction that however
much one might lack or wish for, one always actually
possessed much to be thankful for. In the diary of
1897 he writes, soon after the loss of his wife : " The
one black cloud that has followed me throughout has

ii4 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

been the thought of my widowed home at Bitton, for
in all former journeys the great part of the pleasure
has been the return home. It is not so now, and
never can be again. Still, ' though much is taken,
much remains.' "

CHAPTER V
THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS

THE Canon published four books, three of which
are fairly well known. The two earliest dealt
with Shakespeare, and are The Plant-Lore of Shakes
peare, published in 1878, which ran to three editions,
and Shakespeare as an Angler, privately published in
1883. The sale of this, as was the case with the first
edition of the Plant-Lore, was largely managed by the
Canon. The other two books, mainly concerned with
gardening, are In a Gloucestershire Garden, published
in 1895, and In my Vicarage Garden, and Elsewhere,
published in 1902. Both these latter appeared first
as a series of papers in The Guardian.

In addition to these books the Canon contributed
numerous papers to the Bath Natural History and
Antiquarian Field Club, between the years 1869
and 1894, and also to the Bath Literary Club, of which
he was a member from 1875-1892. He also wrote
numerous articles and reviews for The Guardian, The
Pilot, The Garden, The Gardeners' Chronicle, etc.

To the various gardening magazines he was a con
stant contributor, and during the last few years of
his life he interested himself in collecting together the
references to plants contained in the works of Spenser,
Gower, Chaucer, and Milton. These scattered papers

115

n6 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

contain a good deal of curious information and would
make an interesting companion to The Plant-Lore of
Shakespeare if gathered together in book form.1 As in
the Plant-Lore, the passages in which reference to a
particular plant is made are quoted, and notes on the
plants or on the passages are added by the Canon.
He had been requested to prepare them for publi
cation in this manner, but unfortunately felt he had
not the necessary strength to do so in his ninety-
second year.

His last literary production was the series of papers
upon the flowers of Milton. He used to say that it
was not such a congenial task to him as the flowers of
Shakespeare had been, because Milton had not the
same knowledge of plants.

Incidentally he was much interested in finding so
many passages in Milton which were applicable to
the war and to trench warfare :

" Twixt host and host but narrow space was left,
A dreadful interval, and front to front
Presented stood in terrible array
Of hideous length : before the cloudy van. ..."

And again :

" What do these worthies

But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove

1 " Flowers of Spenser," Card. Chron. (Ser. 3) 44, 1908 (p. 393) ;
44, 1908 (pp. 6-8, 15, 26, 45, 54, 65, 94, 103-104, 124, 138, 172,
204, 219, 251-252).

" Flowers of Gower and Chaucer," Card. Chron. (Ser. 3) 49, 1911
(pp. 401-402), 50, 1911 (pp. 24-25, 43, 84, 107, 126, 147, 165).

" Flowers of Milton," Gard. Chron. (Ser. 3) 58, 1915 (pp. 33, 69,
89, 99, 113).

THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS 117

And all the flourishing works of peace destroy ;
Then swell with pride, and must be titled Gods,
Great benefactors of mankind, deliverers
Worshipped with temple, priest and sacrifice ?
Till conqueror Death discover them scarce men,
Rolling in brutish vices, and deformed,
Violent or shameful death their due reward. ..."

Also the following from Dryden applicable to the
Kaiser :

" Forgiveness to the injured does belong,
But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong."

" So spake the fiend, and with necessity,
The Tyrants plea, excused his devilish deeds."

Among his other noteworthy papers and articles
which we have been able to trace may be mentioned
the papers on " Field-Names," in the proceedings of
the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club,
and in the National Review, and his papers on " Church
Restoration," " Garden Shrubs," and " House Mottoes "
in the National Review. These are of such general
interest that with the exception of the one on Garden
Shrubs they are reprinted here (see pp. 238-291) by
the courtesy of the editor.

Two papers also appeared in Cornhill on Roses and
Japanese Flowers in English Gardens, and the former
is reprinted at the end of this memoir by kind per
mission of the editor. Another interesting paper by
the Canon is that on " Plant Names from Animals,"
which was printed in the Gardeners' Chronicle of October
5 and 12, 1912, which is a good example of the wealth
of the Canon's classical and literary knowledge.

For the following notices of the Canon's books we
are indebted to Sir Arthur Hort and to Mr. D. C.
Lathbury. Sir Arthur Hort has written the notes on
The Plant-Lore of Shakespeare and on Shakespeare as

n8 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

an Angler, and Mr. D. C. Lathbury has contributed
the account of the two gardening books.

THE PLANT-LORE
AND GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE.

This pleasant volume is of value not because of any
thesis which the author sets himself to establish. He
is well aware, as he says in the introduction, of the
snares which await the steps of any one who would fain
claim the many-sided poet as an expert in his own
particular hobby or profession. We are reminded
that he has thus been claimed as " a soldier, a sailor 9
a lawyer, an astronomer, a physician, a divine, a sports
man, an angler ! n There is a humorous touch
about the last claim, for which we are referred in a
footnote to Was Shakespeare an Angler? by H. N.
Ellacombe, 1883.

The truth indeed, as the author was well aware, is that
Shakespeare had an almost miraculously receptive
mind, and senses extraordinarily alert to receive
impressions. " Quicquid agunt homines " was of
course his prime interest, but we might almost add
" quicquid agit rerum Natura," so keen was his zest
of life. The Canon does indeed express a wish to
claim Shakespeare as "a lover of flowers and gardening,"
but he immediately qualifies the claim in a way which
classes him among the sane commentators and not
among those enthusiasts who have been dazzled by
unique genius into a blind fanaticism which does not
stop short "this side idolatry" !

As the author points out, the special charm of what
Shakespeare has to say about plants is that his allusions
to them are never forced ; though he mentions a large
number of plants, and covers a wide range of habitat,

THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS 119

one never feels that he brings in a flower because it is his
duty as a poet to do so. The allusion is never conven
tional, it is always natural, spontaneous — and English.
One may add as an illustration that, though he went to
Ovid, and later poets much beholden to Ovid, for much of
his classical lore, there is a world of difference between
his method and that of that meretricious bard. Shakes
peare could never, as Ovid does, make Proserpine gather
on one day a posy made up of flowers which bloom
at widely different seasons. And after all, the roll
even of English poets contains perhaps not so very
many names of whom as much could be said.

The bulk of the book consists of a complete alpha
betical list of all the plants mentioned by Shakespeare.
Under each name are printed all the passages in which
the plant is mentioned. Then come illustrative quota
tions, chiefly from contemporary writers, and discussion
of any difficulties of identification. As the author
points out, Gerard, who was an almost exact contem
porary of Shakespeare, is a valuable guide in this matter.
In some cases notes are added on the culture, or cultural
history of the plant, so that the list is far from being
a mere plant concordance. In these notices the author
seems to have struck the happy mean between scraps
of information and diffuse lectures on the lore which
has gathered round each plant. As an old frequenter
of Bitton reads one of these pleasant little essays, he
seems to see and hear Canon Ellacombe again in his
own home surrounded by his books. Or one recalls
how a casual question put to him about a flower at the
far end of his garden would make him and his visitor
return hot-foot to the study to haul down some well-
worn volume and verify a quotation. " Always do a
thing, my dear Hort, when you think of it," he would

120 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

say, and one would obediently follow him across the
lawn and into the study and get the point settled
to his satisfaction, after which he would pick up his
spud and lead the way back to the plant which had
caused the digression. There is in the book no parade
of curious learning, nor yet is there a mere superficial
survey ; everything quoted is to the point. The Canon
was not indeed a profound scholar nor a profound
botanist, but he knew his books and his plants and
moved among them with the camaraderie of long and
intimate acquaintance, and it is this thoroughness of
intimacy which is reflected in his literary work. Some
few of the notices of Shakespearean plants are rather
more elaborate, being reprints of papers read to the
Bath Field Club. One may perhaps pick out among
those of special interest and completeness the notices
of daffodil, ferns, pears, primroses, and roses. In
these and many other such paragraphs we have a
succinct and readable account of the love which attaches
to certain popular favourites, an account which is
neither the twitter of the sentimental drawing-room-
table flower-book, nor a dry-as-dust compilation
intended to illustrate the learning of the compiler.
Now and again one is greeted by a personal touch,
as when, at the end of a notice of " Long Purples "
(in which it is pointed out that, oddly enough, the
common field orchis has no accepted English name),
the author remarks, " Though I hold it to be one of
the first rules of good gardening to give away to
others as much as possible, yet I would caution any
one against dividing his good clumps of cypripedia,
the probability is that both giver and receiver will
lose the plants." The notice of potato points out
that the two mentions of the plant in Shakespeare

THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS 121

(in Troilus and Cressida and The Merry Wives of
Windsor) contain almost the earliest references to
the potato in our literature, since its introduction to
Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584. It is curious
that Shakespeare appears only to mention ferns once,
and that in the passage of / Henry I V which alludes to
the supposed property possessed by " fern-seed " of
making one invisible. This belief is referred by the
author to the doctrine of " signatures," " When men
found a plant which certainly grew and increased,
but of which the organs of fructification were invisible,
it was a clear conclusion that, properly used, the plant
would confer the gift of invisibility." One would like
to know if any more probable explanation than this
attractive suggestion has been offered.

An essay called " The Garden-Craft of Shakespeare "
forms the second part of the book. Here is collected
what the poet has to say, apart from his references
to particular plants, on such topics as gardens, gar
deners, garden operations, garden enemies. We shall
not expect to find that Shakespeare was an expert
in topiarian art or in any of the technical processes of
horticulture. But, as we read once more certain
familiar passages, here conveniently put together, we
are struck afresh, not merely with Shakespeare's powers
of observation, but with his accuracy. He goes no
further into the subject than is necessary for his im
mediate dramatic or poetical purpose, yet so far as
he goes, we see that he is writing down what he has
seen and watched, not what he has read. Part II is a
very readable essay, naturally more continuous than
Part I, and the book as a whole is a worthy tribute to
the master from a devoted and discriminating admirer.

The " Plant-Lore and Garden- Craft of Shakespeare"

122 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

appeared as a series of papers in The Garden, and they
were published for the Canon in book form by W.
Pollard, of Exeter, in 1878. This edition was an 8vo
volume of 303 pages and included an appendix on
" The Daisy ; its History, Poetry, and Botany,"
which was a paper read to the Bath Natural History
and Field Club in January, 1874.

The Canon dealt with the majority of the orders
for the book himself and among his papers at Kew we
have a number of letters sent to him asking for copies
of the work. One of these from Reynolds Hole, after
wards Dean of Rochester, is worthy of reproduction,
and is as follows :

" May n, 1878.

" MY DEAR BROTHER (in the Gospel and in the garden
also),-

" It has often been in my mind, as I read the charm
ing papers on ' The Plant-Lore of Shakespeare/ to
offer you my thanks, and to suggest their publication
as a book ; and I am therefore delighted to receive
the announcement that I may send my name to the
author as a subscriber to the work, and may express
at the same time the grateful appreciation and affec
tionate sympathies of

11 S. REYNOLDS HOLE."

Another interesting letter relating to the book is also
of more than passing interest, and the information it
gives is inserted on p. 46 of the third edition.

" August 19, 1878.
" MY DEAR SIR,

" Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, pp. 14-17-37.

" Let me set right the one error I have yet found in
your book.

THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS 123

" The traditionary dish of a roast apple with a little
saucerful of carraway seeds to eat with it was still
habitually served up in Combination Room at Trinity
College, Cambridge, on feast days in my earlier days
and may be so still. I have often eaten it.

" It is just as Shallow described, the apple and the
separate dish of carraways.

" It is curious that a custom which has lived on in
no mean place such as Trinity should, as I gather
from your book, have been elsewhere so little known.

' Yours very truly,
"A. ST. J. BERESFORD HOPE."

A second edition of The Plant-Lore was published
in London in I8841 and consisted of pp. viii and 438.
In this edition three appendices are included, the first
being the paper on " The Daisy," a second dealing with
" The Seasons of Shakespeare's Plays," while the third
concerns the " Names of Plants."

This last gives the old names of plants mentioned
by Shakespeare, showing the forms in which they were
or might have been familiar to Shakespeare. For
these names the Canon quotes from Promptoriiim
parvulorum, 1440 ; Catholicon anglicum, 1483 ;
Turner's Names of Plantes, 1548 and Herbal, 1568 ;
Gerard's Herbal, 1597, and Cotgrave's Dictionaire.

These appendices were all omitted in the best-
known edition — the new (third) edition with illustra
tions — published by Edward Arnold in 1896. This
consists of pp. xvi and 383, and is illustrated with
sixteen plates and sixty-four text-figures by Major
E. Bengough Ricketts, which add considerably to the
interest of the volume.

1 Printed for W. Satchell & Co., and sold by Simpkin Marshall
& Co.

124 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

SHAKESPEARE AS AN ANGLER1
The little book on Shakespeare as an Angler, privately
published in 1883, is a reprint of two articles contri
buted to The Antiquary in 1881. By examination of
all the passages in which the poet refers to fish or
fishing (whether directly or in metaphor), the author
arrives at the conclusion that the poet was not merely
writing of what he had observed but had himself
probably been an enthusiastic angler. The collection
of passages, which includes Shakespeare's descriptions
of river scenery of various types, is interesting as an
illustration of one side of that multitudinous mind.
But it can hardly be said that the main thesis is proved.
By parity of reasoning it might be shown (as has often
been pointed out) that Shakespeare had been a king,
lawyer, courtier, jester, and many other things. It
is fair to add that Ellacombe does not claim to have
established more than " a strong probability " that
Shakespeare was an angler. He is on firmer ground
when he contends that the poet's descriptions of country
life are a refreshing contrast to the conventional rural
scenery of contemporary poets. u His fields and woods
are not inhabited by Pan and Flora and Vertumnus,
or any other cold classical gods and goddesses . . . but
it is the genuine country life of England in his day
that he paints for us, in which there are English labourers
and their lasses, English mowers and reapers, ' Sun
burned sickle-men of August weary come from the
furrow/ with their ' rye straw hats put on.' ...
It is the same with his rivers and brooks. He
does not delight in rivers because they are the
abode of heathen river-gods, and such like, his delight
is in ' plenteous rivers and wide skirted meads,' just
1 Published 1883 (Elliot Stock).

THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS 125

such as his own Warwickshire Avon, near Stratford ;
or in ' brawling brooks/ such as he may have seen
running their merry course from the Cots wolds to the
sea." And no Shakespeare lover is likely to quarrel
with the conclusion, quoted from Johnson, " He that
will understand Shakespeare must not be content to
study him in the closet, he must look for his meaning
sometimes among the sports of the field." For the
rest, the pleasant little volume contains besides an
acceptable piscatorial concordance to Shakespeare, a
number of quaint and interesting literary illustrations,
many of them from the byways of literature.

To Mr. D. C. Lathbury we are indebted for the
following notes about the Canon's two gardening books,
In a Gloucestershire Garden and In my Vicarage Garden
and Elsewhere, which appeared originally in The Guardian
when Mr. Lathbury was the editor.

IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDENS
IN MY VICARAGE GARDEN AND ELSEWHERE.2

I owe my friendship with Ellacombe to The Guardian.
In common with all garden lovers I had been greatly
delighted with Henry Blight's A year in a Lanca
shire Garden, and when I became editor it struck me
that a journal which numbered so many of the clergy
among its readers might very properly give them
something of the same kind. I knew Ellacombe' s
Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, and that seemed to show a
similar combination of technical and literary knowledge.
So I wrote a letter in which I introduced myself, and

1 London, 1895. 8vo, pp. 303.

2 London and New York, 1902. 8vo, pp. viii -f 222, with portrait
of the author,

126 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

told him the kind of thing I was in search of. It took
his fancy as it had taken mine, and the result, besides
many valuable reviews, was the series of papers after
wards reprinted as In a Gloucestershire Garden and In
my Vicarage Garden and Elsewhere. I have earned, I
venture to think, the gratitude of every lover of plants
who knows these two books. Open them where he
will, the reader is sure to come across some bit of new
information, some interesting quotation from old
authors, some hint of gardening pleasures as yet unreal
ized, or a seldom noticed feature in the habits of
this or that flower. The description of the Bitton
garden with which the earlier volume opens brings it
vividly before any reader who has seen it. "It is
not a large garden — the whole extent, including a
good proportion of lawn, being about an acre and a
half, and in shape a parallelogram or double square."
In the last years of Ellacombe's life the lawn had been
occasionally invaded. A narrow winding bed following
the line of a wider border, was made for additional
shrubs, and another for additional roses. The Cots-
wolds " rise about half a mile away to the height
of 750 ft. and about fifteen miles to the south are the
Mendips." That the former is a valuable shelter from
the north and east every visitor realizes whenever the
wind comes from those quarters. The last spur of this
delightful range has the local name of Lansdown, and is
the chief feature of the view from the garden. But the
value of the protection against the violence of the
south-west winds afforded by the Mendips is certainly
less obvious, though Ellacombe's observation had
convinced him of it. About another advantage, the
richness and depth of the alluvial soil impregnated
with lime and magnesia, there could be no question.

THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS 127

The proof was seen in the growth of the plants, in the
freedom with which they seeded themselves and in the
ease with which many Alpines were cultivated, though
the garden is only 70 ft. above the sea-level. Of the
second of these advantages the lawn was an example.
It was constantly being invaded by seedlings of
Cyclamen Coum. They had originally been planted
under a high south wall to give them the shelter
needed, or in this case supposed to be needed, by a
flower which comes into bloom in January, but they
grew by the hundred far away from their parents.
This particular cyclamen was a special favourite with
its owner, partly because " it is the plant described by
Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny and mentioned
by Theocritus, and partly because by a succession of
coils of the flower stem the hanging seed-vessel is
brought close to the ground and there buries itself."
Why this particular cyclamen should be the only plant
that has this curious habit has never, he thinks, been
satisfactorily explained. The fact that in this way
the seeds are protected during the winter " helps very
little. There are tens of thousands of plants whose seeds
are shed on the ground and have to fight the battle of
life through the winter." Why should this particular
form of protection be given only to a single genus.1

He had a place in his affection even for weeds. The
dandelion would be " sorely missed " if it could meet
the fate that many owners of lawns would assign it.
" Surely no other flower can surpass it for beauty of

1 The habit of burying the seed is common to the genus Cyclamen
and is not confined to C. Coum. Somewhat similar devices for
burying the seeds are shown by Linaria cymbalaria, Arachis
hypogaea, Voandzeia subterranea and Kerstingiella geocarpa (see
Kew Bulletin, 1912, p. 209). — A. W. H.

128 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

foliage, beauty of shape, and rich beauty of colouring."
Even in a garden, weeds have their uses. They often
serve to protect more precious plants. He mentions
a particular Scottish garden which, though it was " a
mass of weeds and rampant weeds " yet among them
and " apparently rejoicing in them " was a collection
of very rare plants growing in wholly exceptional
luxuriance, the reason being that the weeds kept the
earth moist and prevented the radiation of heat.
" Certainly I would rather see a flower border with a
mixture of flowering weeds than with a few plants
and large continents of bare soil." To this general
toleration of them, however, there was one curious
exception. Wordsworth's praises of the lesser celan
dine awoke in him no echo. For that

" Prophet of delight and mirth,
Scorned and slighted upon earth,"

he has not a word of welcome. It is only " a sad weed
in a garden, springing up everywhere and defying the
neatest gardener." Indeed, his dislikes were never
concealed. " Throw it away," was a sentence very
commonly passed on some ne / plant that had been
sent to him. I once told Ashmore that the Canon's
rejections would fill a border. " Border ! " was the
reply, " you'd be nearer the mark if you said an acre."
Though he admits that the colour of the florist's tulips
are in some cases " most brilliant," even the exceptions
are " always coarse and flaring." A bed of them is
only " an ugly object " —the ugliest indeed of all such
arrangements — " except a bed of double zinnias." He
will not, however, have florists saddled with the blame
of the tulip mania of the seventeenth century. That
was " simply a gigantic swindle, in which the plants
had really very little part — a Stock Exchange gambling,

THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS 129

which it required the high hand of the law to stop."
On the other hand for the species of tulips of south and
east Europe and southern Asia he has a warm welcome,
many of them " are very beautiful flowers, and, unlike
the great florists' tulips are low and small." All tulips,
however, have an interest for him as regards their
botanical structure, for " each bulb lives three years and
no more, yet each as it comes to maturity contains
within itself other formed bulbs for two years to come."
There are several references in both these books to
the extremes of the year 1893. It had an exceptional
winter and an equally exceptional summer. It is of
the latter that the Canon has most to say, for a pro
longed drought makes a greater impression on a
gardener than an equally prolonged frost. Both bring
destruction on some plants, but in a drought the blow
falls upon them in their lusty growth. "It is really
sad to go round the garden during a long drought,
with the lawn brown, the shrubs getting scorched, and
the beds looking almost like dust heaps. Yet no sooner
does the rain come than all is at once changed, and
we are taught that the garden was by no means dead
but only biding its time." It is like a man who has
been condemned to enforced idleness by illness, " but
who, as soon as the cause is removed, shows that the idle
ness was only from temporary weakness, which ended
in increased strength." And when all has been said
and said "as grumblingly as possible," there is surely
" much in a hot dry season to rejoice and be thankful
for. It will be something to remember for many years
that throughout all England we have been able — for
three continuous months — to be out of doors in our
gardens, under perfectly cloudless skies, with no fear
of rain, with very little wind, and even with so little

130 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

dew, that in the early mornings and in the late long
evenings the most delicate might sit out.'1 After all
" the wise man's conclusion is the best, Omnia fecit
pulchra in tempore suo"

It is not, of course, to these volumes that the lover
of new varieties of popular plants will turn for informa
tion. It was the wealth of species that made the chief
charm of the Bitton garden, and even when a whole
chapter is given to a particular flower it is not in the
improved forms of it, that fill so large a place in the
nurseryman's catalogues and horticultural shows, that
Ellacombe is chiefly interested. Thus in A Gloucester
shire Garden the chapter on Roses opens with the old
cabbage rose, by reason not only of its wonderful
scent, but also because of its " historical interest." It
is the red rose of England and the " provincial rose "
of Hamlet. Pliny says of it Centifolium vacant, and
the hundred-leaved rose is still one of its English
names. From this we are taken to the York and
Lancaster rose, Rosa versicolor, in its two forms — the
" roses damasked, red and white " of Shakespeare,
with its many and uncertain combinations of the two
colours, to a younger and more beautiful variety of it,
Rosa Mtmdi, and to the many species that even a
quarter of a century ago were being introduced from
China, Northern India, and the Himalayas. These
last have, indeed, the fault of remaining in flower but
a short time, but against this must be set the merit
that they are fruit bearers : " No one who has not seen
a collection of these roses can have any idea of the
variety and beauty of their hips ; they are of all
colours from black and green to brilliant red, and of all
sizes and shapes." Another rose which was a special
favourite was the Rosa hemisphaerica. Its English

THE CANON'S BOOKS AND PAPERS 131

name is the yellow cabbage, though it has no relation
ship to the better known red cabbage rose. It was
" a great favourite with the old rose growers," though,
as it requires a hotter sun than it usually finds in this
country, the flowers seldom open completely. But
even in its half opened state it was a favourite with
the Dutch painters, and the Canon speaks of its grand
appearance on his wall when there were " nearly
two hundred blooms more or less open — really
a grand sight." I was fortunate enough to see it
in bloom some years later when the blooms had
been carefully counted and proved to be more than
double this number. The high south wall against
which it was planted played a large part in the Bitton
arrangements. It was not for climbing plants only
that its possessor valued it. There are " plenty of
plants that will grow on it as well, and in many cases
even better, than on the border." Chief among such
plants he places the Cheddar pink (Dianthus caesius),
which had been there before he came and had gone
on flowering without attention or protection. In
another garden in the same district it flourished even
better, for from the top of an old wall it hung down
" in a beautiful mat, more than five feet in length,
and three feet across." No mention is here made of
what I feel sure was the reason why it did not grow to
the same size on the Bitton wall. Five feet in one
direction and three feet in another was an amount of
space that would never have been afforded to any
herbaceous plant. The " mat " would constantly have
been cut back to make room for some new arrival.
I have taken but a very small toll of the contents
of these volumes. I have said nothing of the chapter
on Plant Names, on the Scents and Medical Properties

132 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

of Flowers, on Garden Trees, Garden Birds, Garden
Associations, or Garden Lessons. But I will close with
a practical quotation. " When I am asked what
qualities I consider most necessary in a gardener
wishing to have and keep a good collection of plants,
I name without any hesitation these three — patience,
liberality, and a catalogue." Under patience he
includes " perseverance and a prudent boldness,"
and by way of an instance of the last named quality
he says : "I have always been fond of trying in the
open ground plants which I have been told would only
grow in the greenhouse, and I have been rewarded
with many pleasant surprises." It may be well,
however, to bear in mind that the " open ground "
in the Bitton garden was of a very exceptional character,
and the Canon himself would sometimes when saying
"Yes" to the question, "Is it hardy?" add the
qualification — " At Bitton." Of liberality he writes :
" I have no sympathy with the feeling of satisfaction
in being the sole possessor of a rare plant. I hold it
true economy to divide and distribute as much as
possible, for the selfish owner of the rarity will often
find himself rightly punished by losing his one plant
and then not knowing where to look for it again."
Of the third requisite, a good catalogue, he speaks from
long experience. He would have had great difficulty
in getting his collection together if he had not always
made it a practice to catalogue his plants, and to keep
the catalogue as accurate as possible.

CHAPTER VI

THE BITTON GARDEN
W. J. BEAN

VARIED as Canon Ellacombe's tastes and interests
were, we think that those who knew and appre
ciated him best will agree that apart from his ecclesias
tical duties it was his garden that claimed his richest
affections. There is no better reflex of a man's mind
than his library, and of the many phases of life and
thought represented on the Bitton bookshelves, the
horticultural and botanical books were undoubtedly
first in number and importance. The Canon was a
great gardener. But we must interpret that word as
implying something more than the faculty of getting
plants to grow. He was pre-eminent in that, but what
struck one more was his love for them, his intimacy
with them and their peculiarities. No doubt he was
fortunate in several respects. His father, as we have
seen, was an ardent plant-lover, and when he left
Bitton vicarage in the hands of his son he left behind
him also a garden well stocked with beautiful and rare
plants. Ellacombe, too, was fortunate in that the soil
and climate of Bitton are exceptionally favourable for
the growth of many exotic plants. We extract the
following from a pleasant appreciation of the Canon
which appeared in The Times of February 15, 1916 :
" Tucked away in the extreme south-west corner

133

134 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

of Gloucestershire, in the trough between the Cotswolds
and Mendip hills, Bitton is a typical instance of the
old English parsonage, peaceful, homely and pictur
esque. Externally and in its general aspect there is
nothing especially remarkable about the place, but
once inside the gate the horticultural pilgrim becomes
aware that here indeed is a paradise for plants.

" ' The Canon/ as he was affectionately known to
a host of friends, was more concerned with the
well-being of the inhabitants of the vicarage garden
than \\ith the aesthetic appearance of the place itself ;
he was pre-eminently a cultivator, and had the inestim
able advantage over modern gardeners that more than
half a century of experience and continuity of cultiva
tion under ideal conditions alone can bring. Hence
it has come about that, notwithstanding the extra
ordinarily high pitch to which the cultivation of plants
has been brought within the last few years, Bitton
remains almost unique among inland gardens, while few
places similarly situated can compare with it where
rare flowering shrubs are concernel.

" It was Ellacombe's habit to ascribe much of his
success as a cultivator to the alluvial soil and genial
climate of his county, and while these factors, as well
as the warm vicarage wall, had much to do \\ith the
wonderful growth of plants and shrubs, they would
have counted for comparatively little if not reinforced
by the knowledge, ripe experience, and sympathy
possessed by the Canon.

" Ellacombe was no stay-at-home, and hi his regular
visits to friends contrived to see nearly all that
was \vorth seeing in the many fine gardens that
have sprung into existence during the last thirty
years. In the course of his life he shared in all the

THE BITTON GARDEN 135

extraordinary changes that have lifted gardening
and the cultivation of plants from the moribund
condition in which they were in the ' sixties ' to the
wonderful standard of recent years, and his influence
has been all for good."

There is perhaps no part of England where the soil
is deeper and richer than in that part of the Avon
valley in which Bitton is situated. It has only one
drawback for a garden. Being heavily impregnated
with calcareous matter the cultivation of all lime-
hating plants is debarred. Thus Canon Ellacombe
grew practically no rhododendrons and except for a few
heaths very little of the Ericaceae. Wisely, as we think,
he set his face against importing peat and the like
into his garden for the purpose of making special
provision for such plants. His gardener, Ashmore,
used sometimes to feel rebellious about the limitations
the lime imposed upon them, and a conspiracy between
him and Mrs. Graham Smith resulted in their smuggling
into the garden (tradition says by dead of night) a
consignment of peat. Our experience supports the
Canon's view. On a small scale and in exceptional
circumstances it may sometimes be worth while, but
the success obtained by bringing peat, etc., into a lime-
impregnated garden is rarely other than partial and
temporary. The lime wins back in the end. And
after all, in spite of lime, the very last charge one could
bring against the Bitton garden was that it lacked
variety.

Various friends of Canon Ellacombe have written in
testimony of their delight in the vicarage garden and
in appreciation of his society and charming hospitality.
From these writings, some of which have appeared in
public print, some sent to us specially, we propose

136 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

to give extracts. It may be noticed sometimes that
the same thing is said by different people in different
words. That indeed was inevitable with a man of
such pronounced individuality as the Canon.

From Mr. D. C. Lathbury comes the following :

" I cannot recall from what year my knowledge of
Henry Ellacombe dates, but in the preface to In a
Gloucestershire Garden I read that ' this volume owes
its existence to certain papers of mine which were
published in The Guardian during the years 1890-1893.'
Consequently by the first of these years my visits to
Bitton had^certainly begun, and I had already discovered
that he was the most delightful of hosts. It was
not his readiness to welcome his visitors that impressed
me so much as his anxiety to prolong their visits and
to fix a date for their renewal. ' In this garden/ he
used to say, ' there is something fresh to be seen every
month ; why don't you make a point of seeing them
all/ and before long I came to feel that he meant it.
I had to content myself, however, with two visits a
year — taking different months in the spring, and either
September or October in the autumn. And what
visits they were ! I never knew the Canon waste any
time in the commonplace inquiries customary on
arrival. He took you at once into the subject which
happened to interest him at the moment. ' Listen
to the nonsense this fellow talks/ or ' Have you seen

's article ? How good it is ! ' and there you were

started in an hour's talk almost before you had disposed
of your overcoat. Sometimes you would be taken at
once into the garden to see some special plant which
had just flowered and was of special interest, because
it was new to Bitton and had refused to bloom till

THE BITTON GARDEN 137

it came there. Throughout the last years of his life
he struggled valiantly with his increasing deaf ness ,
and pressed his friends to remember that they must
ordinarily say everything twice — the first time to call
his attention to the fact that they were speaking to
him, and the second to put him in possession of what
they wanted him to hear.

" His favourite doctrine was that a true gardener
is known by the pleasure he takes in giving plants to
his friends. And certainly, judged by this standard,
he was a prince among gardeners. In the spring and
summer and in fine weather he had often two or three
separate sets of visitors in the course of an afternoon.
Latterly, indeed, he very seldom went round with them,
except they were old friends. But he had one constant
inquiry for them when they returned either to his study
or to his seat in the garden : ' I hope you have found
something to take away with you/ And, unless their
interest in plants was merely assumed as a matter
of courtesy, this hope was never disappointed."

Here is a characteristic letter to Mr. Bartholomew :

" November 14.

" If you ever say you are in debt to Bitton I will
not speak to you again. If I give a friend 100 plants
and he gives me one, I thank him for the one, but I
don't enter him as my debtor for 99. However, I
gave your message to Ashmore and enclose his answer,
which you may attend to as much or as little as you
like.

" I have rather a nice thing in flower now — Hip-
peastrum brachyandrum. Do you know it ? I advise

138 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

you to get it. Mine came from some out-of-the-way
garden in Berkshire, so you will have no difficulty."

Mr. Bartholomew sends us the following note :

"He was specially proud of his success in making
his gardener as free-handed as himself. ' Ashmore,'
he used to say, ' did not much like giving things away
when he first came here, but now he is as much pleased
when he sends off the right people with a good box of
loot as I am myself.' They needed, however, to be the
right people. No one was ever quicker in distinguishing
between real and simulated interest. ' Oh ! Canon
Ellacombe,' a lady once said to him, ' what do you do
to have all these beautiful flowers ? ' ' Well, madam,
I plant 'em/ was all the reply she got, and, as he well
knew, it was all she deserved. Ashmore, I may add,
was in his way almost as unusual as his master. He
only survived him a few months and had for some time
been almost a cripple. A friend who knew him even
better than I did wrote to me after his death, ' I
never saw a very heavy cross more bravely borne/
' What were the special features in the garden which
gave most delight ? Well, I can only answer for myself,
and even so I find it very difficult to decide. Shall
it be the Cyclamen Coum in their myriads, flourishing
apparently anywhere even in the grass beneath the
ancient yews ? or shall it be the glorious snowdrop from
Naples with its stalks 2 ft. in length and flowers of a
proportionate size, which grow in masses under the
south wall and seem to do all the better the more
crowded they grow ? Could anything be more beauti
ful on a sunny spring morning than the long stretch
of Anemone blanda with double forms of every shade
of colour mingled with the single ? What is one to

THE BITTON GARDEN 139

say of the middle path all aflame on either side with
Anemone fulgens ? or that same path in the Iris season ?
or the innumerable species of roses ? or the glory in
autumn when the leaves of the vines are all crimson
and gold ? or the vision of Rhus cotinoides as you look
through it towards the western sun ? what of Poinciana
Gilliesii or of Wistaria m-u-Uijuga alba, or of Bignonia
grandiflora when a hot summer has tempted it to flower,
or Gay a Lyalli, or Abutilon viti folium, or Clematis
Sieboldii, or Magnolia stellata, or the beautiful tamarisk,
which was the thing which struck me most on the
happy day which introduced me to Bitton ? I don't
think he could have said which of all his treasures
gave him most delight.

' There never was such a perfect Liberty Hall as
Bitton vicarage. You must, it is true, conform to the
hours for meals, but except for that you might spend
the day as you would. As years passed on, and he was
unable to make excursions with one, he found his
consolation in arranging little trips, and his intimate
acquaintance with a neighbourhood, in which he had
lived for some three-quarters of a century, made the
choice of such trips almost endless. He had special
pleasure, if the visit were to a garden, in making Ash-
more share the trip, and no one took a more intelligent
interest in and appreciation of a good garden than he.
Warm as his invitations always were and much as he
enjoyed company, he never grudged one a visit to
some friend, though it might mean absence for the
whole day, and was always anxious to hear what had
given the greatest pleasure."

In making the tour of the garden — I mean the grand
tour as distinct from minor excursions — we always

140 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

took the same route. Never to my knowledge was this
departed from. We started at the porch of the vicarag e
and discussed first of all the fine old Umbellularia
growing on the house and a fine plant of Berberis
fascicularis. Turning to the right past the library
windows and the arched doorway giving access to the
vicarage lane, we came to the churchyard wall and
its border and to that part of the garden abutting
on the rich Avon valley meadows. Then came the
long wall on the upper side with its wonderful collection
of climbers and shrubs and the narrow border at its
base even more remarkable for the excellence and
rarity of its plants. Every yard, often every foot,
contained something of interest to discuss, something
to reveal the deep and intimate knowledge the Canon
had of his treasures. There is no garden in this
country, I believe, that contained so much of interest
condensed in so small a space. I do not know whether
it was by design or not but the Canon's way of touring
the garden involved one in a sort of crescendo of
interest, for after traversing the long wall just men
tioned you reach the warmest corner of the garden,
bounded on three sides by the greenhouse, the stable
yard, and the schoolhouse. Here grow Melianthus
major, Diospyros kaki, Corokia Cotoneaster, and a host
of similar rarities — not aliens struggling in adversity,
but comfortable, robust, and prolific as any German in
a foreign land.

I do not think the artistic side of gardening, certainly
not "colour schemes" and such like, made much
appeal to the Canon. If Anemone Uanda has grown and
spread till it makes " drifts " of blue in the approved
modern fashion, it is to the soil and climate of Bitton
that the credit is due more than to any set purpose of

THE BITTON GARDEN 141

the Canon.1 With him the individual plant was
the thing, its beauty, its health, and the right position
for it. Then came its botanical peculiarities and its
history, natural and acquired. Of most things he did
not care to have more than one of a sort. He had not
room for them. But the more kinds he could get the
better. The collector spirit held him to the very end.
On the other hand, none was more generous than he.
His hospitality was of that comforting kind that always
made one feel he hated to see you go, but nothing gave
him greater pleasure than to see a visitor laden at his
departure with a bundle of plants, the bigger the better.
Several times he has imperilled the existence of his
only plant of a kind to give part of it to Kew.

1 Several times in the course of these memoirs mention is made
of Anemone blanda as seen in the garden at Bit ton. It was indeed
a great feature there every spring, and during the whole year there
was no single kind of plant that created so fine an effect. Although
the Canon's taste did not lead him to attempt great displays with
any one thing, this anemone was an exception, and he took great
delight in it, all the more, no doubt, because it multiplied and spread
naturally. The appearance of a double form — the first recorded
so -far as we know — pleased and interested him very much. His
letters in the early part of each recent year frequently contain
allusions to it. On April 20, 1907, he wrote : " The manners and
customs of A . blanda flore pleno are peculiar. The first appeared
two years ago and has since improved every year. Last year came
two fresh ones, and this year four or five. In each case the new
comers have been removed from the old stock." The following
year he wrote : "I have no new ones this year, but one that I
separated last year is almost white. The bees do visit the double
flowers but I am not sure they do more than look at them." Writ
ing on December 30, he says : " Another virtue of the double A.
blanda : it is the first to flower " ; and on April 18, 1915 : "A

fresh lot of A. blanda fl. pi. coming on ; advises me to give it to

nobody, but keep it as a speciality of Bitton vicarage. What do
you say? That is not exactly my line." Subsequently he gave
plants to Kew, but apparently they resented their exile to a less
salubrious home and have tended to revert back to the single state.

142 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Like most people well advanced in years he had a
love of jokes that had become mellow with age. For
instance, one rarely went past his fine plant of Citrus
trifoliata (which flowers regularly and often ripens its
fruit at Bitton) without being informed of his standing
offer to village maidens and marriageable ladies that
if they would only find the husbands he would supply
the orange blossom. One of the Canon's favourite
diversions with a fresh visitor to Bitton was to take
him to a fine specimen of the common oak at the end
of his garden which has a trunk, so far as my recollec
tion goes, about 3 ft. in diameter, and ask an opinion
of its age. With some knowledge of the soil and rates
of growth at Bitton I guessed it at 150 years. Some
would guess it at 200 years, some at 300. He would
then tell you he planted it himself ! He would also
tell you how anxious a local timber merchant was to
buy it, the same man who, as an inducement to the
Canon to part with it, offered to put by enough boards
cut out of it to make his coffin !

His vigour and his interest in new things were
amazing for a man over ninety. I saw him in Septem
ber, 1915, about five months before he died, and have
a vivid recollection of his going out after breakfast
and shouting " Ashmore ! " in a voice the possession
of which many a man of thirty would envy. And in
the evening of the same day he discussed how to get
and plant new trees and shrubs which could scarcely be
expected to give much return before he had reached
his hundredth birthday. All which goes to show how
blessed is the old man whose hobby is gardening !

A remarkable characteristic of the Bitton garden
is the way many reputedly tender and difficult things
thrive there. The Canon never rested on his oars. A

THE BITTON GARDEN 143

strong element in his gardening was persistent experi
ment. By continually trying new and unlikely things
he brought off some astonishing successes. He used
to repeat with considerable glee a remark made by his
friend Lord Ducie at the dinner table one evening in
mock depreciation of the Canon's achievements : " After
all, you know, Ellacombe's successes are due chiefly to
his impudence."

In later years, when he had passed his ninetieth
birthday his failing physical powers did not allow him
to spend so much time with his visitors in the garden
as formerly. One recalls him then most vividly in
his library, where, indeed, most of his waking hours
were spent. In this delightful old room ( I believe some
parts of the vicarage are 400 to 500 years old) with its
old-fashioned fireplace, its view through the windows
of Bitton church, about 100 yards away, its [atmosphere
of homeliness, its curious medley of odds and ends, and
above all, of course, its books lining the walls from floor
to ceiling, here I think his happiest hours were passed
—especially after dinner when he had a friend to talk
to about plants. Some years ago, but not until he
was well on in the eighties he invested in a couch.
Latterly he spent most of his day resting himself on
this with his shoulders and head propped up. A long
and intimate acquaintance with its idiosyncrasies
enabled the Canon to get a good deal of comfort out of
this couch, although, having tried it many times after
he had gone to bed, I used to wonder how he managed
it. But here he used to like to rest, pouring out the
lore with which his mind was so full, discussing books,
plants, foreign travel, old glass, silver, churches and
bells. In recent years his sight failed him, but it
was marvellous how he knew the exact position of

144 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

nearly every tiny plant in his garden and the place of
every book (there were hundreds of them) in his library.
Until within the last year or two he would be up from
his couch a dozen times an evening after a book wherein
to find a picture, proof of a contention, or to verify
a quotation. On these occasions the only trace of
irritation I ever saw the old man show was with his
spectacles. He used two pairs, one for reading only,
the other for general purposes, but, in the eternal
perversity of things, he always seemed to get hold of
the wrong pair.

He had never smoked tobacco since his Oxford days,
but after dinner in the library he always invited his
guests to light up. For politeness' sake we would ask
him if he was sure he did not mind. " Mind/' he used
to reply, recalling the furnace-like achievements of a
certain frequent visitor, " I couldn't mind anything
after an evening of — -'s pipe."

Recalling many happy hours with Canon Ellacombe
at Bitton I feel that the dominant characteristic of the
man was his loving kindness. His knowledge, classical,
antiquarian, literary, and botanical, was wide and
varied, yet in one's memories of him it is that that
stands out before all.

Time passes and grief, like everything else, wears
away, but just now with his loss fresh upon us it is
difficult to believe that one's life in its association with
gardening will ever be quite the same again.

In Country Life, March 4, 1916, there appeared the
following, signed " Observer " :

" Bitton is a place brimful of interesting plants,
resulting from many years of devotion by the late
Canon and his venerable father before him. It is worth

THE BITTON GARDEN 145

recording that while the late Canon died at the advanced
age of ninety-four, his father, the previous vicar of
Bitton, was writing on matters relating to the garden
when he was ninety-two. They were two of the great
master gardeners of the world, and the vicarage garden
at Bitton was made the home of rare and interesting
plants from many corners of the earth. Many a little
known and beautiful plant would for ever have been
lost to cultivation had it not been for Bitton, whence
plants were distributed in a disinterested and generous
manner. The late Canon held that no garden could
flourish which was not constantly giving. It is impos
sible to think of the garden without its gardener ; the
two were inseparably associated with one another.
And yet the garden might seem comparatively dull to
those who have only a superficial knowledge or love of
plants. There was no striving after unnatural bedding
effects, no aim at colour schemes, and singularly
enough, no great speciality of genera.1 Plants were
just put in here and there with no order beyond finding
a place to suit them. The garden was small, with little
or no room to spare, but it would be impossible to
find another garden of its size so rich in species and
varieties of hardy flowers and shrubs. Each little
flower meant much to him. It was not merely a pretty
bit of colour ; he would tell you something interesting
of its native haunts, its likes and dislikes, or its uses ;
to him it was a revelation of its past history, and he
imparted botany and horticulture combined, helping
others to find the same delights that had filled his life.
The great art of gardening is to know plants as he knew

1 The Canon, however, paid special attention to yuccas and
roses, which interested him perhaps more than any other
genera.

146 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

them, and I hope that his successors will cherish the
garden he loved so well. In one respect the garden,
as the photographs show it, is very unlike many which
are illustrated in Country Life. It is wholly devoid of
design. I imagine that Canon Ellacombe knew nothing
and cared nothing about the architectural aspect of
a garden, its artistic relation to the house, and the whole
philosophy and practice which we sum up as ' formal
gardening.' To him a garden was a home for flower and
shrub and tree, a place of hospitality for plants, but not
a work of art in its own right ; which goes to show
that there are many sorts of gardeners and gardening,
and all of them combine to make the complete story
of the oldest pursuit and pleasure of mankind."

Mr. H. J. Elwes wrote as follows in the Gardeners'
Chronicle of February 19, 1915 :

' The death of Canon Ellacombe will be deeply
lamented by all who knew him, for I can truly say
that during a friendship of forty years I never heard
an ill word said of him by any one, or of any one by
himself, and his friends were very many. However
far I look back to find a clergyman who was his equal
as a gardener or as a writer on horticultural subjects,
I cannot think of one, and certainly there has been no
private garden large or small which during so long a
period has afforded so much pleasure and interest to
so many people as the one at Bitton, in which I have
spent many happy hours with a man whose like we
shall not see again. One of its features was that its
owner had no speciality, though he had the best of
everything that will live in the open air ; he was
equally fond of shrubs, herbaceous plants, and bulbs,
which were grown without much order wherever space

THE BITTON GARDEN 147

could be found to plant them. The want of space was
the chief reason why there were not more ; but in the
compass of one and a half acres, including the vege
table garden, it is safe to say that so great a variety of
plants has never been grown elsewhere.

' There was not, and never will be, any man who
has given away so freely to all deserving visitors ;
for, as he said on page 293 of A Gloucestershire Garden,
' I was long ago taught and have always held that it
is impossible to get or keep a large collection, except
by constant liberality in giving ; "there is that scattereth
and yet increaseth," was Solomon's experience, and
it certainly is so with gardening/ Nothing pleased
him more than to go round his garden with an old
friend fond of plants, always taking the various beds
and borders in the same order, always as anxious to
get knowledge as he was ready to impart it, always able
to tell something new as to the origin, correct name,
or cultural requirements of innumerable rarities. And
though when I last had this pleasure in the autumn
of 1915, I could see that his memory and strength
were at last failing him, he was just as hospitable, just
as courteous, and just as anxious to give me good things,
both at lunch and from the garden, as when I first
went round forty years before.

" Of his personality I need not say much ; a tall
figure, slight stoop, and grey beard were combined
with an active mind and body until he was long past
seventy. He was fond of society and travel, and was
constantly away on short visits to his innumerable
friends. I well remember his staying at Colesborne
about ten years ago in company with the late Sir
Charles Strickland and the Earl of Ducie ; their united
ages came to about 240 years, and my mother, who

148 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

was then nearly eighty, declared that never in her
life had she met three men together who seemed so
happy, active and vigorous, and who enjoyed life so
much at such an advanced age. This she attributed
largely to their common love of horticulture. There
is no space here to allude to his activities in other fields,
but I must mention the church which he served faithfully
for nearly sixty-five years, and which was restored
during his father's and his own incumbency entirely
by the hands of Bitton residents and workmen. The
roof is, so far as I know, unique in being designed by
himself, and constructed of American pencil cedar
wood which he purchased from a ship wrecked in the
Bristol Channel. In the churchyard is a young speci
men of the Mexican form of the deciduous cypress,
raised by myself from a seed brought from Mexico
by Mr. Marlborough Pryor ; I hope that Canon
Ellacombe's successors and the churchwardens will
protect this tree during severe winters, as the only
other specimen that I know of similar origin in Great
Britain is at Tregothnan, in Cornwall.1

" Ellacombe was a ready writer, and had the gift
of imparting knowledge in a way that make his writings
as popular as they are instructive. He had a good
knowledge of literature as well as a select library, and
used both so well that probably the most generally
known and successful of his works was The Plant-Lore
and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare. This book is crammed
with classical, botanical, and literary references to all
the plants that Shakespeare mentioned, and as Ella-
combe knew his Parkinson and his Gerard as well as
he did his Shakespeare and his garden, his work is
not likely to be improved on or superseded. Com-
1 Some plants are at Kew.

THE B1TTON GARDEN 149

panions of this classic are the Flowers of Chaucer,
Spencer and Milton, which appeared in the columns of
the Gardeners' Chronicle.

" In a Gloucestershire Garden is another book written
no doubt to encourage other country parsons to grow
and take more interest in plants not often found in
vicarage gardens ; it does not cover so wide a field or
go into so much detail as Plants of Shakespeare, and
does not mention many plants for which his garden
was famous. Though Ellacombe knew a great deal
about plants he did not pretend to be a botanist, and
had no sympathy with the sort of botanist who, as
he tells us in his In a Gloucestershire Garden, replied
to a simple question about some flower, ' I cannot tell
you, and have come to the conclusion that I know
nothing whatever about flowers.' He never paraded
his botanical knowledge and, as he tells us when
speculating on the possible use of the nectary in
hellebores and Eranthis, ' As I walk round my garden
I read in every plant my own ignorance of its real
history.' A list of plants grown at Bitton contains
nearly 3,000 names of species and varieties which had
been cultivated there at some time during the last
fifty years.

" I shall look on Yucca rupicola, which I have
succeeded in propagating, as the most valuable plant
that I owe to Canon Ellacombe' s liberality/'

From the article in The Times of February 15, 1916,
already alluded to, a few further extracts are taken :

" The passing of Canon Ellacombe, after nearly a
century of life, deprives the world of amateur gardeners
of a personality as unique as it was remarkable. Ella
combe inherited his love of plants along with the

150 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

vicarage garden, and before many of the present
generation of amateur gardeners had left the nursery
Bitton had become the Mecca of people interested in
horticulture. That it should have remained so to
the present time, through all changes that have taken
place in more than fifty years, is a wonderful testimony
to the influence of the man and his work.

" In the 'sixties, convention ruled the garden with
a rod of iron ; our fathers were still in the clutches of
geometrical formality and hide-bound tradition, the
latter usually garbed in broadcloth and a green apron.
The cultivation of hardy plants and Alpines as practised
nowadays was unknown, the carpet bedder reigned
supreme, and amateurs with any intimate knowledge
of garden plants and their ways were few and far
between. That the whole artificial product of ages
should have crumbled to the ground so completely in
a comparatively short time was due in large measure
to the untiring efforts of William Robinson and the
school of thought he initiated forty years ago.

" No one had more sympathy than Ellacombe with
the desire to let Nature in at the gate and banish
the shams and ' artistic ' monstrosities with which
the ' landscape artists ' and gardeners of the Victorian
era cozened their patrons, and Bitton is a good example
of trees, shrubs, and plants, forming a picture as satis
fying to the eye as it is to the needs of the practical
gardener.

" To a cultured mind Ellacombe added the possession
of an almost unique library of horticultural and botani
cal works, none of which had any secrets from him ;
indeed, one never asked him for a reference in vain.
There are scores of gardens in the three kingdoms
where his memory will be kept green for many a day."

THE BITTON GARDEN 151

Mr. Gerald Loder has lent us a notebook that
belonged to Canon Ellacombe in which he had entered
the names of the plants obtained for the Bitton Garden
between 1871 and 1876. It is interesting as showing
the extraordinary industry and enthusiasm that went to
the making of the Bitton collection and the remarkable
extent of the connections the Canon had established
in the botanical and horticultural world. There are
detailed records of consignments from the Botanic
Gardens of Kew, Edinburgh, Glasnevin, Oxford, Hull,
Liverpool and Glasgow, as well as from the R.H.S.
Gardens at Chiswick. From the Continent he received
plants sent by the Botanic Gardens of Paris, Angers,
Rouen, Tours, Brussels, Berlin and Hamburg. He
had correspondents also in Gibraltar and New York.
Many of the leading amateurs of that time were his
helpers, amongst them G. F. Wilson, G. Maw and W. W.
Saunders. In the five years covered by this entry
book he received as contributions to the Bitton Garden
about 4,900 plants and 1000 packets of seeds. That he
did not keep them all goes without saying. In one
of his letters he says : " Since I came here I have entered
in some half-dozen notebooks all the plants I have
received. I have been amusing myself looking through
them. It is quite sad reading. If I could remember
one-half, or one-tenth, of the things I have once known
and forgotten I should be a very wise and learned man.
In the same way if I had now one-tenth of the good
plants I have had and lost, I should have a splendid
collection/'

From no notice of Bitton Garden as it was during
the last two decades of Ellacombe' s life can be omitted
mention of his gardener, Richard Ashmore. About
1898, Ashmore was engaged in place of Miller, the man

152 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

who found out before the Canon did that the time
comes when it is wise " to take two days or more to do
work you used to do well in one " (see p. 81). The
engagement proved a great success, although at the
time Ashmore went to Bitton he had had practically
no experience in the kind of gardening Canon Ella-
combe loved. The latter used often to record his
impressions of Ashmore at their first interview and
tour of the garden : "I saw he knew nothing about
the kind of plants I grow, but I also saw he did not
pretend to." His modesty and evident anxiety to
learn — qualities which never left him — led to his
engagement, and this, it is no exaggeration to say,
added much comfort to the latter years of the Canon's
long life. Bitton Garden was really a botanic garden
in miniature, but although the number of species
grown there was extraordinary for so small an area
Ashmore comparatively soon got to know the name of
almost every one. In later times, too, he was con
stantly being called upon by the Canon for information
as to the history or source of individual plants, never,
so far as we remember, in vain.

Ashmore when he first went to Bitton was a sturdy
young man in the early thirties, to all appearance
destined for a long and healthy life. It was his fate,
however, to outlive the Canon but seven months.
About 1911, the first symptoms of a subtle paralytic
disease began to be evident, and in spite of medical
advice obtained by the Canon they became more and
more pronounced until about a year before his master
died he could no longer do active work and had to be
wheeled about the garden in a bath chair. It says
much for the esteem in which the Canon held his merits
that although at last he could not set foot to ground

CANON ELLACOMBE AND RICHARD ASHMORE IN THE GARDEN

IN 1909.

THE BITTON GARDEN 153

he was still considered indispensable to Bit ton. The
garden necessarily suffered from the absence of his
actual labour, valuable as his supervision still continued
to be. Canon Ellacombe, however, never thought
of changing him for another, always saying he was well
worth his pay. Ashmore died towards the end of
August, 1916, and was buried in Bitton churchyard
on September 3, within a few yards of the garden he
loved so much. He was a native of East Yorkshire,
and was about fifty-three years of age.

CHAPTER VII

CANON ELLACOMBE AND HIS PLANTS

ELLEN WILLMOTT

WHEN staying at Edge Hill with the Rev. Charles
Wolley Dod about the year 1890, we were
discussing the debatable question as to whether Nar
cissus Allen's Beauty and Narcissus nobilis of the
sixteenth and seventeenth century gardens figured,
amongst other books, in Theatrum Florae, Paris, 1538,
were identical. He advised me to make a pilgrimage
to Bitton Vicarage, where many of the daffodils and
roses of the old gardens were to be found. As I had
never met Canon Ellacombe, I had always hesitated
to propose myself. Mr. Wolley Dod, who knew the
Canon well, assured me that gardening visits gave
him great pleasure, and suggested giving me a letter
of introduction to him, at the same time telling me
that I should find him the most amiable of men, and
a charming personality, with untold funds of classical,
literary and plant lore, with a keen sense of humour
and great kindness of heart ; at the same time well
knowing what he wanted and also whether his self-
invited visitors were sympathetic, or the reverse, and
that he had no hesitation in letting them know if he
wished their visits repeated or not. I have more
than once been witness of this trait in our dear friend's
character, and admired the neat, but unmistakable
way in which the intimation was conveyed to the
visitor.

154

THE CANON AND FERULA GLAUCA.

CANON ELLACOMBE AND HIS PLANTS 155

It was some time before my first visit to Bitton
took place, but we corresponded frequently after the
opening exchange of ideas upon the identity of Nar-
€158118 Allen's beauty. Many letters passed between
us upon the plant and garden questions, which arose
from time to time. One in which he was deeply
interested, and in which I agreed with him, was the
identity of the true rose of the Temple brawl. Two
roses have borne the names " York and Lancaster,"
and those holding opposite opinions can make out
a good case, but there is little to show why one should
be right and the other wrong.

Another point of discussion was the suggestion that
Rosa Rapinii was the single form of R. hemisphaerica ,
and he kept to his opinion all through that this
was so.

On the identity of the " seven sisters rose " the
Canon gave way. His father had it in his rose collec
tion, and as R. Roxburgh** it figured in the list of the
roses cultivated at Bitton in 1830, published as an
appendix to this memoir. The true seven sisters
rose is a mulii flora form introduced into England
from China between 1815 and 1817. It was figured
in the Botanical Register from the plant growing in
the Horticultural Society's garden at Chiswick in
1830, and Lindley gave a glowing description of its
beauty and attributed the name to the seven different
coloured flowers found upon each corymb. The same
name was current in China, but was then supposed to
refer to the seven flowers which generally opened at
the same time upon each corymb. The rose de la
Griff erae, with which it has been confused, was raised
by Viberd in 1845, and is also a multi flora form but an
entirely different cross. Nothing daunts the vigorous

156 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

growth of de la Grifferae, but it is the reverse with
the seven sisters rose, which was common in gardens
nearly thirty years before the introduction of de la
Grifferae, and the confusion between the two roses
has only arisen since the disappearance of the true
11 seven sisters."

On my first visit to Bitton I went from Paddington
by the nine o'clock express, having ordered a good
pair of horses to meet me at Bath to take me out to
Bitton. Just as I was getting into the victoria at
Bath, a voice said : "I am sure you are Miss Will-
mott, and coming to see my Vicarage Garden ? You
are very welcome, and your visit is one to which I have
been looking forward.

" I travelled down by the same train and looked out
for you at Paddington, but expecting to see one of
more mature years, I missed you."

We had a very pleasant drive out together, and
when we came into the vale of Bitton, and the fine
church tower appeared over the tree- tops, I thought
I had never seen such an ideally beautiful sylvan
scene. The Canon was very proud of his tower, and
told me how a cousin of his, working in the Vatican
Library, had found a document of the sixteenth century
referring to the building of the tower, and granting an
indulgence to all those who contributed towards its
erection.

Every incident of that first visit is indelibly fixed
upon my mind, and my first impression of the Canon
has always remained and was thoroughly justified
during the many years I had the privilege of his friend
ship. His appearance was strikingly impressive, and
is deeply fixed in my recollection as I saw him at
Bath for the first time : tall, handsome and distin-

CANON ELLACOMBE AND HIS PLANTS 157

guished looking, with his intellectual countenance and
courteous manners.

Notwithstanding his many interests, the assiduity
with which he carried out his parish duties as vicar
always filled me with admiration. He was always
accessible to the young as well as to the old folk of
Bitton, and to the most humble of his parishioners.
I have often seen him leave important visitors to speak
to some one who had called to ask his advice or counsel.

The Canon held very pronounced ideas upon the
training of a child's character, and he attached great
importance to children being kept occupied, and he
strongly condemned their being left to idle or loaf.
He was constantly urging the village parents to remem
ber that habits of industry acquired in childhood are
rarely lost in after years. He would say how easy it was
to find children small occupations which interest them,
play or light jobs of work or reading, anything in fact
to keep them from doing " nothing." It was not
only the village parents that he tried to impress with
the necessity of occupying their children's leisure
hours, for he believed that the same principle applied
to boys back from school for the holidays. He had
rarely found a boy who could not be induced to take
up some hobby or another or whose interest could
not be directed into some channel which would occupy
his head or his hands. He admired St. Antoninus,
the patron of industry, who waged ceaseless war
against idleness. " Otio perpetuum bellum indixit."

In the days when I first knew him he came to Lon
don every week to attend the meetings of the New
River Company. It was during those years that he
visited most of the gardens where interesting plants
were to be found, or where the owners were plant-

158 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

lovers or botanists, and he thus came into contact
with all the gardening folk of those days. He used
rather to deplore the modern fashion for gardening,
saying that so many now gardened or collected plants
because it was the fashion, whereas, in former days,
only those who really loved plants troubled about them.

After that first visit, I was a regular visitor at Bit-
ton. Sometimes the Canon was alone, but I often
found myself in the company of some of his many
interesting friends. He excelled as a host, and was
never seen to better advantage than when dispensing
hospitality and doing the honours of his garden, or
showing his collection of old glass or going through
his fine library of herbals and other books bearing
upon botany and horticulture.

The Canon's scrapbooks were of unfailing interest.
After a long delightful day in the garden the evening
passed in his pleasant little library was equally enjoy
able, and then I used to ask to see the wonderful scrap-
books. Begun in early days they were an illustrated
record of many of the happenings connected with his
journeyings through his long life. His own sketches
and drawings were excellent and were often accom
panied by letters and notes relating to them. Turn
ing over the pages he would tell many anecdotes or
give descriptions and accounts of incidents connected
with them.

He was always glad to speak of his father, for whose
memory he had a great regard, and many were the
incidents he used to relate connected with him. He
must from all accounts have been a most interesting
and lovable man. As a boy the Canon had been more
interested in drawing and music than in flowers. In
very early days his love for the classics evinced itself.

CANON ELLACOMBE AND HIS PLANTS 159

After his ordination and before his departure to Sud-
bury, to which place he had been appointed curate,
he surprised his father by asking for a hamper of
plants to take with him for his garden. The old
vicar, rather amused and greatly pleased to find his
son taking such an unexpected interest in plants,
gave him all he fancied, and thus began the Canon's
gardening career.

Of the Sudbury days he had much to say ; it was
a short epoch of his life but one for which he had
great affection and which was very evident when the
Sudbury pages of the scrapbook were opened.

The Canon gave without a thought of quid pro quo,
although nothing pleased him better than a present of
plants. He often quoted Chaucer's Clerk of Oxen-
ford : " Gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche."
He thought it was one of the best precepts for a garden
lover and his friends.

Upon the occasion of one of his first visits to Warley,
seeing the pleasure he took in going through my collec
tion of the species and varieties of old roses, I showed
him the notes and drawings I was putting together
about them, and he was greatly interested in the
historical particulars I had collected. From that
day he never ceased urging me to enlarge the scope
of the book, from the projected illustrated notebook
for private circulation, to one of sufficient general
interest to justify publication.

He was interested not only in the species of roses
growing at Warley, which I had collected from far and
wide, but in the old roses, which have been known to
cultivation for centuries, and also in the teas and
hybrid perpetuals raised prior to 1870, many of which
are equal to later introductions and often superior,

i6o HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

but have fallen from notice to make way for the numer
ous novelties which the professional rosarians con
tinue to send out every season. He deplored this
rage for novelties which has banished so many of the
beautiful old roses.

To keep in touch with the treasures of the Bitton
garden, it would have been necessary to visit it every
week throughout the year, and one would have been
well repaid, for such a wealth of rare, interesting and
choice plants, could hardly have been found in any
other garden, even of far greater extent. The Canon's
many visits to the Continent were fruitful sources
for its enrichment.

First and foremost among the interesting plants
was Rosa hemisphaerica for which the Canon had a
great affection. Fuchsia excorticata from New Zea
land was another especial favourite, and so was
Fremontia californica which he had planted out
long before it was considered hardy enough to be
trusted in the open. Chimonanthus fragrans rejoiced
many of his friends in the winter, for he would enclose
its fragrant blossoms in his letters. Paliurus (Christ
thorn) he had brought back from North Italy and
he always said that in its native habitat he had never
seen it so beautiful as at Bitton, when it was one mass
of glowing gold succeeded by the curious fruits.

Diospyrus Kaki was another of the much admired wall
plants, and it was a fine sight with its golden fruits.
I never saw it fruiting so freely elsewhere in England.

Convolvulus tuguriorum, a plant which I have not seen
anywhere else, has a pathetic story. The Canon of ten
related the story but could never explain the name.
A Scotch lady, very devoted to her garden, had a
sailor son, who collected plants and seeds all over the

CANON ELLACOMBE AND HIS PLANTS 161

world and always came back laden with treasures.
Returning from a long voyage the ship was overtaken
by a great gale and wrecked within sight of Leith
where the mother was awaiting her son. He was
drowned and his body washed ashore and in his pockets
were found the seeds he had collected. Amongst
them was the seed of this convolvulus, some of which
was given to Miss Frances Hope, from whom it reached
Bitton.

Among the treasures at Bitton may be mentioned
Phlox Nelsoni, which had been sent to the Canon by
his friend Mr. Nelson, of Aldeborough, and Yucca
recurva x superba which had been brought from
Loddiges' garden at Hackney by the Canon's father.
This and some other plants the Canon regarded with
especial affection — his black pansy was one of them.
Brought from Italy by his father in the early part of
the nineteenth century, it became a permanent occu
pant of the garden, and very few visitors left Bitton
without a plant of it. The Rev. H. T. Ellacombe
had identified it in Van der Gass's picture " II Pre-
sepio," circa 1450, now in the Pitti Gallery. The
Canon paid a special visit to Florence to see the picture
his father had mentioned, and he was greatly pleased
to recognize unmistakably the little flower, which is
now so widely known as the Bitton black pansy.

Another speciality of the Bitton garden was
Erodium romamim, from "the Coliseum in Rome, which
was making itself thoroughly at home in the vegetable
garden, coming up regularly in the gravel paths.

Yucca Ellacombei also deserves mention. It was
named after his father and was therefore an old
inhabitant of the vicarage garden. Not many years
ago this plant found its way to Sprenger's garden near

HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Naples and under another name was offered for sale.
The Canon eventually succeeded in establishing its
identity. Euphorbia amygdalis is another plant
originally distributed from Bitton.

The seed of Statice cosirensis was brought to him by
a sailor who as a boy had been in the choir at Bitton
and remembered the Canon's love for flowers. The
seed had been collected on the Isle of Cosyra, a small
island between Italy and Africa, now known as Pan-
tellaria.

A favourite shrub with the Canon was a fine plant
of Maries' variety of Viburnum tomentosum, growing in
the border against the churchyard wall. It not only
gave a beautiful display when in flower, but its flat
tabular branching habit made it a plant of interest
throughout the year.

And so, did time and space permit, one might go
on calling to mind an infinite number of rare and
interesting plants. In very few private gardens in
the British Isles could there be found so great a gather
ing of unique and out-of-the-way plants, certainly
none concentrated on so small a plot of ground. It
was this that gave the garden its unfailing interest
at every season of the year. During a stay of one
or two days one might go round the borders half a
dozen times and yet every journey would reveal some
thing fresh. And although it was so old, the Canon's
interest in new things gave it perennial youth. Now
alas ! the master has gone and Bitton can never be
the same again, nor in our time is it ever likely that
such another garden can arise, for it needed the man,
the soil, the climate and fifty years' love and work
to make it.

CHAPTER VIII
CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW

WE can find no record of when Canon Ellacombe
began to correspond with Kew. Though, no
doubt, he followed in his father's footsteps, and very
soon after his appointment as vicar entered into the
pleasant relations with the Royal Gardens which
lasted until his death. The first entry of a consign
ment of plants from Bitton, after he became vicar,
of which we have a record, is September, 1869, when
a parcel of sixty-five herbaceous plants was received
from the vicarage garden, and in exchange a parcel
was sent from Kew that same autumn. A reference
to this or to a slightly later sending is made in the
Kew Report for 1870. From that date onwards
until the last year of the Canon's life the exchange of
plants proceeded with regularity. His correspon
dence with Kew mainly relates to the plants he was
anxious to acquire or to offer.

Frequently his notes contained a single query as to
some interesting phenomenon or some obscure point
about a particular species. Nothing pleased him more
than when the vicarage garden was able to furnish a
plant for figuring in the Botanical Mcgazine, and from
the following list of plants figured it will be seen that
the collection was of no mean order. The value of
the Canon's services to horticulture is expressed in the
dedication of volume 107 of the Botanical Magazine to
him by Sir Joseph Hooker in 1881.

163

164 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

To the Rev. H. N. Ellacombe, M.A., Bitton

Vicarage.
MY DEAR MR. ELLACOMBE, —

For upwards of half a century the editors of the
Botanical Magazine have exercised the privilege of
dedicating a yearly volume to an individual distin
guished for his love of botany and horticulture.

Allow me, when adding your name to the list of
recipients of this modest tribute, to record my high
appreciation of the value of your venerable father's
and your own intelligent interest and zeal in the
introduction and cultivation of interesting, rare, and
beautiful hardy plants, and your disinterested liber
ality in the distribution of them amongst horticul
turists.

Believe me, most faithfully yours,

Jos. D. HOOKER.
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW,
December i, 1881.

LIST OF PLATES IN THE " BOTANICAL MAGAZINE "
PREPARED FROM PLANTS GROWN IN THE GARDEN
AT BITTON VICARAGE.

Plate

6223. Sedum pulchellum.

7035. Rosa incarnata.

7171. Rosa Banksiae.

7172. Yucca rupicola.
7258. Potentilla Salesoviana.
7421. Rosa Luciae.

7497. Actinidia polygama (really A. arg^lta}.

7509. Coriaria japonica.

7772. Wyethia mollis.

8155. Bigelovia graveolens.

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 165

Plate

8217. Echinops Tournefortii.

8329. Pterostyrax hispidum.

8354. Aquilegia flabellata var. alba.

8425. Corokia Cotoneaster.

8506. Vinca difformis.

8513. Rosa foliolosa.

8525. Coriaria terminalis.

8558. Vitis Thunbergii.

8755. Zanthoxylum planispinum.

The greater number of the Canon's letters to his
friends also related to his garden or his garden's
needs. An appreciable proportion of his time must
have been devoted to his correspondence. From our
own experience we should judge that few of his
friends remained for long without seeing his character
istic and unmistakable handwriting. In the later
years of his life, during which he rarely left Bitton,
he seems to have felt an imperative need of being in
constant touch with those, and they were many,
whose affection he possessed. His letters, whatever
they may have been in earlier days, were in recent
years never long ; they were short and frequent, for
he did not allow topics to accumulate. The post
card was in great request. Its convenience appealed to
the Canon in his later years, and his friends were often
greeted by a message from him on their breakfast
table which might never have come had he been
obliged to have recourse to the more troublesome
and formal letter. Short as these notes were apt to
be, they were often illumined by a flash of wit, a touch
of humour or a passage in Latin. And they almost
invariably asked, " When are you coming to Bitton ? "
mentioning, as an inducement to make the visit as

166 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

soon as possible, that the garden was " full of interest."
This, indeed, was literally true of it at all seasons,
except perhaps when it was buried in snow. It would
have been a dull and unresponsive soul indeed that
failed to find relaxation and enjoyment in a one or
two days' visit to Bitton, its vicar and vicarage, its
garden and library.

Here is a typical note to Mr. Bartholomew :

" On the other side I send a list of things noted by
Ashmore with you. Any or all of them, will be welcome
as seeds, cuttings, or plants, at such time, or times, as
suits you.

" Why don't you come to Bitton ? It is delightful
now. Is there any other month in the year that can
show such a delightful triplet as we have now — roses,
strawberries, greenpeas — but surgit amare aliquid.

" My dear boy leaves to-morrow for S. Africa.
Eheu ! Eheu ! me miserum ! iterumne aspiciam / "

We have reproduced some of the Canon's corre
spondence with friends at Kew and elsewhere. The
selection is neither so long nor so varied as could have
been wished for, the letters being concerned for the
most part with one only of his varied interests in life.
Still, of his secular interests that was the dominant
one, and they show his perennial love for plants and
the regard he always felt for the national establishment.

The earliest letter we have found shows that the
Canon must have been in correspondence with Kew
for some time and it is of interest to notice the extent
to which the national collection at Kew was being
enriched at this time by constant exchanges of plants
with Bitton, evidently sent in response to a definite
request.

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 167

"February 15, 1871.
" DEAR DR. HOOKER,—

" I have to-day packed and sent off a basket of
plants addressed to you. You must please to look
on them only as a first instalment — for the basket
only contains between seventy and eighty plants,
which is not more than one-fifth of your list — whereas
I hope to accomplish at least two-thirds of it — I shall
be able to send off another such lot in the course of
next month, but it was more convenient to me to get
up at once what I could be certain of. Most of them
are good healthy plants, but some will require a little
nursing. Such as they are I hope you will be pleased
with them.

" If you find any wrongly named, pray let me know
of it. I try to be as accurate as I can, but perfect
accuracy in plant naming is not granted to man."

The next letter, written to Sir Joseph Hooker just
before he left for his journey to the Atlas Mountains
and Morocco, is also interesting from the light it throws
on the Canon's gardening practice which he continued
to follow. Those who knew the long border will
remember the wealth of plants of all sorts which lived
there unmolested.

" March 27, 1871.

!< I never knew bulbs and seeds do better than this
spring — which I put down to last summer's roasting.
I have endless seedlings of self-sown plants, which is
an advantage I get from not forking my beds, and I
find such forking quite unnecessary if the ground is
mulched ; instead of being pounded by the winter
rains, the ground under the mulching is more free and
open than any forking would produce.

i68 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" I wish you bon voyage to Barbary — I envy you
your trip. As Mr. Maw has promised to come here
soon after he returns, I shall look forward with much
interest to his report."

There is a gap of six years before we find another
letter from the Canon in the Kew archives, and this
is the earliest one which affords evidence of that
interest in and knowledge of roses for which he was
renowned. Some of his rich store of knowledge has
fortunately been preserved for us in his paper on
" Roses " in the Cornhill, vol. xix., which we have
been permitted to reproduce.

No doubt his studies of the genus Rosa were encour
aged by his father's love for the group and stimulated
by the remarkable collection of forms which the elder
Ellacombe had gathered together in the vicarage
garden (see appendix, pp. 314-317).

" February 28, 1877.
" DEAR DR. HOOKER,—

" Can you give me any certain information as to
what was the old white rose of England — the cogniz
ance of the House of York ? I do not know any white
rose that was in cultivation at that time. Gerard's
first rose is a double white, which his latest commen
tator identifies as R. alba (Linn.). In Yorkshire we
used to consider Rosa arvensis, which is common round
York city in the lanes, the white rose par excellence
of the Yorkists ; R. alba is only a cultivated race of
canina, and was not grown till the end of the eighteenth
century. No doubt it is like the Scotch thistle. They
did not discriminate species, but took any white rose
that came handy.

" This rose I do not know, but Lindley speaks very
highly of its beauty — but it cannot be that, if Rivers

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 169

is right in saying that it was introduced into our
gardens in 1597. Pliny says that England is called
Albion, ' ob rosas albas quibus abundat ' — but this
is nonsense ; white roses could not have been such a
speciality of England in his time.

" I am still trying to get together the good and dis
tinct species of roses. I have not room for them all.
Could you help me at Kew to R. berberi folia — the
double Pennsylvanian, or R. httescens (Lindley, fig.

9)?

" P.S. I do not know whether it was so at Kew,
but here we had a very uncommon sight last night.
The moon in eclipse was seen through a thin cloud,
which made it completely red."

The Canon never put the year on his letters, but we
have been able to date this one by the reference to
the eclipse through the kind help of Dr. Chree of Kew
observatory.

The next letter from the Canon relates to the forma
tion of the rock garden at Kew, which now forms
one of the chief sources of attraction to its many
visitors. Nowadays, thanks to the important horti
cultural press and to the great interest that has been
aroused in gardening, there is little fear of Kew being
overlooked or too little appreciated. Rather perhaps
do the Royal Botanic Gardens need to be saved from
their " friends " and more especially from those busy-
bodies in a public place who are prepared to sacrifice
the legitimate claims of the student to the supposed
demands of the people.

" January 6, 1882.
" DEAR SIR JOSEPH,—

" I return the paper with thanks to you for giving
me the opportunity of reading it. It is very clear

170 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

that the Board of Works give you credit for a broad
back and a willing heart, and they do not mean to
lighten your burdens, unless pressure is brought to
bear on them, and that is the difficulty. It has always
seemed to me that you do not sufficiently ' puff '
yourselves, though how that can be done decently
I do not exactly see, but as a matter of fact Kew is
very little known. A lot of bank-holiday people know
of it as a good place for a pleasant day, but it always
surprises me how many educated gentlemen and ladies
that one meets have never been there or cared to go.
The public press seems quite to ignore it, except the
gardening papers, and they do next to nothing — the
' faint praise ' of the Chronicle is almost as damaging
as the abuse of the Garden. In this direction I think
something might be done, and I should like some day
to have a little chat with you about it. I am medi
tating an afternoon at Kew to see the hollies and boxes
(of which I fancy you have a good collection) before
the other trees are in leaf — but it cannot be just yet—
I have a daughter's wedding on the I7th, which upsets
everything.

"As to rock gardens I have my own ideas, which I
think are fairly successful and which I enclose. I do
not put them against Mr. Loder's, but you may now
probably [like to get some reports of all successful
rock work.

" When you were at Pendock I meditated a letter
to try and tempt you to return via Bristol, but I gave
it up. I want very much to introduce you to Churchill's
herbarium at Clifton. It is the very best herbarium
of European plants both as to number and condition
that I know, and he has a most accurate knowledge
of them all. He works with Kerner of Innsbruck, and

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 171

has a marvellous series of primulas, gentians, saxi
frages, etc., etc. If you could at any time manage
to get down here, I could take you."

The story of the making of the rock garden at Kew
is given in the Kew Report for 1882. A memorial was
sent to H.M. Office of Works by a " number of gentle
men in the habit of visiting the Kew collections,
who were anxious to see a larger development of rock-
gardening at Kew." The Canon was among those
who signed the memorial (see letter December 24,
1881) and late in the report Sir Joseph states : "I
must here express my obligation to several gentlemen
who during the progress of the work favoured me with
many useful suggestions and otherwise interested
themselves in its details. I may especially mention
Mr. George Maw, F.L.S., Dr. Masters, F.R.S., and the
Rev. H. Ellacombe. To the latter gentleman we are
particularly indebted for considerable trouble in pro
curing us a quantity of finely-weathered pieces of
Bath oolite."

Considerable official opposition was raised to the
rock garden scheme, and but for the gift by the
executors of the late Mr. G. C. Joad of Wimbledon
(in accordance with the wishes expressed before his
death) the formation of the rock garden might have
been considerably delayed. Canon Ellacombe's interest
in this matter is worth putting on record, and all the
more so as he was instrumental in resolving a misunder
standing which had arisen between Mr. Joad and Sir
Joseph Hooker, so that but for this act the Joad bequest
might never have been made. The Churchill her
barium to which the Canon alludes in this letter was
also bequeathed to Kew by Mr. Churchill, and the

172 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

good relations between Mr. Churchill and Kew were
largely due to his influence, as is shown by the follow
ing letter written a few days before the one just
reproduced.

"December 24, 1881.
" DEAR SIR JOSEPH, —

" I wish at once to make it clear to you that in Joad's
feeling towards Kew there was not only nothing
personal to yourself, but that the feeling (such as it was)
quite passed away when he made your personal ac
quaintance. As far as I recollect the circumstances
he went with Churchill (of the ' Dolomites ') to the
herbarium one day, to look up some particular family,
and they fancied themselves snubbed. Probably they
were both too ready to take offence and they forgot
that as entire strangers they could not expect the
officials to know by intuition that they were both
men of great practical knowledge in European plants.
Added to this he had the idea that Kew was not at all
anxious for exchanges of living plants, and therefore
he gave himself no trouble to offer plants, and did
not intend to do so. On this point I was able to put
him right from my own personal experience, and
advised him to go and make the experiment. In the
meantime I had told you of the existence of such a
good collection close by you, and when he did come
very soon after he found himself most kindly received.

"As to , I give up trying to set his twist

right — but I regret it because I think his paper does
good, though I care very little for it myself. Like
Elwes and Maw I constantly threaten that I will
send him no more notes, but he will not let us alone.
I have not seen this week's number, but I believe he
has printed my father's list of roses (species and

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 173

varieties) grown by him fifty years ago — if so, I think
the list would interest you.

" I wish I had known more of your ' starvation ' at
Kew before I signed for the rock garden. I should
have suggested a rider for additional assistance ;
otherwise the rock garden will be only an additional
burden to you.

" I beg to send to you and Lady Hooker all the good
wishes of the season/'

More than a decade elapses before we find the next
letter from the Canon, this time to Mr. (now Sir
William) Thiselton-Dyer, who succeeded Sir Joseph
Hooker as Director in 1885.

"October 2, 1893.
" DEAR THISELTON-DYER, —

" I have been prevented from getting to Kew this
year as much as I like, but I managed to get there last
Thursday morning. I made a special pilgrimage to
see the bamboos. They delighted me, and I think
they are a great success. I do not understand why
they have grown so well this year, for with me they
showed no symptom of growth during the drought,
but as soon as the rain came they made good shoots.
The only one in which I think I can beat you is in
B. Castillonis — which is very good with me. Your
B. Veitchii was quite a surprise to me.

" I enclose a short list of desiderata in the hope that
you will be able to spare some.

" I have beautiful fruit on my Citrus trifoliata. I
am going to send a spray or two to Masters for engrav
ing. No fruit is given in the Botanical Magazine plate.
' I think your Index Kewensis is a grand piece of
work — the price is beyond me, but I saw it at Tort-

174 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

worth, and spent a long morning in correcting my
mistakes. The asters alone are enough to immor
talize the authors."

The reference to the bamboo garden, made by Sir
William in 1891-92, no doubt gave particular pleasure
as it was a development of the garden in which he
always took especial interest.

In the next letter we are able to reproduce, the
Canon alludes to a subject to which he continually
reverted in later years. On October 2, 1905, he wrote
as follows :

" DEAR THISELTON-DYER,—

" There is a work I should like to see done — and
that could easily be done by the Kew staff — and I
think it might produce good results.

" Looking through the Botanical Magazine, Botanical
Register and other such books one is struck with the
very large number of good things which were once in
English gardens and have disappeared. If some of
your staff would go through the volumes and note
such plants, comparing with the hand-lists, the result
might be published either as a bulletin or as an appen
dix to the Botanical Magazine, or in the Gardeners'
Chronicle. It would not take him long, because he
need not go through the volumes, but only through
the indices, and I am sure that if that were done many
good things would be recovered.

"The books I should suggest would be Botanical-
Magazine, Botanical Register, Sweet's British Flower
Garden, because the plants named in them have
all been in English gardens, and the majority at
Kew.

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 175

" I trust you will think of this ; if you could manage
it, it would be a good addition to your good works at
Kew."

The same subject is alluded to in the postscript
of his letter of October 17, 1912, and he often referred
to the matter in the course of conversation.

The work is well worth doing, especially when so
many old-fashioned and sweet-scented flowers are
being ousted by the large-flowered, and often scentless
forms produced by florists to suit the more vulgar
tastes of present-day gardening. Even such a charm
ing old plant as the small double white pink of cottage
gardens is now hardly to be obtained from nursery
men owing to the introduction of " Mrs. Sinkins " and
other quite undesirable " improved " forms.

The continuity of the Canon's interest in Kew is
shown by his last letter to Sir William as Director of
Kew, written after the appearance of the intimation
in The Times of Sir William's retirement and of Lieut .-
Col. David Prain's appointment to the Directorship
of Kew.

" December 8, 1905.
" DEAR THISELTON-DYER,—

' The Times says that you are leaving Kew. I had
thought that you had another year of office, and I
do not like you to leave without my taking the oppor
tunity of saying how sorry I am that you are going.
I have known you during the whole time of your
Directorship and before it, and I have always received
from you much kindness and courtesy so that your
tenure of office has added to the pleasure of my life.
It will be a matter of satisfaction to you that you leave
Kew in such a high state of efficiency. I hope your

176 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

successor will carry it on on your lines. I know nothing
of him.

" I wish you and Lady Dyer many years of health
and happiness in your new Gloucestershire home/'

A much later letter to Sir William, written either
in 1914 or 1915, displays his classical interests and
was written after the publication of Sir William's
paper " On Some Ancient Plant Names."1

" July 3*> 19*4-
" DEAR DYER, —

" How can Sempervivum be connected with the
finger ? Pliny says that the Aizoon in tegulis nascens
is called in Latin digitellum. You probably know the
Treubner edition of Pliny. It is good for its splendid
index. I suppose Linnaeus invented ' digitalis ' as
the Latin for ' glove.'

" I wrote to Cambridge for a copy of your most
excellent paper. I did not expect to get it and I did
not. Warre lent me his copy. You ought to publish
it as a separate pamphlet."

The Canon's next letter written to Lieut.-Col. Prain
shows that he had no intention of letting time slip
by before he established friendly relations with the
new Director in his thoroughly characteristic manner.
The letter was the first of many and commenced a
friendship as warm and lasting as those which existed
between the Canon and the two former Directors of
Kew.

1 Sir William Thiselton-Dyer's first paper, " On Some Ancient
Plant Names," was published in The Journal of Philology, vol.
xxxiii., p. 195. Two further papers appeared in vol. xxxiv. p. 78
and p. 290.

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 177

" February 20, 1906.
" DEAR SIR,—

" For many years I have been in pleasant communica
tion with Kew. From time to time I have received
several good plants from the gardens — and sometimes
I have had the pleasure of sending plants there. I
hope I may be allowed to continue the connection
under your directorship — and I will begin by begging.
I should be thankful for any of the plants named on
the other side. I have had some of them before but
have failed with them :

" Ceanothus rigidus. Rhododendron Chamaecistus.

" Dicentra chrysantha. Tanacetum argenteum.

" Corydalis Wilsoni"

Early in the new year the Canon was always on
the look-out for visitors to Bitton, and in his next
letter, written on February n, 1907, he is endeavouring
to persuade the Director to pay a visit to Bitton.

February n, 1907.
" DEAR COLONEL PRAIN, —

u In the last Bulletin there is a list of half-hardy
plants which much interests me because it has always
been my hobby to grow such plants. The list gives
names of plants that can only be grown in the warmer
part of England, such as Cornwall, etc. But a large
number of them can be grown in much less-favoured
places and I have put a mark against those which I
grow here, and I am sure the list could be very much
enlarged.

''' I take the opportunity of again saying that I hope
to tempt you here — and as a preliminary step I should
like to hear from you when is the most likely time
to try to tempt you.

M

178 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" Apparently there is a promise of a very flowery
year — snowdrops, Cyclamen, Calycanthus, Eranthis,
Photinia, and others are loaded with flowers."

It is probably to a second visit from the Director
that the following characteristic paragraph in a letter
of June 12, 1908, alludes.

" June 12, 1908.

" Your visit was one immense pleasure to me, and
did me a lot of good. Please repeat it.

" P.S. Since you were here an old white Scotch
rose has produced very pretty three-coloured flowers,
yellow, rose, and white in distinct rings. I shall keep
the hips and sow them, though I know that variegated
flowers, at least on variegated plants, are seldom
fertile."

The next two letters need but little comment ; all
lovers of Bitton remember the pride and interest the
Canon took in Rosa hemisphaerica and also no doubt
regret that their efforts to emulate him in its culti
vation were usually so unfortunate.

" February 19, 1908.

" Is your R. hemisphaerica doing well ? If it is I will
not offer you another, but I have one to spare, and I
want to put it where it will be appreciated. Kew
comes first, but not if already supplied. Still a prisoner,
but getting on all right."

" February 2, 1911.
" DEAR PRAIN, —

" This is not a begging letter as mine usually are.
I have a page in my notebook headed ' Desiderata
from Kew,' but the only name now remaining in it
is Cornus Nuttallii, and I know you cannot spare

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 179

it yet. My object in writing is : I think there
is no time of the year in which the garden is so
interesting as from the middle of February to the
end of March, and I look on Bean as the best
counsellor for my garden that I have ; but he has
never seen the garden at that time. Could you
spare him for one or two nights at any time between
this and the end of March ? The garden is full of
flowers. Fritillaria chitmlensis will be out in a day or
two unless the slugs forbid. Warre is expected at
Bath this week, and I hope to get him here more than
once during his stay there."

The Canon's friendship with the late Provost of Eton
commenced in a chance meeting at Kew, as he mentions
in the following note.

" March n, 1912.

" Warre has been with me the last two days, a very
pleasant guest. I first met him at your house, but
we knew of each other by correspondence before."

The following letter was written to Sir William ThLel-
ton-Dyer a short while after the meeting, referred to in
the letter just quoted, took place :

" December 5, 1907.

" Dr. Warre lunched with me yesterday. We dis
cussed Roman trees. We agreed that Ovid's ' Curva-
taque glandibus Ilex ' must mean that the boughs were
weighed down with the acorns. But is it the fact
that the Ilex in S. Europe bears enough acorns to bend
down the branches ? I doubt it. Are the acorns of
the Ilex the same chemically as the oak and as good
for pigs ? I have been a prisoner for over six weeks

i8o HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

but am getting all right. When are you and Lady
Dyer coming to cheer me up ? Have you finished
Daubeny ?

"Is it the case that all Transalpine oaks are Q.
pedunculate ? '

The friendship between the Canon and Dr. Warre
became very intimate, and was no doubt fostered by
the keen interest in gardening and the love of the
classics which they both shared. Dr. Warre made
several visits to Bitton and a considerable corre
spondence took place between them. Often when
the Canon was more than usually pleased with some
Latin verses he had composed he would pull out a
post-card and send them off at once to the Provost !

It is a matter of great regret that owing to Dr.
Warre' s illness we have not been able to ask him for
a contribution to this memoir.

Here, however, is a note to Mr. Bartholomew dated
January 22, 1911, which records one of Dr. Warre's
visits to Bitton :

" Jubilate — Warre is here and he says we are both
right. I am right in saying /c^aro? and you as an
Attic are quite right in saying Kepdros. You need not
trouble about an apology. I will take it as read.
Plaudite — solvuntur risu tabulae — mihi plaudo ipse
domi."

Another welcome visitor to Bitton during the latter
years of the Canon's life was Sir Herbert Maxwell, who
tells us that he did not make his personal acquaintance
until 1903.

" He wrote to me in that year," Sir Herbert writes,
" some notes on a book of mine which he had been

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 181

reading, Memories of the Months, $rd series, finishing
his letter by an invitation to visit him. I did so
twice, once, I think, in that year, and again in 1914,
with Mr. A. Grove. ' Mine/ wrote the Canon, ' is not
an every-day garden. I have a big house, with lots
of room for guests, and a welcome for them/ Needless
to say that my visits to Bitton remain among the
most charming memories, and I returned from each
with fresh knowledge, as well as notable additions
to my collection of plants. We continued to exchange :
the last thing I sent at his request two years ago were
some tufts of that dowdy little thing Viola pahistris,
which, though an abundant wilding in this district, is
absent from the Mendip Hills and Cots wolds.

" It makes me proud to think that I was able to
contribute anything to his store. I happen to have
a letter lying before me dated September 9 (he never
put the year), in which he reminds me to send him
Digitalis ambigua, and ferruginea, Centaur ea Rhaponti-
cum, Veronica spttria, Sedum spurium (deep rose) and
Cynoglossum appenninum. ' I like/ he added, ' to get
new plants in early, so as to get a grip of the ground
before the frosts come/

" We had a controversy over the legend about
Linnaeus' emotion on first seeing a field of English
gorse in bloom. I had quoted it in one of my books,
whereupon the Canon wrote maintaining it was the
German Dillenius, not the Swede Linnaeus, who fell
into ecstasy over the golden blossom. He referred me
to Miller's Dictionary as his authority.

" Writing on October 25 of the same year, he said :
' We have now had nine consecutive nights of sharp
frost. It has stripped the garden for the present, but
I take comfort in Sir Robert Christison's observations

i82 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

that a consecutive frost in the end of October or
beginning of November is always followed by a mild
winter. He was a very accurate observer.' This
doctrine has been amply confirmed in the present
season.

" Cyclamen Count was in great profusion at Bitton,
and the progeny of some plants thereof which I brought
away with me are now flowering here bravely.

" I have many letters from the Canon, but they
are buried so deep it would take days to exhume them.
A few are before me as I write, and here are some random
extracts. ' A few months ago a rather Cockney rector
of a near hill parish was dining with me, and told me
that he would not think of going home through the
fields and a rough lane ; he would go more than a
mile and a half further by the road, because he was
afraid of the badgers ! A naturalist friend, who was
also dining, agreed with me that we would gladly go
a mile and a half or more if we could see one/

" ' As a member of a fishery board I was once asked
to give a motto for the seal. I suggested — Mersat
prof undo pulchrior evenit — " It enters the sea a smolt
and comes up a salmon/'

" ' Your remark that, among British wild flowers
scarlet is confined to Anagallis and the field poppy
is new to me ; but would you not call Adonis autumn-
alis scarlet ? the beautiful Peziza coccinea is not
a flower, but its splendid coral cup almost entitles it
to flower rank.' My rejoinder was that Anagallis, corn,
poppies, and Adonis are all weeds of cultivation, and
probably of exotic origin.

" ' I think Rhus Toxicodendron should be forbidden
by Act of Parliament. It is most dangerous. I saw
it occasionally on walls of schoolrooms, and ordered

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 183

its immediate removal. . . . Rhus cotinoides has been
fairly good. I value it highly : its beautiful trans
parent leaves are a joy all the year. I know no leaves
with such transparency. Miss North, who had travelled
all over the world, told me that the finest tree for
autumn colour was the Gingko. It is so here most
years, so much so that I do not have the fallen leaves
cleared up ; they form a lovely golden carpet. . . .
The Americans say that the tints are best after a wet
summer. In a hot summer nature thickens the cuticle
of the leaf to prevent evaporation and that dims the
colouring. That may be true of some American trees,
but 1 have not found it so here . . . the Sophora you
sent me is doing well. Can you spare a bit of Veronica
Allionii ? ' "

A few other letters may be added here as interesting
specimens both of his classical lore and his keen sense
of humour. As with nearly all his letters and post
cards the only clue as to the year they were written
is gleaned from the postmark which is often undecipher
able. The first four of the following letters were sent
to Mr. Bowles and the others to Mr. Bartholomew.

" March 16, 1907.

" Both Ashmore and I are pleased with the tetra-
merous Galanthus — neither of us have noticed it here.
I love everything that offends against human rules
and arrangements. Horrible N.-easter — but the garden
is as gay as possible. Come and see it."

" If you are going to the R. H. S. to-morrow you
might like to show these to some of your friends. But
don't show them as an exhibit from me. I am not fond
of exhibiting either my flowers or myself. Garden
lovely."

184 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" April 25, 1907."

"Will you lunch with me on Thursday at the
Langham Hotel at 1.30, and take me to Chelsea ? My
knee is still naughty, but I have had it x-rayed to-day
and so shall know more about it soon. I believe it's
nothing but innate cussedness. There is such a thing
in my family, and it's not the only sign of it in me."

" February 3, 1910.

" If you are at the R. H. S. on Tuesday and see Miss
Willmott, I wish you would ask when she is coming to
Bitton ; it's no use writing. If at the same time you
should happen to see E. A. B., you might ask him
the same question. I hope he is well, but I have not
heard of him for many months and am anxious. If
you do not see him at R. H. S. you might see him in
the looking glass. The garden is already full of
flowers.''

"July 8.

" Is Horace also among the prophets ? Yes, he
foretold aviation.

Pinnis non homini datis
Coelum ipsum petimus stultitia.

' Motto for my successor :

Defunctumque laboribus
Aequali recreat sorte Vicarius.

Hor. iii. 24, 15."

5-
" DEAR A. C. B.,—

"I think I gave you my version of success — if not,
here it is :

'Tis not in mortal to command success,

But we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it.

Non nobis semper (victores) victoribus esse licebit
Semproni, potius nos meruisse juvat.

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 185

" Browne (Bishop of Bristol) says ' victores ' is
wrong — Warre says one is as right as the other.
Glorious weather. Everything very promising."

11 September 27.

" I have a garden party on the I4th puellarum et
Viduarum grex — Eheu ! — will you come and help me ?
You would be a tower of strength to the shy vicar.

" To attempt to add anything to the pleasure of a
visit from you would be to add a perfume to the
violet and paint the lily. Still, if you could bring a
good bunch of Iris Douglasii, it might add to your

welcome."

" January 19.

" Hoffman is found, and so friends are declared
1 not guilty ' of illicit borrowing and larceny — on the
charge. I have found a good motto for the house in
which I was born, ' haec domus infantem vidit et ipsa
senem ' — Lucan.

" Miss Willmott is coming to-morrow, and Warre
on Saturday, sic itur — sic vivitur spiro ad hue et spero.
Anemone fulgens fully out.

" Doctor Lee saw me to-day — never mind what he
said. Churchyard conveniently near.

" Vive valeque — moritums te salutat"

The two following letters refer to the existence at
Badminton of an old collection of portraits of plants,
of which the Canon as a young man had learned from
his father, who had seen it. But when in later years
he had endeavoured to obtain an opportunity of examin
ing this collection it could not be found. At last,
however, accident revealed it and it was at once put
at the Canon's disposal and inspired the following
letter to Sir David Prain :

i86 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" November 27, 1911.
" DEAR COLONEL,—

" I want to tempt you to come to Bitton some time
before December 4 with a special object. I have at
last unearthed a splendid book of flowers at Badminton.
I have known of it for years but the Badminton people
— dukes and duchesses and all — have a ays denied
its existence. At last it is found — and the Duchess
brought it here last week and has allowed me to
keep it for a fortnight. It contains life-size paintings
of plants grown at Badminton in 1703. They are
splendidly done and the colours as good as if done
yesterday. I am sure that it would not only give
you pleasure to see it, but you really ought to see it.
It would be like your visiting a garden of 1703. and
you would help me to identify the plants/'

The drawings were made for Her Grace the first
Duchess of Beaufort, a keen gardener and botanist,
who made in addition a hortus siccus of the rarer
plants she raised. This she shared with Sir Hans
Sloane, in whose herbarium her specimens may still be
seen. Her Grace died in 1714. The drawings are
in two series. Those of the first series, executed by
a Netherlands artist during the closing years of the
seventeenth and the first few years of the eighteenth
centuries are marked by a skill and a fidelity that fully
warrant the Canon's encomium. Those of the second
series, commenced in 1707, were " drawn by Daniel
Franckom, a servant of My Lady Dutchess of Beau
fort's, from the naturall plants growing at Badminton
and Chelsea," though of less artistic merit they are
none the less faithful and painstaking. Most of the
plants delineated are readily recognizable, though a few

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 187

are no longer in cultivation. The intrinsic interest of
this collection of pictures of plants actually being
grown in England at the beginning of the eighteenth
century is considerable. That interest is enhanced by
the fact that something like one-third of the plants
figured are species whose first introduction to living
collections has hitherto been believed to have taken
place at considerably later dates.

The Canon's interest in this aspect of the collection
did not disappear with its safe return to its home. In
a letter nearly two years later he wrote :

" August 22, 1913.
" DEAR PRAIN,—

" A great many thanks for the delightful lot of
cuttings that came to-day — a very good supply for
my Paris frame.

" I have come on other proofs of your suggestion
that the Alderly book is Italian and older than the
Badminton. The title page is horrible Latin — so bad
that it puzzles even Warre. Good showers at last — and
the lawn as green as in April.

" Rosa foliolosa is forming fruit."

My own friendship with the Canon did not commence
until 1912, some years after I had been at Kew. His
first letter to me, however, is dated October 12, 1911,
when the Director was away on leave. From this
time, and especially after my visit first to Bitton, most
of his brief notes were sent to me.

" 12 x. 1911.
" DEAR SIR,-

" In the absence of the Director I address this to
you.

i88 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" At this time of the year I have for many years
been allowed to send a list of desiderata to Kew —
gathered from many sources. Any that you can spare
will be welcome — and so will you be if at any time you
can pay me a visit."

Subsequent letters or cards merely referred to
desiderata or questions about new plants and are not
now of sufficient interest to be reproduced. The next
letter is nearly a year later and was answered by a
visit to Bitton about mid-October.

" 27 ix. 12.
" DEAR MR. HILL,-

' Your note received this morning reminded me
that I have never had the pleasure of making your
acquaintance. I should be very pleased if you could
pay me a visit. I am always at home and have lots
of spare rooms, so you cannot propose a day that would
be inconvenient to me.

" The sooner the better."

The following letter was received shortly after my
return from my first visit to Bitton and relates to
matters which we had discussed together. Erodium
chrysanthum was a vigorous grower at Bitton and the
Canon was all the more interested in it when the
dioecious character of the plant was pointed 'out to
him.

" DEAR MR. HILL,—

" Rosa reversa — I told you of my father's catalogue
of roses which I gave to Kew and which you say
cannot be found, and I sent an abstract of it to the
Gardeners' Chronicle which you will find in the number

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 189

for July 5, 1902, and in it is R. reversa under the head
of pimpinelli folia. I have no doubt this is the plant
still remaining here, of which I am glad to send Kew
a specimen. It's always a pleasure to send to Kew.

" Young plants of Er odium chrysanthum. It is not
possible to distinguish the male and female plants till
they have flowered, but as a general rule the greys are
the males and the green the female, but there are
sometimes exceptions.

" I believe I have sent all the other things in your
list — I wish there were more.

" I sent my list of desiderata from Kew, chiefly
from Bean's and Irving's suggestions, to the Director.
If he did not get the list I can make it out again.

" Dyer is coming here to-morrow.

" Rosa reversa is given in the French edition of
Lindley, 1824, with a reference to a ' Sommaire ' by
Lindley in 1822, which I have not got. Ashmore is
quite certain that the flowers of mine are white.

" This appearance of R. reversa in my garden gives
strength to my suggestion that you should publish
in the Bulletin a list of plants once in English gardens
and now lost. A large number are not lost and would
be recovered if looked for."

Here is a typical note putting forward the claims
of the garden at the earliest possible moment in the
year :

" January 23, 1913. I should much like you to
visit Bitton in February — early — I think February a
most interesting month in the garden — can you
manage a day or two ? The garden is full of flowers,
but would be better for an examination.

" I had the Horts here on Monday."

igo HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" 27 i- 13-
" DEAR HILL,-

" On or about the nth will suit me well. I have
no engagement then. As to Baker and Bath they are
within easy reach of Bitton — but they will require
time — and you must not cut me short for either of
them — so give yourself — and me — as many days as you
can.

" I hear from A. Henry that Buxus Henryi has not
yet been introduced into England."

" 3i i- 13-

" I shall look forward to seeing you on the nth. —
wet or fine — snow, frost or sunshine. Let me know
when you will arrive at Keynsham or Bitton and I will
send to meet you.'*

The visit took place and was as usual a very pleasant
one. Its interest was enhanced by the good fortune
of Miss King, G. H. Wollaston and A. C. Bartholomew
also being there and the weather was perfect. It was
followed by another short visit later in the same
year. The letter of the 27th is of interest as an example
of how jealous the Canon always was of his visitors
and how he invariably insisted that the Bitton garden
demanded as large a share as possible of their time.
Suggestions that neighbouring gardens might be visited
were usually not very cordially received if such visits
entailed any curtailment of the time which should
have been spent at Bitton.

A short note asking a question received a few days
after my return from Bitton in July ends : " Your
visit was a very great pleasure to me — repetatur
faustus,"

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 191

" April 2, 1913.

" The new number of the Botanical Magazine wakens
up my covetousness. Can you spare me Cocculus
trilobus ? It looks as if it would suit Bitton well
— and are Rosa sertata and R. omiensis in a state to be
asked for ? I should like both or either. The garden
is full of beauty. When can you come and see it ?
I had Elwes here yesterday and Lynch last week.
Have you yet got a right name for the Crataegus
you gave me as C. brachyacantha ? Mine is crowded
with flower buds."

" 25 viii. 1913.

" On Monday I will send you a young male plant
of Er odium chrysanthum. At the Grange there is a
plant with male and female on the same plant. I
have a large plant of E. Sibthorpii and will send it later
on. I will also send on Monday Digitalis lanata—
seeds later on. Have you Digitalis laevigata — I should
like to get it.

" We have started our Paris frame — and should
welcome a few good cuttings for it.

" I hope you understood that your visit was a great
pleasure to me and did me a lot of good."

" July 29, 1913.
" DEAR HILL,—

" I have given Bradley two plants of the Er odium
and take his with the two sexes in exchange — and
send it to you to-day. The Digitalis and Erodium
are for Kew — the rest for yourself. The garden still
delightfully full. When may I ask for cuttings of
Salix magnifica ? The account in the Bulletin makes
me ask."

192 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" 19 viii. 13.

" We have started the second Paris frame. Can
you help in the furnishing with any good cuttings ? "

The Paris frames, filled with sand, on the lawn were
always a source of delight and interest to the Canon
and he was never happier than when he had secured
a large assortment of interesting cuttings for striking
in them. There were few plants that he did not attempt
to strike and his success was considerable.

In the early autumn of 1913 he had a bad fall on
the stairs, to which he refers in his next postcard, but
thanks to his remarkable vitality he made a fairly
rapid recovery and by October 20 he was able to
send one of his usual letters asking for plants.

" 7 x. 13-

" I am slowly recovering from my accident and should
be pleased to see you whenever you can come."

" BITTON, October 20.
" DEAR PRAIN, —

" You will not be surprised at getting a begging
letter from me, for I do but speak after my kind. By
the help of other people's eyes — specially Bean, Hill,
and Botanical Magazine, I have put together a long
list on the other side. Any that you can spare will
be acceptable."

This was followed by a list of twenty-nine names
of plants most of which were sent from Kew shortly
afterwards.

Among the plants of particular interest at Bitton
was the large bush of Zanthoxylum planispinum, which
in winter was covered with red berries and was so fine

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 193

a sight that material was taken to Kew for figuring
in the Botanical Magazine. The rolling back of the
leaves in winter and their unrolling in early spring was
a regular event at Bitton and is alluded to in a later
letter.

" December 12, 1913.

" Zanthoxylum planispinum. The bush is red with
them (the berries), and I like the scent of the leaves.

" I am expecting Hort and, I hope, Dyer between
Xmas and New Year to fight over Theophrastus. I
wish you could be here ; that would be a grand
symposium."

" February u, 1915.

"Zanthoxylum planispinum has unfolded all its leaves.
What other shrub behaves in the same way ? rolling
up its leaves at the approach of winter and unrolling
at the approach of spring. " Garden full of interest
— come and see it."

" April 6, 1914.

" I want you to tell me something about Anemone
blanda. It is evidently a splendid plant for English
gardens. Here, as you know, it revels and will soon
spread over not only the garden but the parish, and
yet I am sure I have not had it for more than ten
or a dozen years. Where was it before that ? It
does not seem to have been figured in any English
work except the Garden. Mine is still a glorious
sheet of colour and I have had colour in it since January
i or before.

" Bartholomew is with me and has been for ten
days. I have fed him with crab. He partook of it
freely and asks for more.

N

I94 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" Vicary Gibbs has sent me Ribes lauri folium,
male."

The reference to crab here and in the letter of
February n, 1915, needs a word of explanation.
Shortly before, I had been staying at Bitton, and when
dressed crab appeared at dinner one evening I hesitated
about partaking thereof. Stimulated however by the
example of my host, then in his ninety-second year,
I felt I might venture with impunity. The venture
was such a success that dressed crab appeared, if
possible, on subsequent visits. I well remember that
on the occasion in question the Canon and I finished
our dinner with apricot brandy and the usual good
glass of port and that next morning the Canon gave
a further display of his sound health and vigorous
constitution by breakfasting on the remains of the
crab followed by a sausage ! — a meal from which many
a man in robust health and half his age might well
shrink in horror and one which would hardly commend
itself to " Sir Faraday Bond " or other members of
the profession as suitable diet for a nonogenarian.
In a subsequent note he writes, " I have just been read
ing the Batrachomyomachia — very amusing and witty.
I am amused with the grand position given to our
friends the crabs, quite dei ex machina" Later, pos
sibly to prevent anticipations incapable of fulfilment,
he wrote : " Crabs all blown up by submarines."

The Canon had a voluminous correspondence about
plants with Prof. Bayley Balfour, especially since the
year 1890. The following letter was written shortly
after the publication of Prof. Balfour's Masters Lec
tures on plant propagation at the Royal Horticultural
Society and appears to have been written about 1913.

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 195

Prof. Balfour, always a welcome visitor to Bitton,
was frequently spoken of by the Canon in very warm
terms.

" DEAR MR. BALFOUR,—

" I know you can strike anything — even an umbrella.
I heard from F. Godman a few days ago telling me of
your triumphs, and I have your most instructive
article in R. H. S. Journal,

" Do you know Pistacia chinensis, a very beautiful
tree ? It is extremely rare, but I have a good specimen
and should like to send you cuttings. I have tried
it more than once but without success. If you care for
cuttings please say when."

Prof. Balfour succeeded in striking the Pistacia, as
we gather from a later letter. Nearly all the letters
to Edinburgh are concerned with requests for plants
or refer to the sending of plants from Bitton, and some
refer to the possibility of growing certain Chinese
rhododendrons in the calcareous soil of Bitton, a
subject in which the Canon was greatly interested.
His trials in the bed on the lawn outside the dining-
room window were not however very successful.

The following is one of his typical postcards to me :

" August 6, 1914.

" Why do not you say in the Botanical Magazine that
Zingiber mioga is perfectly hardy ? I have had it for
years out of doors. I suppose I must give you Crassula
sarcocaulis — when you come — the sooner the better.''

The invitation was accepted and shortly afterwards
having to be declined called forth the Canon's dis
pleasure on another postcard : —

196 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

" 25 ix. 14.

" Well ! you are naughty ! ' nulla est juris tibi per-
jerati poena satis.' I will try and forgive you, and
expect you in October — the earlier the better.

" Shall I send the books, or keep them till you
come ? Bowles comes to-morrow — unless he follows
your bad example.

" I hope you understand that you may do what you
like with the books ; give them to Kew Library — or
your own — or your fire — don't send them back. Are
you a penitent for your misdoings this week ? ' ita ?
ais? absolve te.' '

In the autumn of this year the Canon had another
fall from which again he made a very fair recovery,
and the two following letters show that his activities
were in no way impaired thereby.

"October 12, 1914.

" I am getting on quite well but slowly. I expect
to be quite fit to receive you next week or the week
after as arranged. "

"October 16, 1914.

" I have screwed up my courage to the writing point
—and have sent a list of desiderata to the Director.
When you were here I believe you made a note of a
few things that you thought would suit Bitton. Perhaps
you could send them with the others. October is
slipping away and still no news of you."

Some of the Canon's letters written during 1914
which refer to his portrait are reproduced elsewhere,
and the following postcard with his new year's greeting

CANON ELLACOMBE AND KEW 197

completes his Kew correspondence for the year with
the customary invitation to visit Bitton.

" 31 xii. 14.

"1915. Floreat Kew— Floreat Bitton. Fl. A.W.H.;
flo. H. N. E.

" Valetudo contingat abunde et mundus victus non
deficiente crumena ! "

" 1915. Agenda — Visits to Bitton."

The Canon's correspondence with Kew in 1915 was
very small — a few requests for plants and a character
istic invitation which fortunately was accepted, as it
proved to be the last time I saw him. His very last
note is reproduced in the final chapter.

" 18 ii. 15.

" Glad to see you as soon as you can. Galanthus
Imperati worth a visit. Bartholomew has been laid
up badly with influenza in Scotland — but getting all
right. The winter has treated me very kindly — am very
well except senile debility — ninety-three to-day."

" 26 iii. 15.

" Ashmore wants to know when Mr. Hill is coming
here. Can you say ? Anemone blanda splendid."

Postcard of October 18, 1915 :

" Have had a bad fall. No bone broken and going
on well. A wonderful escape — almost fatal. Written
on my back.

" H. N. E."

CHAPTER IX

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS

MY first visit to Bitton vicarage was in 1912,
and it was impossible to realize that the Canon
was then in his ninetieth year, so alert and full of vigour
did he appear.

After a warm welcome he plunged at once, as was
always the case on subsequent visits, into enquiries
about new plants and things he had noticed in the
Botanical Magazine or elsewhere, or told of rarities
he had recently received from Edinburgh, Glasnevin,
or one of his many correspondents. Nothing seemed
to escape him, and were it some new introduction or
some well-known plant, he could at once turn up the
references in his library and put before one all there
was to be said about it.

Difficult plants were always an interest to him, and
some of the supposed lime-loving rhododendrons
which he received from Edinburgh were a frequent
source of discussion and correspondence.

But the tender plants which flourished under the
noble wall were perhaps his greatest interest, and there
was seldom a time of year when this part of the garden
had not something to arrest attention. Always, in
the Canon's words, even though there might be no
flowers, the garden " showed great promise/' and the
moral he invariably pointed, like his farewell at the
close of a visit, was " Come again."

198

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 199

When one paid a visit to Bitton, it was considered
almost an offence to go off elsewhere to see another
garden, as the Canon was very jealous of the curtail
ment of the time he considered the vicarage garden
should receive. Still one was usually quickly forgiven,
and after an expression of his opinion of one's scandalous
treatment of him in deserting him for a lady, he would
say, " Ah well, she's a good creature."

The vicarage was rarely without visitors, and to each
and all the usual remark after the warm welcome was
" Now I'm going to pick your brains," and out would
come rough pencil notes of lists of plants, the last
number of the Botanical Magazine, the Kew Bulletin,
Appendix of New Garden Plants of the year, etc., and
should anything be considered desirable for the
garden it was at once asked for, or a request would
be hastily written off to some friend on one of the
half-sheets of notepaper or postcards which were
always kept in readiness on his desk.

The visits of his friends seemed to infuse new life ;
they were eagerly looked forward to and long talked
of afterwards. Ashmore was always told all that
Mr. So-and-so had recommended, and never failed to
express his own opinion on the suggestions. Many a
time has one sat on the brick edging of the little green
house under the wall with Ashmore and his cat, listening
with amused interest to his shrewd, but always kindly,
comments on what he considered the Canon's idiosyn
crasies. Some of the Canon's friends or visitors, how
ever, escaped less lightly, and many a well-deserved
caustic remark would be made with reference to some
impractical suggestion.

The Canon's daily life from the time that I knew him
was simple and regular. He had learnt the secret

200 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

that at his age only certain things could be done and
he took care not to go beyond his limits. Family
prayers and breakfast started the day punctually. No
time was wasted over the meal, and then the Canon
went to the library to read and answer his letters.
He would then read the Psalms and lessons for the
day in Greek or in Latin and this was followed by a
study of the local Bristol paper. The Times, which
always arrived by the morning post, was never opened
until after lunch — a relic of earlier days when that was
its normal hour of arrival, for the Canon was a thorough
conservative in all his habits, and his daily duties
followed a well ordered rule firmly established by long
custom. By the time the reading of the local paper
was finished " elevens " had come, consisting of some
fruit, then a turn in the garden accompanied by
Ashmore. He was a great believer in the free use of
the knife and would point with pride to a tree pseony,
upon which, though it was known to be seventy years
old, he had operated with great success. Returning
from the stroll, he would rest on his couch until
lunch. After lunch he had another rest till the post
came, and then another stroll and some reading. This
reading mainly took the line of classics, of which his
favourites were Homer, Horace, Virgil ; and in English,
Shakespeare, Milton and Spenser. Tea followed and the
next hour or an hour and a half was devoted to a close
study of The Times. From six o'clock until dinner
time he retired upstairs and rested, and after dinner
read or talked or had a game of backgammon, or whist.
Nothing would induce him to try bridge, which was
anathema to him ! At ten he retired to bed. " When
you come to be as old as I am/' he would often say,
" learn to do nothing in a hurry." He gave up his

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS aoi

reviewing work for The Guardian1 in 1909, with which
he had been connected for some nineteen years, as
soon as he found it began to be a strain and caused
him to be unduly wakeful at night thinking about the
work.

Though his life was smooth and even he was never
idle. When resting before dinner he almost invariably
composed Latin verses which were usually recited in
the course of the meal. Sometimes if he was par
ticularly pleased with the effort he would write them
down and send them to Dr. Warre (then Provost of
Eton) from whom he was certain of receiving a
humorous rejoinder in verse.

Among his morning duties were the affairs of the
parish, which often involved an interview with his
curate, and this was usually preceded by a discussion
of domestic matters with his cook.

The reference to his cook reminds one of the interest

1 The following letter sent to the Canon by the Editor of The
Guardian marks the close of his long connection with that journal.

29, KING STREET,

COVENT GARDEN, W.C.

April 7, 1909.

The Rev. CANON ELLACOMBE,
Bitton Vicarage,

Bristol.
MY DEAR SIR, —

I have received your letter with great regret. I shall indeed
be sorry, and so will all the staff, to lose you as a reviewer. As
you say, the connection has been a long one, and it is never pleasant
to contemplate the severance of a relationship which has lasted
for many years. I am sure that The Guardian owes you sincere
thanks for much work admirably and punctually accomplished,
and I trust that we on our side have left an equally pleasant memory
with yourself.

Sincerely yours,

J. PENDEREL-BRODHURST, Editor.

202 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

the Canon always took in matters gastronomic. He
was a gourmet in the true sense of the word — not
by any means a large eater, but properly interested
in the affairs of the table, his interest being grounded
in a very sound knowledge of cookery, to which was
added a connoisseur's judgment in wine. He knew
the right place to purchase the best things, and to
those properly interested in culinary affairs he would
invariably give sound and practical counsel. Meals
at the vicarage were always interesting— light and varied,
but chosen with an expert hand. Should all else fail
one could " always find a good Stilton and a glass of
port at the vicarage," as the Canon would say to his
friends ; and it was no idle boast.

His interest in his meals is noticeable in his diaries,
for seldom does he forget to mention where or how he
dined when he was on his holidays on the Continent,
and not infrequently he made a point of re-visiting a
place where the inner man was well cared for.

His interests in such matters, however, were in no
way excessive, but were only on a par with his keen
interest in all the affairs of daily life. He loved this
world and all its beauty, and in consequence ever saw
more and more of that beauty which is so often hidden
to those who know not how to seek it.

One felt when standing at the graveside how inappro
priate in a sense in his case were our thanks " for the
delivery of our brother from the miseries of this sinful
world." " No man," writes a friend, " ever loved
the world better than he did, to no man was it more
pure, it was God's world, and he always saw the bona
aetema in the bona temporalia."

I well remember one evening when he was half
lying down on his couch in the study after dinner, and

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 203

our conversation turned to the subject of death and
the life hereafter, that we agreed how far from the
truth in one aspect is the saying " we take nothing out
of this world. " He, full of years, with a mind rich
in experience, and stored with sound wisdom and
knowledge, has indeed left us all the poorer for all
that he has taken with him.

It is of the evenings after dinner when the Canon
was lying on his couch that one retains some of the
pleasantest memories of a visit to the vicarage. Con
versation would turn to his journeys in Italy or Switzer
land, and his interest was fully aroused should his
visitor have recently been in one of his especially
favourite spots. Piora for instance, which he, more
than any one else brought to the knowledge of English
people by his articles in The Guardian, was a place
he loved to talk about, and it provided him with
innumerable happy recollections. It was when coming
down from Piora in 1897 that he records in his diary
that he realized he was an old man ! As a rule, how
ever, he did not live much in the past, but was keenly
interested in the affairs of the day. This was especially
true in all that related to his garden and his gardening
friends. If conversation turned to some new plant,
as it often did, books were taken down and references
hunted out until the subject had received its full share
of attention. It was only in the last year or two of
his life that the visitor was allowed to find the books
himself; up till his ninety-second year it was not
permitted, and the Canon's knowledge of his books was
remarkable. Few private libraries contained so inter
esting a collection, and the books gained an additional
interest from his habit of placing within them
any letters he received and newspaper cuttings which

204 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

referred to them. Moreover, he remembered almost
invariably all about the extraneous matter which a
particular volume might contain.

With his store of knowledge which covered so many
subjects the Canon's conversation was always inter
esting and illuminating, enlivened as it invariably was
by his keen sense of humour. He thoroughly enjoyed
a joke, but his fun was always kindly and never at the
expense of friends or acquaintances ; as for enemies,
he seemed to have none.

In his account of the Flowers of Milton, published
in the Gardeners' Chronicle,1 he wrote with reference
to the amaranth : " As Milton so expressly limits the
existence of the amaranth to heaven it is useless to try
to fix his amaranth to any earthly plant."

" Their crowns inwove with Amarant and Gold, —
Immortal Amarant, a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life,
Began to bloom, but, soon for man's offence
To heav'n removed where first it grew, there grows
And flow'rs aloft shading the Fount of Life." (P.L., III. 351.)

In one of his brief postcards not long after, convey
ing an invitation to Bitton,he wrote : " Very pleased
to see you on Thursday if I am not summoned to inspect
amaranth. "

In almost his last note referring to the accident from
which he never recovered, when his chair broke under
him, he was able to display his love of fun and described
his fall in Latin verse.

On one evening I remember the Canon was talking
about Churchill the celebrated botanist and Alpine
collector who had been one of his greatest friends and
with whom he had kept up an extensive correspondence.
He told me that it was through his influence the
1 Flowers of Milton. Gardeners' Chronicle, 1915 (2) p. 33.

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 205

misunderstanding which had arisen between Churchill
and Sir Joseph Hooker had been swept away, and that
a similar reconciliation between Sir Joseph and Mr.
Joad, the pioneer of rock-gardening, had been effected.
Reference has already been made to these incidents,
both of which subsequently proved to be of great
importance for the Royal Botanic Gardens, and must
be reckoned among the many services which the
Canon rendered to botany and horticulture.

To the inspiration and stimulus of Canon Ella-
combe we owe very largely the recently published
translation of Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants by
Sir Arthur Hort.1 It was a source of very great
satisfaction to him when at length the work was
taken in hand, and it is a matter of regret that he did
not live to see the completion of this excellent and
valuable translation.

In his preface to the translation Sir Arthur Hort
writes : "I should never have undertaken such a
responsibility without the encouragement of that
veteran student of plant-lore, the Rev. Canon Ella-
combe, who first suggested that I should make the
attempt and introduced me to the book. It is a great
grief that he did not live to see the completion of the
work which he set me."

The following letter from Sir Arthur Hort to Mr.
Bowles with reference to the Theophrastus recalls the
Canon quite vividly :

" February 21, 1913.
" DEAR BOWLES,—

" Can you do anything to awaken the Canon to a

1 Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, with an English Translation
by Sir Arthur Hort, Bart., M.A., 2 vols, 1916. Wm. Heinemann.

206 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

sense of duty ? He calls me his collaborator in trans
lating Theophrastus. When I last saw him I said
point-blank : ' Now, what are you going to do ? '
" H. N. E. ' Nothing whatever/
" A. F. H. ' Yes, you are : you are going to write
a charming general preface.' x
" H. N. E. changed the subject.

" Yours ever,

" ARTHUR HORT."

The progress of the work and the co-operation
therein of Sir William Thiselton-Dyer afforded the
Canon very lively satisfaction during the last years of
his life, especially as it brought him visits from both
distinguished scholars, and he maintained a lively
interest in the progress of the work almost to the end.

Reference has already been made to the Canon's
interest and unrivalled knowledge of the genus Rosa,
but it is probably not generally known that he pre
sented to the Kew library a copy of the very scarce
and valuable little work De Rosa by Monardes.2

1 This, or words to that effect ; anyway that's what I want him
to do, and I don't want him to put it off till he is as old as Theo
phrastus himself, who, according to S. Jerome, died at the age of
107 ! (A. F. H.)

2 Among Canon Ellacombe's presentations to the library of the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is a rare little volume on the rose
by Nicolas Monardes, which, though bearing no printed date, is
known to have been published in 1551, and is regarded as the
earliest separate treatise on the subject. The title-page reads as
follows : " De Rosa et partibus eius. De sited Rosarum temper-
atura, nee non de Rosis Persicis, quas Alexandrinas vacant, libellus.
Nicolas Monardo, Medico Hispalensi, auctore. Excudebat Hispali
Dominicus de Robertis." It is a small octavo volume of forty-six
unnumbered pages. The author, who is commemorated in the
Labiate genus Monarda, Linn., was a physician and also, according
to some authorities, a wealthy merchant of Sevilla (Hispalis) in

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 207

Nor must it be forgotten that he rescued from oblivion
Forbes Watson's charming little book on Flowers and
Gardens* which he edited and to which he also contri
buted a biographical note of the author.

Mention has also been made of his love for old garden
plants now so fast becoming lost to cultivation and his
desire that they might be hunted out and restored to

Spain, where he was born in 1493, and died in 1588 at the great age
of ninety-five. He is best known as an author by his Historia
medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nu$stras Indias Occidentale,
the first part of which appeared in 1565. It was re-issued in 1571
with a second part, and in 1574 the completed work in three parts
was published. Editions in Latin by Clusius, in Italian, French
and English followed. The English editions, by John Frampton,
are dated 1577, 1580 and 1596, and appeared under the title : Joy-
ful newes out of the newe founded worlde, etc. Being a physician,
Monardes was naturally chiefly concerned with the medicinal or
economic properties of vegetable products, and all his writings on
plants, including the little treatise on the rose, are mainly dis
cussions on these properties.

De Rosa, etc., was originally issued with De secanda vena by the
same author, and in 1605 it appeared in Clusius's Exoticorum libri
decem, appended to the tenth book, which is a castigated Latin
edition of the Historia medicinal de las cosas. Monardes gave a
very "good description of the rose, which is now believed to be
Rosa damascena, Mill., and said of it (quoting from the translation
of the passage given in Miss Willmott's monograph The Genus Rosa,
vol. ii. p. 370) : " Amongst the Italians, Gauls, Germans and other
tribes frequent use is now made of these roses, which they call
Damascenae, because they believe them to have come from Damas
cus, the chief city of Syria. But with us this species has only been
known for about thirty years." Lindley (Ros. Monogr., p. 63)
assumed from this that the introduction of the damask rose, the
origin of which is unknown, may be dated from thirty years before
Monardes made the statement, and gave the year as 1575. This,
it will be observed, is thirty years before Clusius published his
edition of the dissertation, but as it first appeared in 1551 Lindley
should have given the year of introduction of the rose as 1521.
; 1 Flowers and Gardens, by Forbes Watson, with photogravure
portrait of the author. Edited, with a Biographical Note, by Canon
Ellacombe. John Lane.

208 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

favour so that their beauties might once again be
appreciated.

He was no lover of the modern florists' flowers, to
whose preponderance in gardens the loss of so many
interesting old plants must very largely be attributed.
His interest in the old-fashioned garden plants was
often expressed in letters to Kew, and he more than
once urged the republication of the remarkable list of
old garden roses and other plants cultivated in his
father's garden in 1830 which is now reprinted as an
appendix to this memoir.1

His love of Nature was not confined to plants alone,
for birds, and other creatures, were always a source
of great pleasure to him. Coconuts were always
hung outside the study window during the winter,
and the antics of the tits afforded him much amuse
ment.

Then there was the thrush which built its nest in
the crown of the palm near the study window and
hatched out its young ; the various birds which availed
themselves of the boxes he had provided for them ;
the rooks, his " blackcoated brethren," in the elms
at the east end of the garden, the owls, and more
particularly the woodpecker which hollowed out a hole
for its nest in one of the poles supporting a vine under
the wall.

For these, " his little brothers and sisters the birds,"
like St. Francis, he thanked God, both for their beauty
and for the added pleasure they gave to the life he
shared with them.

One must say something here of the portrait of the
Canon which is placed at the beginning of this memoir.

1 The list was published in The Garden of December 24, 1881,
and is here reprinted by the courtesy of the editor.

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 209

The only published portrait of the Canon we know of
is the one which is placed as a frontispiece to his book,
In a Vicarage Garden, which represents him in middle
age, but three amateur portraits of him are also known
to exist, and one by a professional photographer, taken
about 1870, which is here reproduced facing p. 68.
It was therefore suggested to Mrs. Graham Smith
that she should make a pastel study of the Canon
if he would consent to sit to her. The suggestion
was readily taken up by Mrs. Graham Smith, and in
May of 1914 the work was commenced.

In the three following characteristic letters to me
the Canon pretends to express his feelings on the subject,
but despite his protests he really rather enjoyed the
" operation " and the opportunity it gave him of several
visits from one whom he held in very high regard.
The third letter also gives an idea of that constant
flow to Bitton of guests interested in botany and
gardening which went on throughout the year.

" May i, 1914.

" I send the spray of ceanothus you ask for. It
came from Kew many years ago.

" I have got a big bone to pick with you. I find
that you are one of the conspirators — and perhaps the
worst — that have forced me to submit to having my
portrait taken by Mrs. Graham Smith. It is dreadful.
I am sure the operation will kill me. I did my best
to refuse, but I am a mere nothing when I am ordered
to do anything by one of the predominating sex. But
oh, the pity of it !

' The garden is wonderfully full. Would seeds of
Zanihoxylum be any use to you ?

" I envy you your New Forest trip — I found the

210 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Pulmonaria near Beaulieu in 1878 — and recorded it,
I think, in a paper on the New Forest in the Gardeners'
Chronicle of that year, p. 468.

" Hort seems to have had a very good time in the
Pyrenees. His Iris albicans from Syracuse is magnifi
cent.

" Has not the wood sorrel something of the same
twist of the leaves as the Zanthoxylum ? "

A suitable reply as to the portrait produced the fol
lowing postcard :

" Absolvo te — in pace abeas,"

and a note a few days later shows that he probably
found " the operation " a pleasant experience rather
than otherwise :

" May 9, 1914.

" I have got through the first stage of the bad
operation, and so far do not feel the worse for it. You
may like to know this as some salve to your conscience
for your wicked conspiracy — another stage next week.

" Zanthoxylum schinifolium is covered with flower
buds ; I have never seen the flowers. "

" July 29, 1914.

" Praeger is with me and tells me that you are going
to America.1 But surely you cannot go in your
present state. Have you forgotten that you are still
unpardoned for your wicked conspiracy against me —
but absolution can still be given. The penance is
a visit to Bitton. Can you stand that ? If you think
you can, come whenever it suits you, but before you
go to America, and I shall be glad to say ' absolvo te.'

1 Owing to the outbreak of the war this visit to America did not
take place.

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 211

Any time that suits you will suit me. Grove was here
last week and I was glad to make his acquaintance.
He came with Sir H. Maxwell. Bidder comes this
Saturday for the week end. The garden is delightfully
full of flowers. What hardy crassulas do you grow
at Kew ? "

In connection with this portrait we may fittingly
place here Mrs. Graham Smith's memories of the
Canon.

" I saw Canon Ellacombe for the first time on
September 25, 1908, when Mary King took me to
luncheon with him. He had fine manners, a fine
figure on the large scale, and was very handsome.
Cultured, travelled, frequenting people of the world,
he formed a striking figure in this country.

11 No one could rival him in animation. Judging
by his vitality he was scarcely half his age. He loved
to joke and to tell stories. Discriminating, critical,
and full of human sympathy, the comments of his
caustic tongue were delightful.

" There never was such a welcoming manner as
his ; it put a man immediately on good terms with
himself. Friends were encouraged to bring their
friends so that his plants might receive the admiration
they deserved.

" He liked the pretty and the witty and saw at a
glance if his visitor was attractive.

" He loaded them with plants, ordered gems to be
quarried from his mine of treasures and knew as little
of grudging as Nelson knew of fear. He enjoyed good
food, good company, and loved entertaining.

' With his excellent sense of humour and in
exhaustible fountain of high spirits he must always

212 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

have been sought after. This unexampled vitality
continued until within a few months of his death.

" His cheerful religion was enviable. Such healthy,
vigorous piety and simple, unquestioning belief are
a pattern to all. He was without pretension and
claimed no credit for his many acquirements. His
sole source of pride were his plants, and they repaid
his care a thousandfold. He would not keep those
that required expensive pampering. When I once took
a sack of peat to Ashmore for some peat-lovers, a
conspiracy of silence had to be maintained which had
its own charm for us both.

" Ashmore was intensely proud of his master and
revelled in repeating his sayings. When told that it
would be many years before a certain plant would
bloom, the Canon said, ' Never mind, there is plenty
of time.' Another favourite saying was, ' If you want
to keep young, never hurry and never worry/ His
present to the troops at the outbreak of war consisted
of socks with double heels and some dozens of packs
of cards, which he sent to the Navy. He took not
unnatural pride in this last uncanonical choice.

" His views of the war were very optimistic.

" The head gardener of a friend not famous for
giving said that the Canon gave too many plants away.
His generosity certainly put every one to shame.
Exchange, he maintained, was the secret of gardening
success. ' The garden is full of promise/ was his
greeting, and his parting words were, ' I hope you have
taken plenty of cuttings/

" On May 8, 1914, I began his portrait, which had
been suggested by Arthur Hill and arranged by Mary
King. He readily consented and sat most kindly and
willingly. I had five short sittings, altogether about

CANON ELLACOMBE.

From a photograph taken about 1906.

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 213

six hours. He did not look much at the pastel, saying
he knew nothing of his own appearance, but some
months later he asked me if I could copy it for some of
his friends.

" His passing has left us greatly the poorer and with
a large circle I lament the loss of this rare being."

In 1913 the Canon had a nasty fall, which shook
him badly. He gradually recovered, but was never
quite the same again, and although his mental faculties
remained as acute as ever, he became palpably more
feeble in body every time one visited him. During
the last year or two his deafness increased and he
spent much time dozing on his couch in the library,
making his tours of the garden in a Bath chair. Writing
on February 18, 1915, he says : " The winter has
treated me kindly — am very well except for senile
debility — ninety- three to-day. " A few months later,
July 2, 1915, he wrote :

" I think Convolulus (Calystegia) tuguriorum is worth
a place in the Botanical Magazine. I know you have
it. I have sent it to Kew more than once. Here it
is lovely — covering many yards. Still in the doctor's
hands. He says I am slowly improving. I partly
believe him, but I am a poor creature — very poor —
but spiro adhinc. ' Faint yet pursuing/ The garden
is splendid ; come and see it. Have you got in Kew
library the old folio Theophrastus— 1644— with plates ? "

Regarding this last phase of the Canon's life Mr. A. C.
Bartholomew has written the following note :

" His periods of rest were, of course, often broken
in upon. Hardly a day passed in which visitors did

214 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

not come to see the garden and, until comparatively
lately, he would take them round and spare no pains to
make them enjoy their visit if he found them real
garden lovers ; but if their interest was a make-belief,
he beat a hasty retreat, leaving Ashmore to complete
the round. Frequent, too, were the interruptions by
the village folk. It could not be otherwise when he
had baptised, married and buried several generations.
He was never too tired to rise at once and give them
all the help they needed. He was a bit of a despot,
but such a kindly one ! and every villager knew that
they had in him the wisest and best of friends. One
custom of his, pursued to the very last year of his life,
was to prepare each candidate for confirmation
separately. It was very laborious, but he always felt
that it was well worth while, and that it gave him an
influence over them otherwise unattainable. One was
not surprised on the day of his funeral to mark the
demeanour of his flock. All evidently felt that they
were standing by the grave of one who was very dear
to them/1

A second accident, which undoubtedly hastened
his end, occurred in October, 1915. He wrote on the
i8th : " Have had a bad fall ; no bone broken and
going on well. A wonderful escape ; almost fatal.
Written on my back." Three days later : " Old
chair broke to pieces under me, landing me on my back,
helpless, unable to move. Procumbit humi bos —
pity poor bos — mutato nomine de me fabula narratur."

Although the Canon never lost his interest in things,
his humour, nor his cheerfulness, the frail body had
come to the end of its recuperative power. He spent
nearly the whole of the remainder of his life on his

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 215

back, sleeping much of the time. But in November
he had copied out for him a list of plants he desired
and sent it to Kew. Thus his garden remained probably
the last of his earthly interests. The end came on
February 7, 1916, eleven days short of his ninety-fourth
birthday. He was buried on Thursday, February 10,
in Bitton churchyard near the east end of the church.
Here his wife, his father, and some of his children are
laid. He had long fixed the precise spot for his burial.
It was to be close by the remains of his wife, on whose
headstone his name was already carved, a space being
left for his age, and the date of his death.1

1 The following account of the funeral appeared in the Bath
Chronicle of February 12, 1916 :

" There was a numerous congregation at the funeral on Thursday
afternoon. The regard in which the deceased clergyman was held
as a botanist was evidenced by the presence of the Director and
Assistant Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. The
coffin was borne from the vicarage, close to the parish church, at
half-past two, being carried by six ringers, for the deceased, like
his father, was a keen campanologist and took the greatest delight
in good bell-ringing. Behind the coffin walked the following
mourners : Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Janson (son-in-law and daughter),
the Rev. and Mrs. C. E. Cockey (son-in-law and daughter), Captain
and Mrs. Cumberland, of Bath (son-in-law and daughter), Miss
Moberly and Miss Cockey (nieces), Lady Ellis and Colonel Ella-
combe (cousins), Mr. Elwes, Lieut. -Colonel Sir D. Prain, C.M.G.
(Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Mr. A. W. Hill
(Assistant Director), Sir Arthur Hort, Bart., Mr. G. H. Wollaston
(Flax Bourton), Mr. A. C. Bartholomew (Reading), Mr. Philip
Foster (cousin), Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lascelles (cousins), the Rev.
Oliver Walford, of Lees (cousin), Miss King, Miss Willmott and Mrs
Graham Smith. The bearers were : George Miller, Albert Miller,
Charles Higgins, George Hillier, Bert Gerrish and Frank Beer.

" The churchwardens of Bitton (Messrs. W. J. Batley and H. G.
Gallop) walked in front of the surpliced clergy in the procession.

[< The Ven. J. G. Tetley, Archdeacon of Bristol, officiated, assisted
by the Rev. C. E. Cockey, Vicar of Oldland (son-in-law), and the
Rev. E. Lough (curate of Bitton). The clergy also present included
Canon Browne (Iron Acton), the Rev. D. W. Mathie (formerly

216 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

We cannot more appropriately bring this memoir to
a close than by reprinting an article written by one
of his oldest friends, G. H. Wollaston of Flax Bourton.
It appeared in Country Life for February 19, 1916, a

curate of Bitton and Walcot), the Rev. T. J. Bowen (St. Nicholas,
Bristol), the Rev. C. W. Walker (Hanham), the Rev. C. A. William
son (Cold Ashton), the Rev. H. E. Dandy (Kingswood), the Rev.
F. Rogers (Warmley), the Rev. R. Atkins (Longwell Green), the
Rev. F. W. Young (Pucklechurch), the Rev. H. C. D. S. Muller
(acting priest-in-charge of Tormarton), the Rev. R. P. Davies
(late rector of Charfield), the Rev. E. W. Poynton (Kelston), the
Rev. Wynter Blathwayt (Dyrham), the Rev. W. S. Michell (former
curate of Bitton), the Rev. C. H. Young (Northstoke), and the Rev.
D. P. Hatchard (Keynsham).

" Twelve boys of the Kingswood Reformatory were present under
the headmaster (Mr. Oakes), the deceased having been a member
of the managing committee. Mr. P. J. de Carteret, of Hanham
Court, chairman of the committee, was also present.

" Among those present were : Colonel and Mrs. Woodward,
Captain Price Parker, R.A.M.C., Mrs. Parker, Mrs. J. Parker, Miss
V. Woodward, Captain and Mrs. Hall, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Barnard,
Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt Baker (Bristol), Mr. George Blathwayt (Melk-
sham), Mr. E. A. Whittuck (Claverton Manor), Messrs, J. R. and
H. N. Torrance, Mr. J. E. Rawlins (Siston Court), Mr. W. J. Caple,
Mr. J. Milburn (who laid out the Bath Botanical Garden, in which
Canon Ellacombe assisted), Mr. H. Graham Bush (Keynsham), Mr. J.
S. Parker (Upton Chancy), the Misses Gilliat (Bathampton), Mr. and
Mrs. G. Tomblin, Mr. H. H. Howes and Miss Howes, Mr. T. H.
Nicholetts, Mr. Higgins, Mr. W. T. Howes, Mr. and Mrs. King Smith,
and Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Bradley.

" Before the funeral service commenced, Mr. W. Sommerville,
who presided at the organ, played ' I know that my Redeemer
liveth.' The hymns sung were ' Now the labourer's task is o'er '
and ' Safe home, safe home in port.' The Nunc Dimittis was
chanted and the concluding voluntary was Chopin's March Fune-
bre. The vicar's seat was draped with black and on it were placed
his hood and stole.

" The interment was made in the family grave (just behind the
east window of the church), the sides being lined with moss studded
with hellebore and white tulips.

" After the burial the ringers rang a double muffled peal on the
church bells."

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 217

few days after the Canon's funeral. It gives expression
to the poignant feelings and sad memories that filled
the hearts of so many that day. None, we believe,
felt the sadness of farewell so deeply as those " sons
and daughters of Bitton " to whom Mr. Wollaston
alludes. To have belonged to that band who regarded
the Canon as friend and mentor has been one of the
happiest experiences of many lives. Until the time
comes when, as is our trust and hope, we may rejoin
him, his memory will endure, always fresh and green.

" It is now well over forty years since I paid my first
visit to Bitton vicarage on a beautiful day in July
and made the acquaintance of the vicar and of his
garden ; it is impossible to think of one without the
other. A tall, handsome man of about fifty, with not
much besides his white necktie to mark him as a cleric,
but with the kindest and courtliest of manners,
welcomed me in his library. It was a small room with
space for only one round table with a writing desk on
it. At this desk he wrote The Plants of Shakespeare,
In a Gloucestershire Garden, a few other less well-known
books, and an almost innumerable series of articles,
reviews, and notices relating to botany, gardening
and kindred subjects. Over the mantelpiece hung a
print of Christ on the Cross with the motto ' By Thy
Cross and Passion, Good Lord deliver us.' On it were
two very beautiful iron candlesticks, Berlin work
reminiscent of the great War of Liberation, and a clock.
It was very characteristic of the vicar that the striking
part of none of his clocks was ever wound up. ' Time
goes too quickly as it is ; why should I be constantly
reminded of it ? ' The walls were covered with books.
One side was entirely occupied by botanical works,

218 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

many of them rare and of great interest ; the small
space between the windows was given to guide books ;
there was a section for theology, one for archaeology,
one for general natural history, one for general literature,
ancient and modern, one for dictionaries and other
books of reference ; of late years the great Oxford
Dictionary had made its bulk severely felt. This
might be the description of many libraries which we
have all known, the speciality of the Bitton library
was that every book in it was a real living thing to its
owner, a familiar friend constantly consulted, whose
place on the shelf was so exactly known that it could
be found immediately. Every book however had to
' earn its keep ' ; it was liable to be turned out at
any time if its place were needed for a better. For a
constant weeding took place ; it was essentially a
workman's library. And in its variety as well as in
its lacunae it most wonderfully represented the mind
of Canon Ellacombe. There were very few subjects
in which he was not interested, of nearly all he had
a more than common working knowledge, but of
modern physical science he had no idea. I do not
think that there was a single volume of chemistry or
of natural philosophy on his shelves, and I verily
believe that he thought that the explosives in use in
the present war were the same as Friar Bacon's mixture
of charcoal, brimstone and saltpetre. Biology, too,
was entirely out of his ken ; I well remember his
puzzlement over Doctor Keeble's little book on plant
animals.

" Of course, I did not discover all this at my first
visit to Bitton. It was only little by little as years
rolled on and my visits became more frequent and more
familiar that I learnt it, and learnt, too, to honour and

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 219

to love ever more and more the man who for many
years past now has been as a father to me. Nor was
I alone in these feelings towards him. Bit ton vicarage
was a centre to which were attracted men and women
of every rank, of every age, and of every calling, there
to enjoy his generous hospitality, to profit by his
ever-ready advice, his unfailing kindness, his abundant
wit and his deep, genuine piety, or to contribute
something small or great to the treasures of the house
or to the beauty of the garden. Naturally, living as
he did to a very great age, he saw nearly all his con
temporaries, the friends of his early manhood, pass
away, the gaps became year by year wider, and he
felt the loss sorely ; but he had ' a genius for friend
ship.' Younger men and women were gradually
admitted to his intimacy, to his heart ; he never came
to be a lonely old man, and their common affection
for him formed a strong chain binding together these
friends of his old age. It was the gathering of so
many of these ' sons and daughters of Bitton ' from
all parts of the country which, next to the crowd of
the parishioners and the ranks of nearly all the clergy
of the deanery, formed the chief feature of the assembly
round his grave last Thursday. So, while we thanked
God that it had pleased Him to deliver our brother
out of the miseries of this sinful world, we were able
to give warmer thanks, too, for that to him it had
been granted to live in the spirit of the prayer : ' Sic
transeamus per bona temporalia ut non amittamus
aeterna.' And a robin was singing overhead all the
time.

" It was but a step from the churchyard, past the
twin memorial poplars, to the garden. Even in the
grey light of the February afternoon the clusters of

220 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

small golden flowers of the cornel shone over the wall,
the ring of Erica carnea blushed in the great round
bed, and, as we took the accustomed path up the three
steps towards the little greenhouse, we saw hundreds
and hundreds of Cyclamen Coum glowing red among the
shrubs and bamboos and herbaceous plants by the
old schoolhouse and the long wall. Here, as we
expected, we found Richard Ashmore in his wheel-chair.
For more than eighteen years he has lived and worked
and learnt in the garden ; first as a strong young man,
capable of and ready to do any amount of labour,
always learning and acquiring an astonishing know
ledge of plants of every kind, always helpful, courteous,
kindly, always ready to teach, whether it were a garden
boy or one of the many visitors to the garden who
asked his advice, loving and reverencing his master
and entirely trusted by him. ' He never but once,
in all the years that I have been here, asked me what
I had been doing, didn't the Canon/ he said to me a
week ago. But, of late years, though a cripple and
a great sufferer, spending sleepless nights of pain and
hardly able to leave his bed for his chair, his place
was still in the garden. He directed everything, he
was consulted for everything ; the position of a new
plant, the advisability of pruning an old one, of shifting
its place or of removing it altogether, the right time
of year for making cuttings, for planting them out,
for sowing seeds, where, when, and how to sow them ;
all this and all the daily work of the garden he super
vised as he was .wheeled round it by one of the boys.
On fine days he would push himself along the path
and, sitting in his chair, would weed the border with
a long spud ; on wet days he sat in his little greenhouse,
sorting and cleaning seeds, sowing them, pricking out

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 221

seedlings into pans, potting cuttings, with his cat
by his side, always busy, always contented, uncomplain
ing, cheerful.

" So once more, and for the last time, we pushed
Ashmore's chair round. A few early saxifrages among
the stones by the path ; dwarf rosemary on the long
wall ; mandragora and a wide carpet of deep blue
Anemone blanda below it ; Crocus Imperati, closed for
the evening, everywhere ; large masses of Megasea
by the rockery ; Anemone fulgens blazing by the broad
walk. Not much else was in flower, but the garden
was ' full of promise,' as Canon Ellacombe loved to
say year after year. Yet as we went round we were
able to see it in its glory ; for memory brought back
to us the happy sunny hours that we had spent in it
with its beloved master, when, together, we would
stroll along from plant to plant, from shrub to shrub,
and he would tell of the history of each, of its native
country, of the giver of it, of its culture, of its uses,
nearly always ending up with : ' I think that you will
find some of that seed ripe/ or, ' You had better take
some cuttings of it, it strikes like a willow/ or, ' Get
a spade and dig up that young one/ Never was any
man so generous in giving plants ; he held that no
garden could flourish which was not constantly giving,
and hundreds of labels bearing the initials, ' H. N. E.',
in scores of gardens testify that he practised what he
taught.

" On that grey February afternoon we saw, as in a
vision, Lathyrus undulatus, the first to flower of the
everlasting peas ; the herbaceous clematises ; the
climbing clematises, on the wall or on the posts,
Clematis cirrhosa even now in flower ; ripening per
simmons ; scarlet flowers of the double pomegranate ;

222 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

magnolias, white and purple ; Christmas roses and
the great Corsican hellebore, with their relatives from
the Caucasus and from the Cotswolds ; clumps of
Crinum capense ; Salvia Grahami and Pentstemon
cordifolius ; orange trumpets of Tecoma radicans and
long white racemes of Wistaria multijuga alba ; golden
barked and golden leaved jasmine ; Eriobotrya japonica ;
Buddleia asiatica ; Mandevilla suaveolens ; Rosa hemis-
phaerica ; and Cydonia japonica of every tint. All
along among the stones which fringe the paths a perfect
chain of jewels ; Linaria, Ranunculus, Geranium,
Erodium, Saxifraga, Sedum, Dianthus, Jasione, Hyperi-
cum ; overhead the long stems and the trailing branches
of the vines ; behind them the great border full of
delightful things : tulips, anemones, daffodils, crocuses,
irises, squills, snowdrops, snow glories, roses, cyclamens,
heaths, spurges, thorn-apples, periwinkles, pinks,
phloxes, snapdragons, spiraeas, primroses, campanulas,
paeonies, sunflowers ; there was no attempt at produc
ing an effect, no thought of a ' colour scheme ' ; the only
consideration when a new plant was introduced into
the garden was as to what place would suit it best as
regarding shelter and sun and air so long as it did
not interfere with the earlier inhabitants. The result
was that they all grew happily together as in nature ;
there was no time of the year when it was not possible
to find something in flower.

" Then there were the trees — the remarkable elm
by the gate, Oreodaphne by the porch, several kinds
of thorn, the great Catalpa, Rhus, Panotia persica,
the cut-leaved beech, the tall Gingko, the cedar over
which Canon Ellacombe leapt eighty years ago, the
magnificent oak in the far corner of the garden which he
had himself planted, the Mamre oak and many more,

THE CANON'S LAST YEARS 223

" How it all came back again, the glory and the
glow and the joy of those summer years. The garden
was full of flowers, the air was full of their scent, birds
were singing everywhere, the rooks were feeding their
brood in the tall elm, away across the lawn or behind
the huge leaves of the gunnera we saw familiar faces
and heard familiar voices, he himself with his tall figure,
his keen eye, his hearty voice, hurried off to welcome
some new-comer, the church bells were ringing merrily
for a wedding. We listened again : it was a muffled
peal.

" Once more we gripped Ashmore's hand, we said
good-bye to the garden and we parted at the gate to
go to our various homes, some by rail, some by motor
car, some on foot. It was a sad parting, for each one of
us knew that never again could we hope to meet at
Bitton vicarage, that very likely some of us would
never again enter its gate. To all of us the memory of
days spent at Bitton is sacred ; the memory of that
last day the most sacred of all."

The following articles on Piora, Field-Names, House Mottoes,
Church Restoration and Roses are reprinted by the kind
courtesy of the Editors from the journals to which they were
originally contributed.

PIORA *

IF any readers of The Guardian are in search of a
place in Switzerland where they will find quiet
rest in the midst of beautiful scenery and abundance of
flowers I would recommend them to go to Piora. It is
very easily reached. If they are in a hurry they can go
from Luzern to Airolo in less than four hours ; but if
they can spare the time they would be well repaid if
they took the route that I did — from Luzern to Fluellen
and Goeschenen, then by omnibus to Hospenthal and
walk over the St. Gothard Pass. This is a walk that
is now very seldom taken, but it is a grand walk and
an easy one ; and though the two miles on each side
of the hospice are barren and desolate, there is not a
yard of the road without some object of interest. The
road itself and the Simplon are the finest pieces of
road engineering in Europe, and it is kept in beautiful
order, though the traffic must now be very largely
diminished since the opening of the St. Gothard Tunnel.
The view on the southern descent when we first look
into the Val Tremola is a view that none will forget
when once seen. The long road made in a succession
of corkscrew turns has quite a weird look, and seems
as if a giant had amused himself by making gigantic
flourishes on the rocks. But the result of the flourishes
is that the walker finds the descent very easy ; he has
a good road under him, a brawling and beautiful stream
— the Ticino — by his side all the way, with grand rocks
and good plants. It is not, however, a walk to be

1 This article was published in The Guardian of August 4, 1897.

224

PIORA 325

undertaken too early in the season ; it was the first
week in July when I took it, and in many places the
road was cut through deep snow ; the pretty little
Lac Lucendro was unapproachable and the lake itself
frozen over and covered with snow, and the Ticino
in many places completely bridged over with snow for
considerable distances. The corkscrews of the road
are carried on almost into Airolo, but near Airolo they
are of greater length, and the short cuts can be taken
with safety and ease.

At Airolo there is more than one good hotel, but
any one who wishes to go to Piora would do well to go
to the Hotel Lombardi, as the landlord, M. Lombardi,
is the landlord of the hotel at Piora, as he is also of
the hotel at the top of the St. Gothard Pass, and he
will make everything as easy and pleasant as possible.
The ascent to Piora is not for wheels of any sort. Very
soon after leaving Airolo we commence to mount by
a good mule path, and for the first half of the way the
path is not at all steep ; but after passing the little
villages of Madrano and Brugnasco we reach Altanca,
where the ascent begins to be steep and in some places
a little scrambly, but very delightful, as it goes by a
succession of zigzags parallel with the pretty stream
of the Fossbach, which descends rapidly and in a succes
sion of grand waterfalls from Lac Rhitom into the Ticino.
The finest of the waterfalls is close to Piora, and the
lover of good flowers will be delighted to see the two
steep sides of the gorge studded with white patches,
which are the flowering spikes of the finest of all Alpine
saxifrages, S. Cotyledon, that seems only to reach its
fullest beauty where it can find bare rocks within
reach of the spray of a waterfall. The mount from
Airolo took me a little under four hours ; a good walker

226 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

would do it in half an hour less, or even an hour less,
if he was walking against time, which I was not. Ladies
are sometimes taken up on horses or a chaise d porteur ;
but it is quite practicable for ladies, and, though I am
nearer eighty than seventy, I found no real difficulty
in the walk up or down, though I confess to having been
glad when each walk came to its end.

The Hotel Piora is placed at the very edge of the
lake ; it is the only house in the neighbourhood, and
it is a small hotel, so that those who wish to go there
must order their rooms some days beforehand. But
when once there the visitor will soon find that it is
a place to stay in, and will not be in a hurry to go from
it, unless, perhaps, the weather is very bad ; and,
though I only experienced it for one day, I believe
that on many days the place is clouded with mist,
sometimes for days together. I would gladly have
stayed longer, and will now tell what reasons I have
for recommending the place.

I said that I should recommend it to those who
are in search of quiet rest. It is not suited for those
who want to get in the midst of Alpine scenery, large
tables d'hote, picnics, and full-dress promenades ; they
will find what they want better at Luzern or Inter-
laken. But for those who, like myself, wished for
quiet and rest, but not solitude, I can imagine no place
that will better suit their wishes. The hotel, as I have
said, is a small one, and during the week I was there
I suppose we were never above twenty ; but that is
not all. While I was there the company that I met
was not only a small company, but to me a very
pleasant and very sociable one. Of course, there was
the inevitable bride and bridegroom on their wedding
tour, who kept themselves apart ; but I always rather

PIORA 227

like their company if there are not too many of them ;
and I like to watch them as far as I can do so without
distressing them. The watching may have in it some
regret for the days that are no more ; but it is a pleasure
to see two young people so thoroughly all in all to
each other that mountains and flowers are very small
items in their happiness ; and it is pleasant to think
that to them, too, the mountains and flowers are
teachers, and that the time is not far off when to them
Piora and such like places will be a delightful memory
that will beckon them back again ; and then, coming
with fuller years and larger interests, the mountains
and flowers will give a happiness and teach them many
a delightful lesson which they could not see or listen
to before. But these formed a very small portion of
the company ; the rest were all gentlemen and ladies,
each with some favourite pursuit carried out in almost
a serious way, yet not so serious as to shut out the idea
that they were all taking a well-earned holiday, and
having a perhaps needed rest. Most were flower-
lovers, perhaps all were more or less ; and some had
a real knowledge of plants ; others were geologists and
crystal-hunters ; all seemed to have some steady,
sensible pursuit, and all seemed to be glad to contribute
of their knowledge to the rest. Whatever flower I
brought in and could not name, I had no difficulty in
getting its name from some one else, and I never got
from any the slightest idea that I was troubling them
with my questions. In that way the place was to
me an ideal place for rest and recruiting ; while each
went his or her own way on their pursuits they were
all ready to help and take interest in the pursuits of
others. I may have been exceptionally lucky in the
company I met, but I am told that the company at

228 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Piora always consists rather largely of scientists, who
find there a good field of research.

Another point which to me is a strong recommenda
tion of Piora is that all the walks are within easy
distance of the hotel — in fact, they are for the most part
close — so that it is not necessary to walk three or four
miles before you come to the object of your walk.
The lake is surrounded by fine mountain peaks, each
of which will give a good walk. The ascent of Taneda
(8,760 ft.) will require the best part of a whole day,
especially if, as it generally is early in July, the route
is blocked in many places by deep snow ; and there
are many other good points which will require all the
time between breakfast and dinner. But for those
who do not wish for, or cannot take, such long walks,
there are many delightful excursions close at hand.
The Fongio rises from the very walls of the hotel, and
you may do as much or as little of it as you like ; each
step is varied both in flowers and view. Within a
hundred yards of the hotel door you may be among
Alpines that will delight any lover of such plants ; and
you may with ease go on to the top (7,257 ft.), and at
each turning in the path the view and the plants will
change ; or you may come down after having made
half of the ascent well satisfied with your walk. I
think one of the pleasantest walks I took was all
round the lake, making a walk a little over three miles.
As you look on the lake from the hotel windows you
see, as is usual in most Alpine lakes, that the south
side with a northern aspect is well clothed with trees
and bushes, while the north side with a southern aspect
is apparently bare and barren — but it is only apparently
so ; both sides are well supplied with flowers, but of
a different sort. I walked first along the low ground

PIORA 229

of the south side (northern aspect) , it had an under
growth of Alpine rose, with a thin wood of scattered
firs ; and among this undergrowth was a rich growth
of flowers, many of tall growth such as Veratrum, the
taller gentians, and monkshood. The top of the lake
was a marshy meadow formed in the silt from the
mountains, with two small streams. One of these
I had to wade, and found the barefooted walking so
pleasant that I continued through the rest of the
marshy meadow, and made a discovery which I had
not noticed before. The river that I waded was icy
cold ; the grasses and sedges were pleasant but a little
rough ; but the masses of sphagnum were very pleasant,
and perceptibly warm to the feet. This warmth of the
sphagnum is a puzzle which I cannot solve. I can only
suppose that the hot sun warms the water in the
sphagnum and that it does not readily part with the
heat so gained. The marshy meadow was full of good
marsh plants. The walk home was along the north
side (south aspect) which looks entirely bare and
barren ; yet every foot has its good flowers, but all
of a low growth. I think this ease of reaching good
points both for views and plants is a very great recom
mendation to Piora.

But it is time to come to the flowers ; and in speak
ing of them I feel almost compelled to speak in what
might well be called exaggeration and a too great use
of superlatives ; but it is really impossible to speak
of the flowers of Piora without using superlatives and
what seems like exaggeration. Before I left England
I had been told by more than one friend well versed
in flowers generally, and especially in Alpine flowers,
that in no part should I find such a paradise of flowers
as at Piora. So I went in faith, and they really far

230 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

exceeded my wildest expectations. I took with me
Gremli's Swiss Flora for Tourists, published in English
by Nutt, in the Strand — a most excellent little book
which I can strongly recommend to all who go to
Switzerland in search of flowers. I can also recom
mend, but not so highly, Correvon's Flore Color iee de
Poche, published in Paris. It has some fairly good
plates, which are helpful, but it only records the more
conspicuous flowers, and is not exhaustive as Gremli's
is. Now, Gremli describes 2,637 Swiss plants, including
ferns and grasses, but without the mosses, fungi,
and lichens, which of themselves must be a study ;
and I feel quite sure that within a radius of three
miles or less from the hotel it would be quite possible
for a good searcher to find more than one-half of these
2,637 plants. I was not searching for plants ; I
simply admired and gathered those that were near the
paths in my walks ; and yet the number of different
plants that I saw — many of them seen wild for the
first time — were a constant delight, and a delight that
was varied every day and in every walk. It was not
only the large number of species, but it was the large
number of individuals of many species that was to
me so remarkable and noteworthy. I will name a few.
The Gentiana acaulis was a little past its best, but it
was abundant ; and I am not exaggerating when I
say that during the week I was there I must have
walked over acres of the gem-like G. bavarica. I had
no idea that I could anywhere see it in such masses ;
and it seemed to be in no way particular as to its
position ; it was abundant, and perhaps most abundant,
in the damp ground near the lakes, but it was also
in many high places. The whole place was especially
rich in gentians ; besides G. acaulis and G. bavarica,

PIORA 231

there was G. lutea, cniciata, punctata, asclepiadea (not
yet in flower), and G. germanica. This last one I was
especially pleased to see ; it is a British plant, and I
know it well, especially on the Cotswolds. But there
is a great difference between the British and the Swiss
plants, and it is a difference which shows how largely
the colour of flowers is affected by their soil, situation,
and especially, perhaps, their elevation. In England
the flower is a pale blue ; at Piora the colour is all
brilliant as that of G. bavarica, which it so much
resembles at first sight, that it is not till you take the
plant in your hands and see that it has an annual
root, and that it has many flowers in its little stem
instead of the one flower that G. bavarica carries, that
you see the difference. As with G. bavarica, so it
was also with the bird's-eye primrose (P. farinosa).
It was everywhere in hundreds, and you could not
help treading on the little beauty. I do not think
it was finer than I have seen it at Malham and Ingle-
borough in Yorkshire ; but I saw many specimens
of a far richer and deeper colour than I have seen
in England. The Alpine rose was everywhere, and
was in its fullest beauty at that high elevation, though
near Hospenthal it was almost past flowering. I
delight in the Alpenrose, not only for its bright flowers,
which give such a colour to so many Swiss hillsides,
but because it is the only rhododendron (except R.
dahuricum, which some consider only a geographical
variety) that will grow on soil charged with lime.1
To me the faint smell is rather pleasant, though to
some it is quite unpleasant ; and at Piora I learned

1 It is only R. hirsntum and its hybrids that will endure lime ; R.
ferrugineum, the common Alpenrose will not grow in lime-containing
soils. R. dahuricum is a distinct species. — A.W.H.

232 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

two facts about it which I had not noted before. There
is every here and there wet marshy ground on the
hillsides, not bad enough to stop a walker, but enough
to make his feet damp. I noticed that wherever I
could see an Alpenrose the walking was good and
firm, though it may have appeared to be growing in
a marsh. The other thing I learnt about it was that
it gives most valuable protection to many plants. I
suppose it is not grazed by cattle, sheep, or goats,
and the result is that many good plants come up
right in the midst of the bushes, and, I suppose,
protected by them. I found many grand specimens
of Aquilegia alpina so growing ; also Streptopus
amplexicaulis and others ; and nestling round the
outside of the bushes, and well protected by them, I
found Maianihemum btfolium, Pyrola rotundifolia,
and other gems. And I think it was worth all the
journey to Piora if only to see the St. Bruno's lily
(Paradisea Liliastrum) in flower. The first flowers
were showing themselves when I was there ; but I am
told that when in full flower the hillsides are white
with them, and that they can be gathered in sheaves.
I have grown it for many years and admired it, but
I never realized its supreme beauty till I saw it on
its native hillsides. There surely can be no flower
more thoroughly beautiful, while the whiteness of
the flowers is the nearest approach to absolute purity
that can be conceived. I shall never forget it as I
saw it first at Piora. Growing with the St. Bruno's
lily, and in many other places, was a large quantity
of the fine yellow Alpine anemone (A. sulphur ea),
which I had seen before in its full beauty on the Furka
Pass, where one hillside was so covered with it that at
a considerable distance the whole hillside looked yellow ;

PIORA 233

but at Piora the time of flowering was past, yet the
beauty was not gone, for the heads with their many-
feathered seeds were very beautiful.

It is very tempting to say more of the many beautiful
flowers that I saw, but time and space would fail me ;
but there is one plant that I must on no account pass
by. The cobweb Sempervivum arachnoideum is every
where, clinging to chinks in the rocks, and of wonderful
beauty ; there were many small patches of it which
I could only compare to brooches set with brilliant
jewels ; the outside of each rosette being a pale rose,
and the inside a glittering spot formed by the cobweb
that joins together every leaflet of each rosette. This
likeness is increased by the fact that on all that I saw
at Piora the rosettes were very small, and unopened
except to a small extent.1 I fancy that late in the
year the rosettes expand and become flat, but they
are so closely packed that it is hard to see how they
can find room to expand. I was none the less glad
to see the little beauty growing in such abundance
and beauty, because I have never succeeded in growing
it. In England it is a most capricious plant, growing
well in one garden, and in another, with apparently
the same surroundings, utterly refusing to live. And
I must add another charm that the flowers give to
the walks at Piora : there is an abundance of sweet-
scented flowers. Among these there are two small
orchids of very delicate and pleasant smell, the little
black orchid, Nigritella angustifolia and the Gymna-
denia odomtissima ; the Nigritella being fairly abundant,
and the Gymnadenia not so frequently met with.
These, however, do not give out their scent till sought
for, and so do not account for the pleasant smells
1 Not the typical S. arachnoideum, but 5. Doellianum.

234 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

that are met with in the walks unsought. Much of
this comes from the Alpenrose, and after rain the
sweetbriar bushes scattered through the woods give
out their well-known scent ; but there are two low-
growing plants which, as I think, fully account for the
pleasant scents. The one is our own thyme, which is
everywhere ; but I think the chief scent is given out
by the pretty Alpine milfoil, Achillea moschata ; it is
very abundant, and when crushed gives an aromatic
musky smell.

For plant-collectors, as distinguished from plant-
lovers, Piora is a delightful place. I was not collecting
plants ; I was simply looking for them to see them
in their native habitats and to admire them in their
native beauty. But I wished I could have collected
the native plants and taken them home, for I do not
remember ever to have seen a place in which they
could be collected so easily and with such almost
certainty of success. The lower parts of the hills,
which alone I examined, are composed of debris formed
from the stones that have come down from the rocks
above, and are covered with and permeated throughout
by a rich humus, which is practically all decayed
leaf-mould. The stones are none of a large size, and
it is very easy to remove them ; with a little help
from the alpenstock they can one by one be removed,
and then the root, though often penetrating the humus
to a great distance, remains exposed, and the whole
plant can be taken without injury. And at Piora
there is little fear of the most greedy collector doing
any real destruction ; he may help himself as largely
as he likes with a very clear conscience, and he will
do little harm for those who come after him. As an
instance of the ease of taking up difficult plants there,

PIORA 235

I may say that the evening before I went away I wished
to find some seedlings of the handsome Gentiana
punctata which I had marked by the lake-side not far
from the hotel, for I knew that a full-grown G. punctata
has a big root which it is almost hopeless to attempt
to dig up with any chance of success. I soon found
the plants, and among them many little ones that seemed
exactly what I wanted. But I soon found they were
not seedlings ; the little bunch of radical leaves con
cealed a root stock more than an inch in diameter,
and it took several minutes of work with the alpenstock
to follow the root to the end, and then it turned out
to be nearly a yard in length, with many ramifications,
but the nature of the soil allowed me to get all I wanted
without any injury to the roots. All collectors should
remember that it is of the first importance not to bruise
or break any of the roots ; if they are bruised or
broken, nature's first work is to heal the wounds,
and while so doing little other work is done to the
life of the plant, and if they are badly bruised and
are long out of the ground and so get dried death is
almost certain. Collectors should also remember that
it is labour in vain with a great many plants to take
them from a soil of one marked character and trans
plant them into another. All the plants at Piora grow
in the debris of primary rocks at a high elevation ;
many of them, like the rhododendron, will grow
anywhere, but a very large number, the majority
perhaps, will simply die when removed to a soil com
posed of lime or chalk at a low elevation. I feel sure
that the mountain air is a great factor in the vigour
and abundance of Alpine plants, and in many instances
in the colour of the flowers, and cannot help thinking
also that the reduced atmospheric pressure which the

236 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

flowers get at high altitudes has its influence upon their
healthy growth.

I have, I think, said enough of the flowers of Piora,
but before leaving my account of its many attractions
I should add that there is excellent trout-fishing in
the lakes. I do not say this from my own personal
experience, for when I was there it was too early for
the fishing, owing to the large quantity of snow water
that was daily falling into the lake ; but I have good
authority for saying that later in the season the
fishing is excellent ; the fish are plentiful, of a good
size, and excellent for the table. And among the
attractions I ought not to forget to mention the very
reasonable charges at the hotel ; the charge en pension
was eight francs a day.

In so small an hotel there is of course no chaplain,
and there is none nearer than Airolo ; but I cannot
altogether consider that a drawback to the place ; I
would far rather be a priest unto myself on one of the
beautiful hillsides than be condemned to one of the
dreary Puritanical services in unworthy buildings
which are so common throughout Switzerland, and
advertised as " English Church services."

I have no doubt Piora is a very healthy place, and
would be a good place for a long stay, but I fancy
a little acclimatisation would be necessary for some
people before they got the full benefit. I heard of
several instances where the visitors had not been quite
well after the first day or two. Perhaps the snow
water — all there is in the early part of the year-
may partly account for this ; but I am sure that a
sudden change from such an elevation as the valley
of the Ticino to the elevation of Piora does not suit
every one at first. I went on the same day from

PIORA 237

Piora to Lugano, walking to Airolo and by train to
Lugano. When I left Piora my aneroid marked below
24°, when I got to Lugano it marked above 28°. This
sudden alteration is certainly rather trying to elderly
people, or to those not in full health ; to the young
and strong it would make little or no difference ; but
I mention it because I think it would be wise for some
to take it into account.

I hope I have now proved that Piora is a place of
which many would be glad to know. I have wished
to show that it has many requisites for a holiday resort
in Switzerland. It is easy of access — Cuivis contingat
adire Pioram — and when there the visitor has quiet
rest, with beautiful scenery, lovely and easy walks,
and an abundance of the choicest flowers of the Alps.
I will only add a few words on a matter partially
connected with my subject, though not much. I am
not a cyclist, but I can scarcely imagine a more beauti
ful ride for a cyclist than the road from Luzern to
Airolo. The roads are throughout most excellent,
the gradients everywhere easy, and in most parts very
easy, though the ascents and descents are great, and
the scenery throughout of the very finest description
and varying in every mile. If when the cyclist gets
to Airolo he is induced, by what I have said, to visit
Piora, he must, of course, leave his bicycle at Airolo
and take to his legs ; but when he comes down he
may well go on a little further through the valley of
the Ticino. The valley is very beautiful with the
Ticino all the way ; about half-way down he will be
amongst the maize and vines, and at the end he will
find all he can wish for at Lugano and its beautiful
lake. But I must say nothing more about this —
my one subject is Piora. H. N. E.

FIELD-NAMES *

THE study of names may be said to be attractive
to almost every educated person. Every one
likes to know something of the meaning of their own
or their neighbours' Christian and surnames. Most
people like to know the meaning of the name of their
county and parish, and many like to know the meaning
of the names of the trees, shrubs and other plants
in their gardens. In this way the study of personal
names, place-names, and plant-names has not been
neglected ; but few people seem to be aware of the
amount of interest that there is in the names of every
field in their parishes ; and I propose to show in a short
paper that to any one who takes an intelligent interest
in their surroundings the names of the fields among
which they live will well repay a study ; in many cases
they tell us much of the past, and their teaching will
not end with us, for they will teach the same lessons
to those who come after us.

Field-names must have existed from the very
earliest times. As soon as any land was taken from
the surrounding open country and cultivated by one
person, that person and his servants would of necessity
give a name not only to the whole property but to
each individual field. But we have very few records

1 This aiticle was published in The National Review, 1905, vol.
xliv, p. 878.

238

FIELD-NAMES 239

of such ancient names. There are, however, some in
the Bible. The earliest mention of a field-name in the
Bible is " the field of Macpelah," which Abraham
bought from Ephron the Hittite ; and the name is
noteworthy because though the meaning is uncertain
it is quite certain that it did not come from the name
of the owner, and more probably it was taken from
the peculiarity of having in it a double cave ; and it
was a portion only, a single field, of Ephron's property
sold with all the growing timber on it. Then we have
" the field of strong men," which we are told got its
name from the hand-to-hand fight of the twelve
young men of Saul's side with the twelve young men
of David's, when the whole twenty-four were killed ;
we have fields in England with names that perpetuate
a similar record.

Esdras records a special field-name : " I went into
the field called Ardath, and there I sat among the
flowers." There are also "the fuller's field" and
11 the potter's field," recording occupations of former
owners ; and " Aceldama," " the field of blood," that
kept in memory the sin ancl death of Judas. There
are others which are named after the owners, but which
kept their names long after the deaths of the first
owners, such as " Joab's field " and " the field of
Joshua." There are two Hebrew words both trans
lated " field," with originally different meanings of open
country and enclosed cultivated land ; and apparently
Palestine had a large quantity of enclosed fields. We
have frequent mentions of hedges and other boundaries ;
we read of the almost sacred character of landmarks ;
we read that " my well-beloved hath a vineyard in
a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it," and there was
" the hedge thereof " ; and when Balaam was riding

240 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

towards Balak his road went through the vineyard,
" a wall being on this side and a wall on that side " ;
and the breaking of hedges was a special crime : " whoso
breaketh a hedge a serpent shall bite him," and the
Wise Man gives the advice, " Look that thou hedge
thy possession about with thorns," for " where no
hedge is, there the possession is spoiled." All these
notices of fences, hedges, and walls give sure evidence
of enclosed cultivated land, and wherever there were
such enclosures we may be sure that each enclosure
had its name, known perhaps only to the owner and
his servants, but in many cases known to his neighbours
and recognized by them.

In Egypt boundaries were marked by a line of
stelae. (< Each stele received a name . . . it sometimes
recorded the nature of the soil, its situation, or some
characteristic which made it remarkable as ' The Lake
of the South/ ' The Eastern Meadow/ ' The Green
Island/ ' The Willow Plot/ ' The Vine Arbour/ ' The
Sycamore.' Sometimes it bore the name of the first
owner, or the Pharaoh under whom it had been erected,
as ' The Nurse Phtahkotpu/ ' The Verdure Cheops/
' The Meadow Didific/ etc. The name once given it
clung to it for centuries, and neither sales, nor redis
tribution, nor revolution, nor change of dynasty could
cause it to be forgotten."1

I have been unable to find anything like our modern
field-names in Greek or Latin literature. The peculiar
tenure of land in Greece and Italy would perhaps account
for this. The Roman fundus was sometimes called
after the place or the owner, as fundus Privernus and
fundus Semproniamus, but that is not quite the same

1 Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, p. 329.

FIELD-NAMES 241

thing. Livy tells us that after the second Punic war an
ager was purchased by the State and given to the
soldiers in lieu of pay, and the ager was called Trientius
Tabulanusque (xxxi. 13), but this was probably a large
tract of ground. So was the Campits Martins, which
by some straining may be called a field-name. But
surely the Greeks and Romans had field-names, and
we should like to know the names by which Virgil
and Horace distinguished the fields on the farms they
loved so well. We know that Virgil's farm at Mantua
—his dulcia mra—vras bounded and probably inter
sected by hedges, and he describes the different sounds
on each side of the hedge, but he has no name for
the fields ; nor has Horace any special name for his
agellus or for the angulus iste of his neighbour's field,
which he coveted.

So I come to English field-names, the special subject
of this paper. It is a very large subject, for I believe
that there is no country in Europe so rich in field-names
as England ; and I cannot attempt anything like an
exhaustive account of them ; I can but give some
general sketchy account which may induce others to
take an interest in them.

The first thing that strikes us in the study of English
field-names is that nearly all of them are compound
words. There is a sort of generic word which is found
in the first or last syllable in a vast number of names,
and then each name has its special affix or suffix,
which, for want of a better term, may be called specific.
The generic words are such as these : field, meadow,
acre, close, croft, tything, leaze, paddock, hayes, and
others, and on each of these it may be well to say
something.

Field is a very old English word, and in its forms

Q

242 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

of feld, field, veld, veldt, etc., is found in most of the
countries of North-western Europe, and in all these
countries it has the same many-sided meaning that
it has in the Bible. It is the open land as opposed
to woodland and enclosed land ; or it is the country
as opposed to the town ; or it is the enclosed cultivated
land, whether pasture or arable, as opposed to the unen
closed land of the forest or down ; but the common
derivation of field from felled, i.e., cleared land, has
no authority whatever. My present business is with
the names of enclosed and cultivated land. In every
parish there is a large number of fields with the suffix
of field, and in almost every case they explain them
selves. The names are either taken from their size,
as six-acre field, ten-acre field, or from their owners*
names, which is a very frequent but a very change
able reason for the name ; or sometimes from the
natural production of the field, as Oakfield, Rushfield,
etc. But there is one point of interest in the names
of which " field " is a part that, more than any other
field-name, it has been extended from the field to the
parish. The owner of a large field, which he called
Broadfield, may have added field to field till his
possessions were large enough to form a distinct
parish ; and having been chiefly known as the owner
of Broadfield, the parish got that name with the slight
change to Bradfield. In the same way Swallowfield
and Smithfield must have got their names from single
fields which the owner was able to add to from
time to time, but still clung to the name by which
his property was first known. There are many such
instances, and this is the one way among others in
which field-names may be a great help in the history
of a parish ; the original reason of the name may be

FIELD-NAMES 243

lost, but the name contains a history, to which further
search may give a clue.

Acre is really the same word as field, for it comes
from ager, and, like " field," it once had a much larger
meaning than it now has, and very early the word was
restricted to enclosed land, and then still further
restricted in the reign of Edward I. to a fixed measure
of land, though the land might be of any shape. In
this way we get such field-names as Long Acre, still
existing in London, Broad Acre, etc. But, like " field,"
it is usually joined with some numeral that tells its
size, or with the name of the present or former owner.
One of the most interesting uses of the word is in the
good name for a churchyard, God's Acre. This is its
name, of whatever size the churchyard may be. But
I believe it is not an old English name, but has been
borrowed from the German ; though Longfellow speaks
of it as " that ancient Saxon phrase which calls the
burial-ground God's Acre." In very unpleasant opposi
tion to this I have a record in more than one parish
of Hangman's Acre. I cannot think that this had
anything to do with the common hangman. I should
suppose it to be a corruption from a name showing
the steep nature of the ground, as in the Hanger recorded
in White's Selborne, and in my own parish we have
Hanging Hill.

Meadow is a very old English word, and enters into
combination with the family name, or the description
of the position, or of the crops in many field-names.
It always implies rich pasture as pratum did in Latin
(Cicero speaks of pratorum herbescens viriditas).

Close is another old English word very often found
in field-names, and probably always meaning originally
a place walled in, and so applied to gardens (" cloos

244 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

or yerde, Clausura," Prom. Parv.) ; and Timson
says, " I have a tree which grows here in my close/'
The word is not common now, but survives in the
Cathedral Close, and the Vicars' Close of the Cathedral.

Leaze is a very common word in field-names. In
my parish there are Crooked Leaze, Middle Leaze,
Cow Leaze, Beech Leaze, Pigeon-house Leaze, etc.,
and Waring's Leaze, Hael Leaze, and others from
proper names. The word is the Anglo-Saxon Lese
or leswe, a pasture, and is found in the Vespasian
Psalter, an. 736, "in stowe leswe — in loco pascue,"
and is commonly used by Wycliffe, as "we ben the
puple of his lesewe," " the schepe of his lesewe." It
was then a common word, but is now almost obsolete,
except as a field-name.

Tyning is another word that has long fallen out of
use, but is not uncommon in field-names. In this
parish we have long tyning, upper tyning, Robin's
tyning, Bath road tyning, and others. The word is
from the Anglo-Saxon tynen, to hedge in, and was
applied occasionally to other things besides fields.
But it was the regular word for enclosing with hedges.
In the Anglo-Saxon gospels we find " he plan tide win-
geard, and betynde hyne," and in the fifteenth century
it seems to have been strictly confined to hedges, so
we have in the Promptorium " Tynyd or hedgydde—
Septus " " Tynynge, drye hedge — Sepes." In this
parish we have a Wall tyning in which the word is not
restricted to a hedge proper, but goes back to its older
meaning of enclosure. It is on ground where stones
are abundant, and so the owner would naturally
enclose with a stone wall, and the field would be
called the Wall tyning.

Paddock forms a part of many field-names, and in

FIELD-NAMES 245

this parish we have Greenways Paddock, Butterwell
Paddock, Rushy Paddock (probably marking a rushy
ground), and in the Court Rolls of the Manor in 1368
there is a Pat Parrok. This last name preserves the
old form of the word otherwise written pearroc, pearuc,
and parrocce, and it survives in our park. I should
suppose that whenever the name Paddock is found
as a field-name it marks the former neighbourhood of
a house of some importance.

A few words about Hayes. We have Little and Great
Hayes and Dogs Hayes. In Bath there are East
Hayes and Upper Hayes, and there is a whole parish
called Hayes in Middlesex. The word means a hedge,
from the A.-S. hege, and so would imply that the field
was hedged in. In most parishes there was a Hay ward,
i.e., a person to look after the hedges.

I have dwelt at some length on these different words
which enter into field-names not only because they
are such an important part of field-names, that to
many who do not know these words, the field-names
would have no meaning, but also because they are
often the oldest portion of the names. They have a
large historical interest. All these words signify more
or less inclosures ; and they are a reminder that almost
within the memory of man England was a much more
open country than it is now ; each inclosure, whether
legal or illegal, was an addition to the cultivated land
of the country, and as such required and almost deserved
a distinctive name. There are probably very few
parishes in England in which the inclosed land has
not been largely increased during the last hundred
years, and the names which the fields now bear are
for the most part modern.

But all field-names are not modern, and even where

246 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

modern there has been a tendency to adopt ancient
names either in whole or in part. Thus the word Croft
has been used in quite modern times for modern inclo-
sures. We have in this parish some fields simply called
the Croft, and we have others, such as Moorcroft, etc.
The word is a very old one, used by Langland in Piers

Plowman :

Thaune shallow come by a crofte (v. 582),

and means a small field, but is now quite obsolete
except as a field-name. I believe there is no field
name in Domesday ; single fields did not fall within the
object of that inquest, but there are some [field-names]
even older. In a grant from Cynewulf , King of the West
Saxons, of land at Bedwin to his Earl Bica, A.D. 778,
there is an undoubted field-name, Agellum qui dicitur
Tatanedisc, i.e., Tatan's enclosure.1 In Earle's Land
Charters several names are given which are apparently
field-names before the Conquest, such as Pathfield,
Fernlea, Hartfield, Linacre (i.e., flaxfield), Levesons
Croft, etc. In an exchange of land between S. Mary
of Salisbury and S. Augustine of Bristol, A.D. 1192,
there are two distinct field-names, unam quae dicitur,
" Esseacre," and unam in Rug furlong, and in the
Sarum Charters there are the following of the thirteenth
century :

1227. Unam quae vocatur Emelet.

1228. Tenant quae vocatur Otfine.

Duas croftas quae vocantur Stainecroft.
Unam quae vocatur Chadelesdene.
1243. Culturam quae vocatur Riworth.

Una acra quae jacet super culturam quae vocatur Wetheham,

scilicet Attehell.
Cultura quae vocatur Biwth,
Cultura quae vocatur Gothacre.

Other names are Brandehell and Adamesgore, A.D.

1 Sweet's Oldest English Texts, p. 778.

FIELD-NAMES 247

1227 and 1249, Prat° q^od dicitur Chercheham, A.D.
1240, and Blecheham, Brodmede and Dolnede in the
same year ; and at Whitchurch in the same year
Cosyam, Bury, Bicroft, Lidlegraph, Winesgore, Gras-
hege, Lidlege, Lasage, Gilleswardelege, Cochulle, Manne-
scumbe, Mortescumbe, Hundlehull, Blakelege, Fore-
stare hege, Red Acre, Uplandgemede, and others-
Each of these names deserves fuller notice, but I will
here only say that the termination " lege " is the same
as the common " lea " ; " hege " is the hedge, and
the curious termination " gore " shows that the land
was an enclosure for the common uninclosed land.
" Corners of the fields which could not be cut up into
the usual acre or half-acre strips were sometimes
divided into tapering strips pointed at one end
and called ' gores ' or ' gored acres.' " x The same
history is shown in the common termination " furlong,"
which was the regular name for the strips into which
the common lands were divided. In Notes and Queries,
v. Ser. vol. viii., there is a long list of the names of
such strips in the common lands at Whitchurch, near
Stratford-on-Avon ; each strip has the name furlong
with a distinguishing second name ; the land is now
inclosed and the names no longer exist. It is well to
note that both furlong and acre were used as measures
of length as well as of size ; of which there is a good
example in Hermione's pretty speech in the Winter's
Tale :

Our praises are our wages ; you may ride us
With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre.

Furlong is still a lineal as well as a land measure, but
acre is not.

1 Seebohm.

248 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Space will not allow me to say much about the
field-names which are scattered through many mediaeval
documents, especially the Manor Rolls ; they are very
interesting, but most of them are lost ; and I wish to
speak more particularly of the field-names still existing,
and the help they will often give in the former history
of our parishes. And in giving examples of field-names
I shall not think it necessary to crowd my paper with
the names of the parishes in which they are found ;
for the most part I have taken them from my own
parish of Bitton in Gloucestershire.

I pass by all names which have in them family and
personal names ; not only because they explain
themselves, but chiefly because there is no class of
names so subject to change. Probably the oldest
field-names bore the names of the owners ; it would
naturally be so, and we know that in David's time men
" called the lands after their own names," but we
know also that it was so done with the foolish idea
that they " would continue for ever." But they soon
go ; a new owner does not often care to preserve the
name of the former owner ; he prefers to affix his own
name in exchange. But this is not the case where the
first owner held some high or honourable office ; then
the new owner has some pride in keeping the old name,
and so we find the names of King Field, Queen's Acre,
Nun's Close, Canon's Marsh and Canon's Acre, Priest
Acre, etc., still existing, though the lands no longer
belong to King, Queen, Canons, Nun or Priest.

Memories of former trades and occupations survive
in the field-names, though the trades and occupations
may have left the place. Thus we have Smithfield,
Potter's Wood, the Matmans, a rushy field probably
occupied by a matmaker, Carpenters Acre and others.

FIELD-NAMES 249

And memories of former amusements survive in such
names as Bowling Green, and Bull-baiting Acre.1

Among the most valuable names for parochial history
are those that preserve the memory of former forests
and inclosures in them. In the Parish of Castle
Bromwich, formerly called Wody-Broomwic, there are,
or were, three fields whose names showed that they
were clearings from the forest : Hurstfield, i.e., Wood-
field ; Brockhurstfield, i.e., Badger Woodfield ; Bocken-
holtfield, i.e., Buckwood field. The connection with
old forests and woods is also shown where Ions, lawnds,
or lawns form part of the names. Lawn was the regular
name of a forest glade, a grassy open space amongst
woods ; Shakespeare and Milton give good examples
of this connection ;

For through the lawnd anon the deer will come.

— 3 Hen. VI., Hi.
Groves, betwixt them lawnds or level downs.

— Paradise Lost, iv. 252.

The same connection with forests is shown by the use
of the names of wild animals of the chase, such as
fox, hare, stags, etc. ; and especially the names Cock-
shot, Cockroad, Cockway ; these showing the former
existence of the decoys for woodcock which were used
in all forests.

Some fields get their names from their shapes — long,
short, broad, narrow are common parts of names ;
and we have a field called the Leg, very like the map
of Italy, the L piece shaped like the capital letter,

1 A very interesting record of former tenures is found in such
field-names as " fortnight," " week " " three days," " four days
work." They are records of the amount of work which the tenant
had to give to his over-lord in lieu of rent.

250 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

and Pond Leg, Three-cornered Patch, Hatchet Piece,
the Harp (so called in 5 Henry VIII.), Carpenters
Square, and a piece with two circles and a connecting
piece, probably so formed by water, and called Spectacle
Acre.

Animals have in many cases given their names
to fields, presumably from their former abundance
in those spots. Conygar and Congrove are names in
many parishes and mark rabbit warrens ; Brockham
is often met with, so is Gooseacre and Goosegreen ;
and we have Dovelea, Culverham, Larks hege and
Cats Cliff.

The good quality of the field is shown in such names
as Eden Field, Paradise, Mount Pleasant, Angels Hill,
Butterwell, Honey Hill, Green Piece, Clover Leaze, etc.
While it must have been with the intention of giving
a bad character to some fields that they were called
Short Grass, Cockle Close, Pickpocket, Troublesome,
Little Worth, Hungry Hill, Foulwood, Poor Tyning,
Starveacre, Weary Furlong ; and perhaps the same
character is carried to the extreme in such names as
Devil's Eyes, Devil's Backbones, and Devil's Acre.
Such names as Slaughterfield, Hangman's Acre, Dead-
man's Acre may have arisen from some tragedy long
forgotten ; and in some counties there are records of
fields isolated in the time of the Plague, such as Qualm-
stones at Sarden in Oxfordshire, and Pitch and Pay
at Stoke Bishop near Bristol ; which tell of the custom
when provisions were placed for the infected and the
money left on the stones without any personal contact
between the sound and those infected with the disease.
The story of such a place at Eyam in Derbyshire is
well known ; here there was a stone pillar used for the
purpose, as there was at Bury St. Edmunds, but

FIELD-NAMES 251

I do not know that these were recorded in field
names.1

The particular crops generally grown on any field
would naturally give a name to it, but in most cases
it would not be a lasting name. Still we have such
names as Ryedown, Ryelands, Bean Leaze, Teazle
Close, and others ; and we have records of cultivation
in Hop Garden, Cherry Ground, Cherry Orchard and
Vineyard, all long fallen out of use ; and the prevailing
trees have given the names to Aldermoor, Poplarpiece,
Elmgrove, the Ashes and Holly Guest, which probably
gets its name as a corruption from the old English
word " agist," a pasture.

All field-names are subject to corruption and change ;
two instances will suffice. In an early survey a field
near the road to Bath was called Bathway Tyning ; in
older deeds it was Blathwayt Tyning from the name
of the owner, and it has gone back again to Bath Road
Tyning. A still more curious instance is found in the
parish of Wickwar in Gloucestershire. In a Survey
of 1772 there are two fields, called King Polehames and
Wheeler's, both probably surnames ; but in the 1840
Tithe Award the names appear as the King of Poland's
ground and the Queen of Poland's Ground. I am
afraid that among the chief offenders in these corrup
tions we must reckon the Ordnance surveyors. They
are for the most part very painstaking, but they have
shown themselves too apt to adopt any name that
any one would give them, and then to please themselves
as to the spelling.

I said that I could only give a very sketchy account

1 Qualm is a very old English word, signifying pestilence among
man or beast. In that sense it is obsolete, and is now narrowed
down to weakness or faintness of body or conscience.

252 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

of English field-names, for indeed the subject is so
large and so many-sided that it is not possible within
the limits of such a paper to give more than a sketchy
account. It would have been easy to have filled
many a page with long lists of names, and it was very
tempting to do so, but that was not my object. My
object was rather to state some general principles which
might perhaps be a guide to other students in the same
field, and to show that these general principles will
be a help to the study of field-names in every parish
in England. I believe the same principles will be
useful in many parishes, if not in all. There are, of
course, many names which will be found in the south,
the part with which I am most familiar, which may not
be found in the north, and vice versa, and many may
be found in East Anglia which would be unknown in
Devonshire and Cornwall ; but there is a vast number
common to all.

A large number of field-names with their explanation
will be found in the volumes of Notes and Queries,
but as far as I know there is no book specially devoted
to the study of English field-names. There are in
many county and in many parochial histories notices
of field-names, and in some few instances they are well
done ; but I must say there are far more in which
the notices are misleading. It is too common to find
the collectors of such lists explaining the names by
that worst and most misleading of all explanations,
similarity of sound. One instance will show what I
mean. I mentioned Starveacre as a name showing
poorness of soil. One would have thought that would
be a sufficient explanation, but I found one author
rejoicing in the explanation that it meant a field in
which the drug Stavesacre was grown. He seemed

FIELD-NAMES 253

quite unaware that the plant was never a native or
cultivated plant in England, and that the name was
not English but a corruption of the Latin Staphisagria,
which was only the Latin form of the Greek ao-ra^/?

aypia.

I am sure that a good and very interesting book
might be made on field-names only. It might take
the form of Halli well's Dictionary of Archaic Words
or Wright's Dialect Dictionary, i.e., give the name
with a word or two — scarcely more — of the meaning
and the county or parish in which it is found. If
done in this way the book might perhaps be a large
one, but it need not be a very large one ; and there
is abundant material for it, easily accessible. Under
the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 a survey was made
of every parish in England and Wales and the result
was given in an award. This award reports the names
of the then owner and occupier, a description of each
field or tithable property, whether arable, pasture,
garden or woodland, with the exact acreage of each,
and the name and its charge for tithes. It is impossible
to over-estimate the value of these awards ; to the
future parochial historian they will practically give
the history of the parish at that date, for the smallest
piece of ground is made to tell its history ; and in
this way it is, for its date, far more valuable than
Domesday, for that inquest only had regard to lands
chargeable to the king ; these awards give the accounts
of every piece of land in every parish. And there is
little fear of their being lost, for duplicates are lodged
with the Board of Agriculture, and are accessible
there ; but unfortunately the access to them is rather
barred by high fees, which can only be remitted by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, perhaps not by him.

254 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Another very valuable source of information can be
found in the Report of the Charity Commissioners of
1827 ; they are not so far-reaching as the Tithe Awards,
but they are, in many cases, more closely concerned
with individual fields which were chargeable to chari
ties ; but I have very little practical knowledge of
how far they are open to the public ; I know that
copies can be obtained, but I also know that they must
be paid for.

H. N. E.

OLD FIELD-NAMES

On December 16, 1891, the Canon read a paper on
" Old Field-names " before the members of the Bath
Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, which
was published in 1892. Part of the paper is incorpora
ted in his article on the same subject in the National
Review, which is reproduced above, but as some por
tions, relating more especially to Bitton, are not included
they have been abstracted for insertion here.

Barton is the enclosure for holding the ricks, originally
chiefly barley ricks — whence its name, beretun, the
ton or tun coming from the same word as tyning.1
The word is still in common use for a farmyard,
but formerly in some cases it stretched further,
and a Barton was the manorial farm not let out
to tenants but retained in the lord's own hands.
This accounts for the name Barton Farm (we have
one in Bitton), and near Bristol was the large
Royal demesne of Barton Regis, which still remains
as the name of the Hundred, though, perhaps, better

1 Barn comes from the same root. It was originally Bern or
Bernes, and Bern = bere-ern, a storehouse for barley — Ayenbite
of Inwyt. — Glossarial Index,

FIELD-NAMES 255

known as the name of the Poor Law Union. In
Bitton the name only occurs otherwise as part of the
surroundings of a farmhouse, though in some cases
it is sufficiently large to be separately named, as Mow
Barton.

Paddock is a word that has much puzzled the ety
mologists. In its present form it does not appear in
English literature till the later half of the seventeenth
century, and its earlier form was parroc, or pearroc.
In that form it is a very old word for an enclosure,
almost of any sort. King Alfred speaks of the world
as a parrok,1 and as parrock it probably lasted till
changed into paddock, though very few examples,
or none, can be found after the beginning of the
sixteenth century. It is this change that puzzles the
etymologists, the change from the double " r " to
the double " d," of which no other examples can be
found except in the Lancashire use of poddish for
porridge. . . .

Now all these generic names that I have mentioned
have one feature in common : they all mark enclosures,
and so they carry us back to the time when enclosures
were the exception and not the rule as they are now.
It is not so long ago that by far the greater part of
England was unenclosed, and in the parish of Bitton
I suppose that less than 200 years ago more than half
of the parish was unenclosed, and of that a large part
was open forest. I am not aware of a single acre
in the parish now unenclosed. Almost during my own
lifetime, though not during my own incumbency,
large tracts at Oldland Common, Longwell's Green,
North Common, Hanham Heath and Hanham Green,
described as " common and waste lands/' were enclosed
1 Thisum lythum parraocce. — King Alfred. — trans, of Boethius.

256 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

by the Act of 1819. These contained 190 acres, and
at the same time some " open and commonable arable
fields " called Westfield and Redfield, of 70 acres, were
enclosed, and later still (in 1865) 260 acres of common-
able meadow were enclosed.

The late Mr. Davidson, of Warmley, who died
in 1850, told me that he had conversed with a
man who had seen the last stag killed in Kings-
wood Forest, so that it is not very long ago when
there were special reasons for giving special names
to enclosures, marking them as legal (or sometimes,
probably, illegal) enclosures from the surrounding
open country or forest. We have a good instance
of such a country in the neighbouring county of
Wilts, where very large farms exist, but where the
enclosed parts of the farms are often not more than
one-tenth or even one-twentieth of the whole ; the
rest is all open unenclosed country.

In connection with this I would mention that we have
several fields still called moor and heath, which, no
doubt, mark the site of old open country, though now
long enclosed. We have Kipsley Moor, Kerm Moor,
Waddown Moor, Press Moor, and Aldermoor. We have
also Moorcroft, which would be a croft adjoining the
moor, and I should have mentioned Croft among the
generic names, for it is a very old word meaning a
little field. It is used in the fourteenth century by
Langland in Piers Plowman, who also mentions
Parrok. But besides Moorcroft we have in Bit ton
only one other field called the Croft, now part of the
Vicar's glebe. Besides the moors and the commons
previously mentioned we have Wigley Common, and
we have Hanham Heath, now called Hanham Common,
and Caddy or Cadbury Heath. There is still heather

FIELD-NAMES 257

to be gathered on Hanham Common, but Cadbury
Heath is built on and cultivated, and the nearest
place where I can now find heather is on Siston Common,
just over the borders of the Parish, and on the railway
banks adjoining it, and these banks are now getting
gradually covered, not only with heather but also like
the neighbouring Rodway Hill with the dwarf gorse,
Ule% nanus, a somewhat uncommon plant, very like
the common gorse, but sufficiently distinguished by
some slight botanical differences and especially by its
low prostrate habit, and by its flowering in the autumn
and even in the early winter, instead of in the spring
and early summer. . . .

To return to Bitton — Baglands and little Baglands,
Heards, Soper's Pool, and Chedwin House are probably
proper names and may be passed by. The Lons is a
good old word, apparently a local form of Launde,
of which Lawn is the modern variant. We now always
connect lawns with a well-kept garden, but the Lons,
or Laund, were very different. They were always open
grassy spaces in a forest, what we should now call
grassy glades. And so I suppose that any field called
the Lons (we have three or four in Bitton) would mark
the neighbourhood of old woods or forests ; just as
Lansdown, formerly Launtesdon, was the western
boundary of the old Royal Forest of Furches ; and
with its wide sweep of grass, edged on its steep inclines
with woods, of which many still remain, it would well
represent an ancient lawnde or Lons. . . ,

As owners change, and fields are divided or thrown
together, the old names lose their meaning and are
abolished. And some of the changes and corruptions

258 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

are past explanation. Near the Village of Bitton is
a large hilly field now always called Major's Hill after
a former owner, Major Ryners, but the curious thing
is that the name was not given till at least forty years
after the Major's death ; before that it was simply
the Hill. Then between Bitton and the Station is a
farm, which in a wonderful way has got the name of
Knight's Folly Farm. No one can explain the name,
or how it got there ; there never was an owner of the
name of Knight, and I am not aware of any special
folly attaching to the farm, except that the Ordnance
Surveyors put the name on their maps without any
authority. I am afraid these surveyors will have to
account for perpetuating a large number of mistakes
all over thejdngdom.

HOUSE MOTTOES1

AMONG the minor adornments of good houses
the mottoes and inscriptions placed on them
by different owners well deserve notice. In many cases
they add something to the architectural beauty of the
houses, and wherever used they tell us something of
the character of the owner, or it may be of the builder,
who placed them on the houses.

I am not going into any history of house mottoes,
for indeed they have no history, properly speaking ;
nothing that could be called the evolution of the house
motto. Yet they are very ancient. When the law
was given to Israel, the Israelite received the order
not only " thou shalt lay up the words in thy heart
and in thy soul and teach them thy children/' but
especially " thou shalt write them upon the doors of thy
house and upon thy gates/' so that they may be always
present to thee " in thy going out and in thy coming
in." These were house mottoes with a special object
for education in religious obedience.

I can find no mention of anything like our house
mottoes among the Greeks ; yet as a nation the Greeks
had a high opinion of the duties of hospitality ; and
it is from Homer that we get the good and much-used
proverb, " Welcome the coming, speed the parting

1 This article was published in The National Review, 1905, vol.
xlv., p. 276.

259

s6o HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

guest/' Menelaus thus instructs Telemachus on the
duties of true hospitality :

Tcrov rot KOLKOV l(T@\ os T'OUK c^eAovTo, vee<r0cu

£tlVOV €TTOTpVV€l Kttt O5 €CTCTV/>t€VOV KCLT€pVK€L.

XP^ ^€LVOV Trapeovra c^iXetv, e^cXovra Sc Tre/ZTreiv.

Odyssey, xv. 72-4.

It was the last line which Pope so happily translated
into " Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest/'1
In their houses the Greeks put at the entrance xa~LP€,
and €v\d/3ov rov /cvva} and on their public buildings
they put inscriptions which told of the dedication to
particular gods and goddesses ; but that was almost
all. It was very much the same with the Romans.
Their public buildings had inscriptions which told
something of the purposes for which they were built,
and which told the names of the consuls in whose
consulate they were built ; but though they were very
happy in their inscriptions on monuments, etc., they
do not seem to have done much in house mottoes until
quite a late period. Like the Greeks, they had their
Salve and Cave Canem, and not much more.

So I come to English house mottoes and inscriptions.
I shall take little or no notice of mottoes which are
only the mottoes of the coats of arms of the owners,
though in a few cases the mottoes may be as applicable
to the house as to the armorial bearings. Nor shall
I say much of inscriptions in or on churches ; they are
nearly always texts of Scripture applicable as well to
one church as another. And though I cannot entirely
pass by all foreign mottoes, I shall chiefly notice them
where they either supplement or explain mottoes
found in England, or where they have some excellence

1 George Chapman's translation, in 1614, is almost as good :

11 We should a guest love, while he loves to stay,

And, when he likes not, give him loving way."

HOUSE MOTTOES 261

that deserves special notice ; though in many parts
of Europe house mottoes are far more abundant than
in England, especially in Italy, Switzerland, Tyrol and
Germany. And of the English mottoes I may say
that most of them have been collected and copied
either by myself or by trustworthy friends, and I have
found very little help in books. From Notes and Queries
I have been able to gather some, and about two years
ago a book was published under the title of House
Mottoes and Inscriptions, Old and New, by S. F. Caul-
field ; it was rather a pretty book, but the inscriptions
were not many, and the authoress' ignorance of Latin
led her into many mistakes ; and I have found very
little help from it. Of foreign inscriptions there have
been several good collections ; and to help those who
may wish to pursue the subject further I will mention
three, (i) Deutsche Inschriften an Haus and Gerdth,
Berlin, 1882 ; (2) An Exhaustive Collection of German
Inscriptions in Alsace, published by the German Vogesen
Club of Strasbourg ; (3) Hauspruche aus den Alpen,
by Ludwig von Harmann, Leipsig, 1896. l To these
may be added a series of very good papers by Miss Busk
in the 6th series of Notes and Queries, containing a
large collection of foreign mottoes — chiefly Italian.

Among English mottoes the first place must be given
to those which tell of hearty welcome. The Romans
contented themselves with Salve, and in thousands of
houses at home and abroad that has been considered
enough, especially by foreign hotel keepers who seem
to think it essential to their large doormats. But in
England the word " Welcome " is much dearer ; it

1 There is also a good collection of house mottoes, by W. Norman
Brown, in Country Life, April 8, 1899, ^ut ^ has not been repub-
lished in book form.

262 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

seems to come home to us with a sound of heartiness,
such as the Italian benvenuto or the French bien-venu,
though meaning the same thing, do not quite convey
to us. And so in many houses that one word by itself
serves for the house motto. At Tort worth, in Glouces
tershire, the pierced parapet of the gate-house has that
alone in open-work letters, and really nothing more
is needed ; but it has been expanded into some hundreds
of variants, all meaning the same thing, yet each
conveying its own separate message, and many of them
are very beautiful.

One of the best is over the door at Montacute, Somer
set, 1600 :

Through this wide-opening gate

None comes too early, none returns too late.

On the pediment of the west front at Dyrham Park,
Gloucestershire :

His utere mecum.1
On the porch at Beddington, Sussex :

To those who cross the threshold of this door
A hearty welcome, both to rich and poor ;
One favour only we would bid you grant,
Feel you're at home, and ask for what you want.

At Verona and in many other places is :

Patct janua cor magis.2
Which over the gateway at Siena is enlarged into :

Cor magis portis tibi Siena pandit.3
And over a house in Tyrol :

Pusilla domus et quantacumque est
Amicis dies noctesque patet*

1 Use these with me. (In the translation of these mottoes I
shall use a free rather than a strict literal translation.)

2 My door is open to you ; my heart still more.

3 Wider than her gates, Siena opens her heart to you.

4 A small house, but, such as it is, open to friends night and day.

HOUSE MOTTOES 263

At Corby Castle, Cumberland :

Suis et amicis.1

A very common series of inscriptions is in the
enlargement of Salve into Pax intrantibus, seen on
entering ; salus exeuntibus, seen on leaving the house ;
and benedictio habitantibus, in a conspicuous place in
the hall.8 In some places this is slightly enlarged
into :

Gaudeat ingrediens, laetetiw et aede recedens?

and at Whitely in Northumberland, on the first and
last house in England, the motto facing those who
come into England is, pacem intrantibus opto.* To
which may be added the following very appropriate
Shakespearean mottoes placed by Mr. J. Halliwell
Phillips, the great Shakespearean commentator, on his
house in a very exposed place at Ditchling Road, near
Brighton :

Come hither — come hither — come hither —
Here shall you see no enemy but winter
And rough weather.

— As you Like It.

And on the door leading to the library :

Open locks, whoever knocks.

— Macbeth.

To us some of these offers of hospitality to all comers
may seem extravagant and unmeaning ; but when
they were written — I mean the older ones — they were
not words without meaning ; they really meant all
they said. For in those days such hospitality was not
only looked upon as a duty incumbent on every Chris-

1 For family and friends.

2 Come in and welcome. Good-bye. A blessing on all in the
house.

3 Joy as you come in, and joy as you go out.

4 I bid peace to all who enter here.

264 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

tian gentleman ; it was a necessity of the times. When
inns were few and far between, the wayfarer of every
class looked for open doors, with food and lodging,
wherever the owner was in a position to give them ;
and the benighted or hungry wayfarer received, almost
as a matter of course, the same ungrudging hospitality
which many of us have received from the Hospices
of the Great St. Bernard or the Simplon, where all who
come are welcome, and are fed and lodged, but no
questions asked, and no return demanded. Such
hospitality must have been the regular thing in Shakes
peare's time, as we know by a passage in the Taming
of the Shrew. The great lord, hearing a trumpet,
says :

Go see what trumpet 'tis that sounds ;
Belike, some noble gentleman, that means,
Travelling some journey, to repose him here ;

and when he is told that they are only " players that
offer service to your lordship/' it makes no difference
in his welcome ; it is still :

Bid them come near ; now, fellows, you are welcome —
Do you intend to stay with me to-night ?

The second batch of mottoes is on a rather lower
scale. There is still the welcome, but it is a welcome
with a difference ; not so much differing according to
the rank of the visitors, but according to their char
acters. There are a great many of that sort. I
select a few.

At Penny Hall, Almondbury, is one of such doubtful
meaning that the guest might almost interpret it as
he liked :

Intret fides — exeat fraus, i6ij.1

At Rome on an entrance with three doors : on a closed
1 Enter faith ; away with deceit.

HOUSE MOTTOES 265

door, nocentibus ; on the central and side open doors,
sibi et amicis.1

On the door of the house at Salvington, Sussex, in
which Selden was born :

Gratus, honeste, mihi : non claudor, inito sedeque,
Fur, abeas ; non sum facta soluta tibi.

It was translated in the Gentleman's Magazine, 18 4 :

Thou'rt welcome, honest friend ; walk in, make free ;
Thief, get thee gone ; my doors are closed to thee.

And at Losely House, Surrey, the old seat of the More
family, is this over the door :

Invidiae claudor, pateo sed semper amico ; 2

and over the drawing-room door :

Probis non pravis*

While the following, of which the original is, I believe,
on the door of an Italian monastery, is also found on
some English houses, as at the Old House at Ablington.
It has a double meaning, according as the stop is placed ;
it is either :

Porta patens esto ; nulli claudatur honesto ;
or it is :

Porta patens esto nulli ; claudatur honesto.*

This doubtful motto may well introduce us to some
which are not at all doubtful, but are repelling and
were meant to be so.

Foremost comes the one which only existed in
the poet's imagination, but which has been taken as
the classical motto, forbidding entrance, or at the
least deterring all comers ; the inscription on the

1 For rogues ; for self and friends.

2 I am fast shut against the envious, but always open to a friend.

3 For honest men, not knaves.

4 Let the door be open, and shut to no honest man ; or, Let the
door be open to none, and shut to every honest man.

266 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Porta dell Inferno ; scritte al Sommo (Tuna porta :

Per me si va nella citta dolente ;
Per me si va nell' eterno dolore ;

Per me si va tra la perduta gente
*****

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate.1
Of all the horrors of Dante's Inferno this seems to
me the most horrible ; despair can go no deeper.

But there are other mottoes forbidding entrance,
but without this terrible character. At Froome Royal
co. Tyrone :

Welcome to come in, and
As welcome to go by. 1670.

At Madeley, in Staffordshire, on a half-timbered house
of 1647 is this churlish inscription :

Walk, knave. What look'st at ?
A very similar one is at Pompeii :

Morandi locus hie non est, discede morator ; 2
and the account of both is that they were the houses
of a tailor or cobbler who worked at an open window.
But this sort of churlishness was not confined to Roman
cobblers. It is very probable that the snarling dog, with
the motto Cave canem, was not so much to warn friends
as to frighten away unwelcome visitors, just as our
modern " Beware of the dog " is for the benefit of
tramps and rogues rather than of friends. Bishop
Wordsworth quotes two passages from Ovid and
Propertius which are examples of this churlishness :
Surda sit oranti tua janua, laxa ferenti :

1 Through me is the way into the doleful city ;
Through me the way into the eternal pain,

Through me the way among the people lost.
*****

Leave all hope, ye that enter here.

J. A. Carlyle's Translation.
z This is no place for foolish loitering ; move on, loiterer.

HOUSE MOTTOES 267

And

Janitor ad dantis vigilet, si pulsat inanis,
Surdus in obductam somniet usque seram.

Miscellanies, p. 9.*

i.e., if you are bringing a present, welcome ; if not, be
off. But from the cobblers of Madeley and Pompeii
it is pleasant to turn to a cobbler at Siena, who built
a hospital and, with pardonable vanity, placed on it
the motto, "Hie sutor ultra crepidam." 2

It is Pliny that tells the story of the origin of this
proverb, that it was spoken by Apelles to a cobbler
who ventured to criticize his painting of a man's legs ;
but in Pliny's version the word is not ultra, but supra.
This would have been almost better for the good
cobbler's motto, but whichever he used it was a proof
that he thought no scorn of his old craft, though in it
he was only a sutor crepidarius.

I turn from these to a batch of mottoes which I
should class as strictly religious, by which I mean
that they do not so much record man's work in the
happiness of house and home, as God's ; and they
generally, but not always, take the form of texts of
Scripture. One of the most common is a date with
the initials, or perhaps the name of the owner, ending
with : " He that built all things is God " (Heb. iii. 4).
Another almost as common is from Psalm cxxvii. i :
" Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but
lost that build it " ; or, in the Latin, Nisi Dominus, etc.
At Castle Ashby, in Northants, a beautiful pierced
parapet runs all round the house, with this Latin text
in fine open-work letters, with the addition over the

1 Let the door be deaf to a beggar, open to a giver. Let the
porter be wide awake to a giver, but to the knock of an empty-
handed caller let him snore on all day.

2 Here the cobbler has gone beyond (or above) his last.

268 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

entrance of Dominus custodial introitum et exitum tuum. l
At Primiero, the pretty little town that lies at the
southern end of the great Dolomite range of Austrian
Tyrol, Gilbert and Churchill in 1864 found on almost
every house the motto, Christus nobiscum stet.z When
I was there in 1890 many of these had disappeared
from the main street, but there were plenty in the
small back streets. In some the word was stat, not
stet ; both are equally good, the one being a declaration
of faith in Christ's presence with His people ; the other
a prayer for His presence in that particular house. The
same idea occurs on a stone over the entrance to
Langford Court, Somerset :

Christe casas intra mecum

Donee caelos intrem Tecum. 1651.

Thus in English :

Enter, dear Lord, mine house with me,
Until I enter heaven with Thee.

At Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire,

Omne bonum Dei donum.3
On the roof of the hall at Rockingham Castle :

The house shall be preserved and never shall decay e,

Where the Almighty God is honoured and served daye by daye.

There is a large batch of mottoes akin to these, but
which I should call mottoes of good advice to the
readers. George Herbert's, at Bemerton, comes first :

To MY SUCCESSOR.
If thou chance for to find
A new house to thy mind,
And built without thy cost,
Be good to the poor
As God gives thee store,
And then my labour's not lost.

1 The Lord preserve thy going out and thy coming in.

2 Christ is standing with us.

8 Every good thing is the gift of God.

HOUSE MOTTOES 269

He may have got the idea of part of this from the motto
over an alms-box at Reading:

Remember the poore
And God will bless thee
And thy store. 1627.

At Barr's Court in the parish of Bitton, there was a
fine Manor House belonging to the Newtons, which
was visited by Lei and and admired by him. Over
the entrance was " Honour thy father and thy mother,
that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee/' The house is now destroyed,
but the stone is preserved in a chantry of the Parish
Church, formerly connected with the house.

At High Sunderland, near Halifax, is this :

Omnipotent fa%it, stirps Sutherlandia sedes
Incolat has placide et tueatur jura parentum,
Lite vacans, donee fluctus formica marines
Ebibat, et totum testudo perambulet orbem.1

It is a sad record that the Sutherland who wrote this
motto alienated the estate.
At Alnwick is this :

That which your father of old hath purchased and left you to
possess, do you dearly hold to show his worthiness. 1714.

A large number of house mottoes record the writers'
feelings as to past, present, and future owners, and
the changeable character of all worldly goods. The
idea is shortly stated in the line :

Nunc mea, mox hujus, sed postea nescio cu]us ; 2
but it has many variants. At Haunch Hall, in Stafford
shire, there is a large four-light window. In each

1 God grant that the Sutherland family may live here in peace,
preserving the rights of their ancestors, without strife, till the time
shall come when an ant shall drink up the ocean, and a tortoise walk
round the world.

2 Mine to-day, his to-morrow, whose afterwards I know not.
A similar motto is found on many houses in Tyrol and Germany.

270 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

light is a shield and a motto. On the first shield is
the coat of arms of the original owner, with the motto
olim ; on the second shield the arms of the owner
preceding the present one with the motto fieri ; on
the third shield the arms of the present owner with
the motto hodie ; and on the fourth a shield with no coat
of arms, but the words Nescio cujus, and the motto
underneath, Cms.

At Hawick is a motto with the same idea :
All was others — all will be others.

At Swinbourne Rectory, Northumberland :

Non tarn sibi quam success oribus suis hoc aedificium extruxit
M. Allgood. Anno Mirabili 1660, followed by Nunc mea, etc.1

The same idea may be found in hie hospites, in caelo
cives, 1379, and in peregrines hie nos reputamus, 1650. 2

I do not know who was the first author of the motto
Nunc mea, etc. It may have been founded on the
text, " One generation passeth away and another cometh
in its stead/' but the oldest I can find is in an epigram
in the Anthologia Graeea, ix. 74, which by substituting
o?/co? for 'Aypo<f makes a good house motto:

'Aypos 'Axai/aeviSov ycvopyv TTOTC, vvv Se MmWov,

KOU TraXiv e£ erepou /?7Jcro/xai et? erepov.
KCU yap CKetyos €^€tv /AC TTOT* wcro, Km 7raA.ii/ OVTOS
oterat, «i/xt, 8' oXoos ouSei/o?, dXXcx Tv^?-

Thus in English :

Achaemenides my owner was, Menippus is to-day ;

From one unto another I shall quickly pass away.
One thought he owned me once, one thinks he owns me now,

But, except it be by Fortune, I am owned by none, I trow.

[H. N. E.]

1 Not for himself, but for his successors, M. Allgood built this
house in the wonderful year 1666.

2 Here we are but guests, but citizens in heaven. We count
ourselves as pilgrims.

HOUSE MOTTOES 271

A very interesting class of mottoes is found in
descriptions of the house, and contentment with it,
however small and unpretending it may be. Of mottoes
on large houses I can only mention one that is found
at the entrance staircase to one of the old tall houses
of Edinburgh : sic itur ad astra.1 But of mottoes on
small houses there is an abundance, starting with
parva sed apta, which is found on many. It takes many
forms ; as parva domus, magna quies ; satis ampla
quae securitate gaudeat ; satis ampla morituro2 It was
curiously enlarged by Ariosto and placed on the f agade
of the house he built for himself at Ferrara, and sur
rounded with a garden which he loved so well :

Parva sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, se d non
Sordida, parta meo sed (amen aere domus.3

On a small house near Florence is a short motto,
what has been often copied : casa mia, casa miaf
piccola che sia, sempre casa mia, which reminds one
of Touchstone's honest defence of his Audrey, "a
poor Virgin, sir, an ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine
own/' We have some good mottoes of content and
thankfulness, such as,

Travel east or travel west,

A man's own house is still the best.

which is thus given on some Swedish houses :

Borta er bra, men hemme er best
(i.e., It is good to travel, but better to be at home) ;

and the same contentment with home is shown in the

1 The way to the stars.

2 A small house, but a fitting one. A small house with great
rest. Large enough where there is safety. Large enough for a
dying man.

3 A small house, but enough for me ; in no one's way. Not
mean, and gained by my own money.

272 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

mottoes by Dr. Stuckley and the Rev. R. Hawker.
Dr. Stuckley 's was :

Me dulcis saturet quies
Obscuro positus loco
Seni perfusus otio ;

and Hawker's at Morwenstow Vicarage :

A house, a glebe, a pound a day ; *
A pleasant place to watch and pray.
Be true to Church, be kind to poor ;
O minister ! for evermore.

The following on a small house at Ravenna is curious :

0 / utinam celeber fidis ego semper amicis,
Parva licet nullo nomine clam domus2

But the following is not so pleasant ; it is fromPhaedrus,
but the original idea is attributed to Socrates, when
his friends twitted him for building too small a house,

Utinam etiam hanc veris impleam amicis?
Before going inside the house I must name a few garden
mottoes ; on the garden entrance at Montacute is,
" and yours, my friends/' At the entrance to a garden
in Surrey is this from Dante :

Le fronde, onde s' infronda tutto 1'orto
Dell Ortolano eterno, am' io cotanto,
Quanto da lui a lor di bene e porto.

Par ad. xxvi. 64.*

1 See *The Poetical Works of r Robert Stephen Hawker, p. 283,
" The annual value of the vicarage rentcharge. — R. S. H."

The motto is corrected from this work where Hawker's note is
given. — A. W. H.

2 Though my house is small and has no grand name,

May it find a place in the fond memories of faithful friends.
[Sir Arthur Hort suggests that the literal translation should be :
" O would that I might always be thronged with loyal friends, tho'
my house is small and of no reputation."]
8 Would that I could fill even this with faithful friends.
4 The leaves wherewith embowered is all the garden
Of the Eternal Gardener do I love,
As much as He has granted them of good.

— Longfellow's Translation.

HOUSE MOTTOES 273

And among garden mottoes I may mention the good
motto, laborare est orare. The real author of the
saying has not been exactly traced ; it has been
attributed to St. Augustine, St. Bernard and others ;
but I have been told that it is used as a motto on the
garden entrance in some foreign monastery, though
my informant was unable to tell me the exact place ;
but as a garden motto it is excellent, teaching
the lesson that labour and prayer not only can but
ought to go together, as different parts of the same
duty.

I must add one more outside motto which would not
well fall within any of the classes I have named.
On the east side of a house at Sedgeforth, Norfolk, is,

O timely happy, timely wise,
Hearts that with rising morn arise ;

and on the west side :

Though the day be ne'er so long,
It runneth at length to evensong.

Inside the house mottoes are allowed to be longer. At
Aston Manor, near Birmingham, there is an inscription
over the fireplace in the great hall, which pleasantly
shows the close connection that formerly existed
between all members of the household. It is headed :
To my servant and my handmaid :

If service be thy means to thrive,

Thou must therein remain
Both silent, faithful, just, and true,

Content to take some pain,
If love of virtue may allure,

Or hope of worldly gain,
If fear of God may thee procure,

To serve do not disdain.

274 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

At Knebworth the first Lord Lytton placed the
following lines on the roof-tree of the great hall :

Read the rede of this Old Roof Tree —
Here be trust fast — Opinion free —
Knightly right Hand — Christian Knee —
Worth in all — Wit in some —
Laughter open — Slander dumb —
Hearth where rooted friendships grow,
Safe as altar even to foe.

For the library there is no motto better than Cicero's
Vita sine literis mors est.1 In the Arundines Cami, H.
T. Drury gave some lines headed, " This introduceth
to mie librarie," with a Latin translation. They are
too long to quote, and I am not sure they were ever
placed in his library, but they will be found on p. 180
of the volume.

Over the fireplace at Lower Loughton, Flintshire,
is " When friends meet, hearts warm." And on another
old fireplace :

When you sit by the fire yourselves to warm,

Take care that your tongue do your neighbour no harm.

On the entrance to the Refectory at Vallombrosa is
Regnum Dei non est esca et potum ;2 and at the entrance
to the cellar at Losely, already mentioned, is siti non
ebrietati.3

Bedrooms have naturally called for inscriptions and
mottoes, and there are many, but none better than
T. Wharton's address to sleep :

Somne venil et, quamquam certissima mortis imago es,

Consortem cupio te tamen esse mei.
Hue ades : haud abiture cito, nam sic sine vita

Vivere quam suave est — sic sine morte mori.

1 Life without literature is death.

2 The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink.

3 To quench thirst, not for drunkenness.

HOUSE MOTTOES 275

Or in Greek :

irpovepxov pot, Oavarov ryv ciKoVa JJL€VTOL
ovra ore crvyKOirov /3ovA.o/xat eivat

)l> VVKTO.

Chronograms are true house mottoes, but I have not
space to describe them fully, and they have been
exhaustively dealt with by Mr. Hilton in two large
volumes. I will only give one short example from
Winchester :

PII reges nUtr II reglnae nVtrlCes slae sunt DoMVs hViVs.

By adding together the capitals we get the date, 1635.
It was the fashion for a time, and was even used to
date books ; but it did not last long.2

There are many good mottoes for wayside drinking
places ; one of the best is at Civita Castellana :
Siste, bibe, et felix carpe, viator, Her?

At Ham on a drinking-fountain erected by Mr.
Watts Russell in memory of his wife are the lines :

1 From the many translations of Wharton's lines I select the
following as closest to the original :

Come, sleep ; for though death's closest counterfeit,

I woo thee for the partner of my bed ;
Come, nor soon go ; for night goes sweetly by,

When thus I lifeless live, thus without death I die,

[H. N. E.]

See p. 55. The Greek version was written by Canon Ellacombe
as well as this English translation. It is interesting to compare
the Canon's English rendering with that sent by Sir Herbert
Maxwell.— A. W.H.

2 Chronogram is thus well denned in N. E. D. : "A phrase, sen
tence, or inscription, in which certain letters (usually distinguished
by size or otherwise from the rest) express, by their numerical values,
a date or epoch."

3 Rest, traveller ; drink, and go on your way rejoicing.

276 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Free as for all these crystal waters flow,
Her gentle eyes would weep for other's woe.
Dried is that fount, but long may this endure
To be a well of comfort to the poor.

In Marmion Sir W. Scott gives an inscription on a
wayside spring near Flodden ; but whether it had a
real existence I do not know :

Drink, weary pilgrim, drink and pray
For the kind soul of Sybil Grey,
Who built this cross and well.

The story goes that a publican close by asked Sir
Walter to give him some lines like those on the well
for his house ; and that he gave him, " Rest, weary
traveller, drink and pay/'

This brings me to tavern and other trade inscriptions,
on which I need say very little, for they have been
abundantly chronicled. * But I may mention one curious
one on a public-house at Wymondham :

Non mihi glis servus, nee hospes hirudo2

I must mention a few mottoes on public buildings,
more or less descriptive of the purposes for which
they were built. On the Military Hospital at Berlin is
lasso sed invicto militi, and on the Pump Room at
Bath is Pindar's apHrrov ^ vSap, both very appro-

1 The following motto by an unknown author which I found in
an Inn at St. Davids is worthy of being put on record in this
connection. — A. W. H.

" Water is the best of drinks that man to man may bring ;
But who am I, that I should have the best of everything ?
Princes may revel at the tap, Kings with the pump make free,
But spirits, wine, or even beer are good enough for me ! "

2 Hospes must be taken in its second sense of host and not
guest ; and then the notice is : " Here you will find no sleepy
servant or blood- sucking host."

HOUSE MOTTOES 277

priate.1 On the pediment of the London Royal Ex
change is the text, " The Earth is the Lord's and the
fulness thereof/' suggested by Prince Albert in con
junction with Dean Milman. At the Derby Porcelain
Works is currente rota cur urce^ls exit ? 3 And on the
ceiling of a bank parlour in New York is sapiens qui
assiduus ; 3 in a public library somewhere, I believe in
London, is the good advice :

Tolle, aperi, recita, ne laedas, claude, repone*

And over the gate of the Cancellaria at Rome is a fine
inscription, for which I must find room. It is said
to have been composed by Pope Benedict XIII. in
1725 :

Fide Deo — die saepe preces — peccare caveto —
Sis humilis — pacem dilige — magna fuge —
Multa audi — die pauca — tace obdita — scito minori
Parcere — majori cedere — ferre parent —
Propria fac — persolve fidem — sis aequus egeno —
.Pacta tuere — pati disce — memento mori.5

I said that I would pass by all mottoes in and on
churches ; but there are two which are so much out
of the common that I must record them. At Sion, in

1 A few years ago the baths were enlarged. On the inscription
giving date, etc., the same motto was placed, but the architect
being apparently ignorant of Greek, omitted the aspirate in £So>p,
and so rather spoiled it.

2 How is it that from the revolving wheel a pitcher comes out ?
8 The busy man is the wise man.

4 Take down the book ; open it ; read it ; do it no harm ; put
it back.

5 Trust in God — continue instant in prayer — flee from sin — be
humble — love peace — mind not high things — listen much — talk
little — keep secrets — be kind to those beneath — be reverent to
those above you — be patient with equals — cleave to that which
is good — keep the faith — be kind to the poor — keep your promises
— learn to suffer — remember death.

278 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Valais, in the Valley of the Rhone, is the inscription,
dilexit Dominus port as Sion supra omnia tabernacula
Israel. x And at Alen9on there is a good pulpit attached
to one of the nave piers. The entrance is up a spiral
staircase formed in the thickness of the pier ; and over
the entrance to the staircase is this : qui non intrat
per ostium sed ascendit aliunde idem est fur et latro*
As the staircase is very steep and narrow, any preacher,
especially if more than usual tall or stout, might well
be excused if he tried to climb up some other way.
In this paper I have rather aimed at giving a sort of
classification of house mottoes, than a large collection
of them. I have tried to find good specimens of each
class, and I will finish with one which I can scarcely
place under any class. On the weighing machine out
side the railway station at Brigue on the Rhone, I
copied this : qui souvent se pese bien se connait, et qui
bien se connait bien se porte.

H. N. E.

1 The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings
of Jacob.

2 He that entereth not by the door, but climbeth up some other
way, the same is a thief and a robber.

CHURCH RESTORATION l

IN writing of Church restoration, I do not limit
myself to the strict meaning of the word, but I
use it in the sense in which it is generally used, and
apply it to all new work done in ancient buildings.

There is a common phrase much in the mouths of
people engaged in Church restoration, that " the
work contemplated will be carried out in a strictly
conservative manner, and in the spirit of the old
builders." They are very pretty words, and when
spoken by a smooth-tongued architect to prospective
employers everything is supposed to be safe. The
mischief in the words is that not many of such speakers,
and very few indeed of their hearers, attach any
intelligible meaning to them ; but the words will be
useful to me as pegs on which to hang a few practical
remarks.

" Church Restoration should be conservative and
carried out in the spirit of the old builders " — i.e.,
of builders before the end of the fifteenth century.
Now, among the excellences of the old architects and
builders conservatism had no place whatever. Their
one ruling principle seems to have been to make the
house of God as rich and beautiful as skill and money
and labour could make it. In aiming at that object
nothing stood in their way, and least of all no feeling

1 This article was published in The National Review, 1907,
vol. L, p. 609.

279

280 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

of antiquarianism (as we now understand it) or any
feeling of respect for the builders that went before
them.

I may remark, by the way, that antiquarianism is
entirely a modern science. To a certain extent it
must be so from the very nature of the case ; but it
is very curious that in England there were no students
of the antiquities of England before the sixteenth
century ; the utter absence of all notices of Stone-
henge, and of the many Roman remains which existed
in so many parts of England and Scotland, shows this.
It was not till abbeys, castles, and churches were
destroyed in the sixteenth century that their history
began to be studied, and Camden commenced the
study of antiquarianism — but this by the way.

The great principle of the mediaeval builders was,
without any scruple or hesitation, to destroy or alter
everything that stood in the way of what they deemed
the best and fittest styles for church architecture.
Two or three instances will show what I mean. In
the eleventh century there was no ecclesiastical building
more highly prized than Westminster Abbey. It was
built by Edward the Confessor, and held in special
honour as containing his bones ; but higher honour
still was wished for him, and the way in which it was
shown was by pulling down all that he had built —
the only building in England that was without any
dispute his own special work. " Reverence for the
dead," says Freeman, " would of itself call for the
destruction of his own building, if it could be replaced
by one which the taste of that age deemed more
worthy of sheltering the shrine which contained his
bones. The Church of Westminster was therefore
destroyed by his own worshippers in his own honour."

CHURCH RESTORATION 281

That is one example. Another, almost more striking,
may be seen at Winchester. Down to the time of
William of Wykeham the cathedral of Winchester
was a grand late Norman building, with large circular
pillars, as at Durham, Rochester, and Gloucester.
But William of Wykeham had no respect for Norman
architecture or Norman builders, and in his desire
to make his cathedral at Winchester as beautiful as
he could he did not hesitate to convert the Norman
pillars into others of his own design, not by pulling
down the old and building new ones, but by carving
the large old circular pillars into a central shaft with
smaller pillars clustering round it. The result obtained
is very beautiful, but the price paid for it was the
practical destruction of the original Norman nave.
Waltham Abbey is a very similar instance. Founded
early in the eleventh century by Tofig the Proud, and
built in the most beautiful style of the day by King
Harold, it had the high honour of being his burial-
place. Yet, in spite of these grand associations, an
attempt was made in the fourteenth century to destroy
all Harold's work, and to convert the building into
a church of pointed arches. Two of the bays of Harold's
work were removed, but, owing to structural difficulties,
the work went no further. The same can be found
in every cathedral and abbey in England, and they
all tell the same story : that in their new buildings,
whether of addition or merely repairs, the old builders
had no respect for ancient work, and showed very
little reverence for the builders that had done good
work before their day ; and they showed their want
of respect and reverence by the utter destruction of old
work. But in saying that I must add that there
was a vast difference between the destruction of old

282 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

buildings before the sixteenth century and the destruc
tion that took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Before the sixteenth century destruction
was with a view to building something better ; in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the destruction
was for the entire removal and spoliation of the build
ings ; and in carrying out their work the mediaeval
builders — i.e., those before the sixteenth century —
always had an eye for future developments in archi
tecture, and never thought it worth while, or part
of their duty, to look back to the centuries that had
passed for any guide in the work that was immediately
beneath their hands. Restoration as we now under
stand it had no meaning for them.

There are few parish churches which cannot give
examples of the same thing, and it scarcely seems too
much to say that there was at least as much, if not
more, destruction of ancient buildings before the
sixteenth century as in the disastrous destruction of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We have
proofs of the utter destruction of many churches built
before the fifteenth century in the number of Norman
and Early English fonts which alone in many churches
bear witness to the existence of earlier buildings.
Every county in England can show such fonts, but
perhaps Devonshire can show them in the greatest
abundance. Throughout the monotonous church archi
tecture of the county the old Norman font in many
churches alone tells the tale that there was a time when
there was as little monotony in the churches as there
is in the scenery.

I cannot better show how from one century to
another the work of destruction was carried on in our
parish churches, but always with the view of substitu-

CHURCH RESTORATION 283

ting something better and more beautiful, than by
taking one church ; and I take one with which I am
better acquainted than any other, the church of St.
Mary's, Bitton, Gloucestershire.1

In pre-Norman times the church was a long and very
lofty church. The exact date of the foundation
cannot be fixed, but Professor Freeman said that it
might be placed any time after the fifth century. Then
in the eleventh century the church was altered by the
usual additions of a western front, north and south
doors, and a chancel arch placed within the older Saxon
arch. At the end of the thirteenth century came
Bishop Button, who, to build a beautiful mortuary
chapel in memory of his parents, pulled down a large
portion of the north wall of the nave, and did not
hesitate to chop up Norman windows and other Norman
work, and even Norman monuments. Then came an
unknown builder at the end of the fourteenth century,
who obtained from Pope Gregory XL, in 1370, an
indulgence of forty days to all who contributed to the
building of a new tower and chancel. To do this the
original chancel (of which there are no remains) was
destroyed, as well as the west front ; the beautiful
tower was then built, but ten feet of the nave were
destroyed to receive it, and a very beautiful chancel
took the place of the older one. In the fifteenth
century a large portion of the south wall was pulled
down and rebuilt in the style of the day, but, rather
curiously, the builders, though they must have de-

1 I select Bitton, because my father and I have had the charge
of it for more than ninety years, and during that time have made
a study of its history and architecture, and so can speak more
confidently of it than of any other ; and this paper is an enlarge
ment of an address to a meeting of neighbouring clergy who were
well acquainted with the places named.

284 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

stroyed much Norman work, carefully replaced the old
Norman corbel table above the new perpendicular
windows. But that they destroyed much is clear
from the fact that when, a few years ago, it was
necessary to rebuild one of the southern buttresses of
the fifteenth century, it was found to have been partly
built of old stone coffin covers, the floriated cross,
etc., being concealed by the face being turned inwards.
At the same time, the carver who was employed to
carve the drip finials of the new three-light windows
also carved the finial of the drip of the fine Norman
arch of the south door, not in the style of the Norman
arch, but of the finials which he had been carving for
the fifteenth-century windows.

The old builders, then, had little or no respect for
antiquity as such, and they destroyed ruthlessly where
ruthless destruction was (in their opinion) necessary
for the greater beautifying of the house of God. And
my point is that we in our day are following in their
steps when we pull down or rebuild, though in doing
so we may seem to be wanting in reverence for those
who went before us. I yield to no one in my love of
old church work, and in my deep admiration for the
grand mediaeval builders ; but I say that the time
often comes when we must not let this love and admira
tion stand in the way of good and necessary work
which we may be called on to carry out. If we are so
called on, what we do must be done in the spirit of
the old builders ; we may rebuild and destroy, not for
the sake of destruction, and not because the older work
is not altogether to modern taste or our own fancy, but
simply and solely in majorem Dei gloriam. The
extremest case would be the necessity to pull down
an old church entirely and build a new one ; it would

CHURCH RESTORATION 285

be to many, as it would be to myself, almost heart
breaking to be forced to such an extreme ; but if from
any cause there comes a large increase of population,
rendering the old church unfit for present needs, I think
no one should hesitate to pull down the existing church
and build a larger, or make a large addition, which
would practically change the character of the church.
In many parishes a time comes when a servile anti-
quarianism is almost sinful ; and, speaking for myself,
I should consider that I was not walking in the steps
of the vicars of mediaeval times if I tied myself down to
such an admiration of their work that I would limit
the capabilities of the church to the requirements of
their times when the requirements of my own called
for something very different.

I claim, therefore, for myself and my brethren, a
free hand in dealing with our old churches. I claim
that no so-called antiquarian society shall put their
fancied claims before the claims of the parishioners
for whose benefit the church exists ; and I assert that
the old law, or custom, is still the best, which made
the parishioners of each parish, with the vicar, or rector
and churchwardens at their head, and subject to
the appro val~or disapproval of the Ordinary, the
sole judges of the needs of the parish and the parish
church.

There is another point in connection with Church
Restoration that requires notice. There is an idea
in some people's minds that the right form of restora
tion is to find out by such hints as may remain what
the church was between the eleventh and the sixteenth
centuries, and then to bring the whole church to
what it was — or what the architect fancies it was —
at that date. Not long ago there was a good account

286 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

in The Guardian of some Lincolnshire churches, in
which this principle was advocated in its extremest
form. Churches were described in which there were
some beautiful lancet windows, many of which had
been destroyed in the fifteenth, or early in the six
teenth, century to make way for the perpendicular
windows of that date ; and it was stated as a matter
which no one could dispute that the perpendicular
windows must be destroyed and the older form of
window be replaced. The result might, perhaps, be
very beautiful, but it would be obtained at too great
a cost. No doubt churches of one style only have their
special beauty. Our own Salisbury Cathedral and the
exquisite Cathedral of Laon are well-known examples.
But they lack the history that variation gives — their
histories in stone are confined to one period. I know
nothing of the history of these Lincolnshire churches,
and I do not stand up for the beauty of sixteenth-
century work as compared with the work of the
thirteenth century ; though I always think that our
English perpendicular work is unduly vilified, especially
by our architects, none of whom seem able to build
a fifteenth-century church such as we have in Somerset
and East Anglia. But I say that the charm of our
English churches lies not only in their architecture,
but quite as much in their history, which we learn
from the alterations and accretions of century after
century ; and in my own church at Bitton, much as
I might have admired it had it remained in its original
Norman grandeur, it has been made to me far more
interesting and, as I think, far more beautiful by the
many destructions and alterations it has undergone
at the hands of successive generations. It is to me a
delight to read in the stones of the church as it now

CHURCH RESTORATION 387

exists a record of the good men who have gone before,
and of whom no other monument exists, but whose
works show that they did what in them lay to make
God's house beautiful.

And here let me plead for a little more charity for

those to whom very little is shown ; I mean the church

builders and restorers from the seventeenth century

to the middle of the nineteenth. I do not much

admire their work, but we might learn some good lessons

from it, especially in the mechanical excellence of the

workmanship. We have only to look at some of the

London churches, which give such horrors to many, to

see excellence in masonry, carpentry, carving, and

ironwork which seem to be now almost gone from us.

Many examples of this may be seen in modern churches

entirely built of Bath stone. The work is generally

done with the stone not sufficiently hardened before

use ; with bad joints, badly set, and lasting but a few

years. There is a church at Kingswood, near Bristol,

built in 1821, very ugly according to our tastes, but

so well built, with the well-chosen stones laid in their

proper beds, that every joint and every stone is as

good as the day it was built. On the other hand, I

have seen churches restored, within the last thirty

years, where the new windows have had to be entirely

renewed, and woodwork of less than twenty years

standing has been condemned and removed. Not long

ago I read an obituary notice of some good clergyman,

whose name I forget, whose great hobby was church

restoration. He had been vicar of the parish for many

years, and during that time the church had been three

times " completely restored." In that way we may

learn something from the much-abused churchwardens

and builders of the 150 years between 1700 and 1850,

288 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

and the reason why I claim charity for them is because
they really built in the spirit of the old mediaeval
builders. I am glad to believe that that spirit has
never died out of the hearts of the English laity — the
spirit to give of their best and do of their best for God,
the determination to make the house of God beautiful.
With their ideas of beauty we may not agree, but it
may help us to be humble if we will conceive the possi
bility that our taste, too, may not be so perfect as
to have reached finality ; and it may be that in fifty
years our children and grandchildren may look with
horror and regret on the work we think so perfect.
As I look back on the history of English architecture,
I find no difficulty in tracing the same spirit of self-
sacrifice, and in seeing how each generation has carried
on the same work. From the very beginning there has
been an expenditure of thought, skill, labour, and
money, Deo et ecclesiae, in one generation, much of
it, perhaps, to be destroyed in the next, but only
destroyed to give place to better results (as they
fondly hoped) from their thought, skill, labour, and
money. Salisbury will again give us a notable instance.
In the beginning of the last century there were two
men who set to work to improve the cathedral ; the
Dean of the day was one, Wyatt the Destructive was
the other. Wyatt did there as he did in so many
other cathedrals ; he cleared away everything that
stood in the way of an uninterrupted view from east
and west. To do that he made, as we should say,
frightful havoc of the interior ; and, from the same
desire for uniformity, he destroyed the elegant detached
bell-tower that stood near the west end of the cathedral.
That was Wyatt's work. The Dean's work consisted
in destroying every tombstone in the churchyard to

CHURCH RESTORATION 289

make the lovely green sward from which the cathedral
now rises. Most of us admire the Dean's work, but
there is no doubt that he destroyed more local history
than Wyatt did. But I say that both of them were
working on the old lines ; they had their own ideas
of what was beautiful and best for God's house, and
they let nothing stand in the way of carrying it out.
They did exactly what William of Wykeham did at
Winchester — William of Wykeham' s destruction of the
interior of Winchester was as complete as Wyatt 's at
Salisbury. Whether the purists of his day admired
his work I do not know, but the purists of Wyatt's
day, and we too, may at least place them both in the
same class of church restorers. It has been the same
in most of our country churches. I descend, longo
intervallo, from Salisbury to my own church at Bitton.
In the last century, or at the end of the eighteenth,
the churchwardens destroyed the rood screen, the old
seats, .and the old roof, and put up an elaborate Tuscan
reredos, very ugly, as we should say, but costly and
well worked. My father, in 1820, destroyed all
their work as far as he could, and did some excellent
work in the fashion of the day. Most of his work I
destroyed, and received his thanks and approval for
so doing. I have little doubt that my successors will
undo much of my work ; and the time may come when
they will restore the Tuscan reredos. To such an event
I look forward with a very light heart ; if the work
is done solely in majorem Dei gloriam, I wish them all
success.

There is one point in connection with church restora
tion on which I would make some short concluding
remarks. When I claim for myself and others a free
hand to do our best in church building, I restrict it

T

ago HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

to the material building. With the movable goods of
the church I think no clergyman or churchwarden has
a right to interfere — meaning, of course, a moral right-
There are in many churches things given by the piety
of our ancestors, with which vicars and churchwardens
are often tempted to play strange pranks — I mean
such things as books, stained glass, bells, plate, altar
cloths, movable ornaments, and such like. In some
few churches there are old books, and even small
libraries. I think nothing can excuse the sale of
them. What to do with stained glass is often a very
difficult question ; the difficulty largely lying in the
material, which precludes any form of improvement
without destruction. No one would think now of
selling or destroying old windows ; but the greater
part of the glass put up during the last fifty years is,
for the most part, so bad that there are very few which
do credit to our generation. I do not advocate their
destruction altogether, and I do not think a clergyman
would be justified in destroying them and replacing
them with plain glass, though plain glass would often
be preferable ; but I think he would be justified in
destroying them and putting better in their place,
even though they also might have to give place to
better ones in a few years. Mediaeval bells may be
cracked and must be mended ; but no clergyman is
acting in the spirit of the old builders who sells one
or more of his bells to do some necessary work in the
church ; or who, having a peal of six heavy bells,
breaks it up to make eight lighter ones because he prefers
a peal of eight. If he wants two more, he should
provide them in some other way, without destroying the
history of which very often the bells are the only
record. And still more is this the case with church

CHURCH RESTORATION 291

plate. The church plate between 1700 and 1850 is
not much to the taste of many, but it is always of good
quality, and is a record of the piety of former genera
tions, and sometimes of their munificent liberality, which
ought to save them, and for which no record on the
Registers, or other parish books, are a substitute. The
old donors gave in the certainty that their gifts would
be used in the highest offices of the Church, and for
that special purpose they gave them ; and not that
their names should be inscribed in the Parish Registers.
Here the right and easy remedy for any one who dis
likes the pattern of his church vessels is to get others
at his own expense. In all probability, in fifty years'
time or less, the then vicar will go back to the more
solid old plate, in preference to the flimsiness now in
fashion. And so with altar cloths, vases, and other
decorations. The decision in the Tetbury case has
settled that they are not to be removed if they have
been placed by a faculty, or recognized by long usage,
at the whim of each succeeding vicar or churchwarden,
though there can be no objection to their being carefully
put away and replaced by better ones. So my conclu
sion is that, while the material structure must from
its very nature be liable to alteration, and perhaps
destruction, if it has to be improved, movable goods
can also be improved as much as you like, but by addi
tion and not by destruction.

H. N. E.

ROSES1

IN a medical treatise of the fourteenth century
the author begins his account of the rose in these
words :

Of ye rose y* springeth on spray,
Schewyth hys flowris in someris day,
It nedyth no^t try to discrie,
Eueri man knowyth at eye
Of his vertues and of his kende—

and I cannot do better than take his introduction as
the introduction to this paper on roses. For I do not
intend in it to give anything like a botanical description
of the genus Rosa, or of its many species and varieties.
I shall not attempt a scientific classification of the
family ; I shall say little or nothing of the cultivation
of the plant, or of the many ways by which from a few
single types a multitude of hybrids has been produced
which are the admiration of all rose growers ; and there
are many other points which, perhaps, I cannot leave
quite untouched, but I shall do little more than glance
at them. The rose has been so long admired and studied
that it may seem a useless labour to attempt to find
anything new ; and I do not claim to have found
anything new. But the field is so large that, though
the main harvest has been gathered in, there are many
nooks and corners and unsuspected bypaths in which
there may be found some gleanings worth gathering.
And for these reasons my paper will have in it little
method or order ; it will be but a hotchpot or farrago.

1 This paper was published in The Cornhill Magazine for July,
1905, p. 27.

292

ROSES 293

Something must be said about the early notices
of the flower and its geographical limits ; but on both
these points a very little will be sufficient. It is a
matter of surprise to many that there is scarcely
any notice of the rose in the Bible. The word exists in
our English translation, but it is quite certain that
the translation is not correct, except in the transla
tions from the Greek in the books of Ecclesiasticus
and Wisdom ; but in the two passages from the Song
of Songs and Isaiah — the " rose of Sharon " and
" blossom as the rose " — the Hebrew clearly points
to a bulbous plant, and the general opinion is that
the plant meant is the Narcissus Tazetta. This is
the more remarkable because there is no reason for
supposing that the Jews were different from all other
Eastern nations in their admiration of the rose. And
there are many wild roses in Palestine, some of which
grow in great abundance ; Sir Joseph Hooker found
and described seven species ; and our common cabbage
and damask roses are cultivated everywhere. In
Egypt no representative of the rose has been found
on any of the monuments before the time of the Ptole
mies ; and Dr. Bonavia has no record of it in his
Flora of the Assyrian Monuments, though we know
from Herodotus that the Babylonians carried sceptres
ornamented with an apple, or rose, or lily. When
we come to the Greek writers we are astonished at
the absence of allusions to the rose. In the Homeric
writings we only meet with a notice of it as a colour
adjective, ':< the rosy-fingered morn," or as used in
ointments. Theophrastus, of course, gives a short
botanical account of it. And it is the common custom
with all writers on the rose to say that it was cele
brated by Anacreon and Sappho, especially Sappho.

294 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

Anacreon speaks of it with real admiration, but chiefly
in connection with the worship of Aphrodite ; but
there can scarcely be said to be any notice of the flower
in the fragments of Sappho's poems that have come
down to us, and it is one of the curiosities of literature
how she has come to be reckoned as the chief poetess
of the rose. There is good evidence that she was
very fond of roses, but it does not appear from her
writings. She uses rose-like as an epithet for a girl's
arms, and just mentions Pierian roses — and that is
all. How the mistake arose in English literature, and
how it has been copied by one author after another,
is told in a good article on " Ancient Roses " by the
Rev. G. E. Jeans, of Shorwell, in the Quarterly Review
for 1895. It is very much the same with Latin writers
until the time of the Emperors. Then we have Horace,
Virgil, Ovid, and more especially Martial, speaking
in terms of admiration of the rose ; but it is nearly
always connected in their minds with scenes of dissipa
tion and revelry ; and in no case do we find anything
in their writings that approaches to the loving admira
tion, or the almost passionate affection, that we find
in all the mediaeval and modern authors, not only of
England, but of France, Italy, Germany, and, indeed
of all parts of the civilized world.

To us it is a very interesting question what roses
our forefathers had in mediaeval times, say from the
end of the thirteenth century. We have in England
seven good species of native roses ; and the introduc
tion of damask roses into England in the reign of
Henry VII has been recorded by more than one writer.
Writers on English gardens have too readily admitted
that until the arrival of the damask rose no exotic
rose could be found in cultivation, which, of course,

ROSES 295

can only mean that before that time none but English
roses were to be seen. But a very little experience
in English literature would show that such could not
have been the case. I think it impossible to give to
any of our native roses, however beautiful and sweet,
the passionate descriptions of the rose which we find in
Gower, Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare. I cannot
think that any of our native roses would be described
as " brode roses " — i.e. broad or large ; or that their
colour could be said to be

With colour reed, as welle fyned
As nature couthe it make faire,

with "the freysshe bothum (i.e. bud) so bright of hewe ";
and there are many such passages. And as to the
scent, of none of our British roses could it be said :

The swote smelle spronge so wide
That it dide all the place aboute.

The question then comes, What were the roses that
our forefathers grew and loved before the arrival of
the damask rose ? There are at least two well-known
species which I am sure were in cultivation here at
the end of the fifteenth century, and probably earlier.
One is that universal favourite, the cabbage rose. It
is the " Provencal rose " of Shakespeare, more properly
written Provence, or Provins ; and the " rose of Rhone "
of Chaucer. Unlike the damask rose, there is no
record of its introduction into England ; and I think
this by itself is a strong proof of its antiquity amongst
us, and I suppose it to be the " English red rose "
described by Parkinson as amongst " the most ancient,"
rather variable in colour, but often of " a red or deep
crimson colour " and with a rich scent, so that when
" well dryed and well kept it will hold both colour and
scent longer than the damaske." It is still a great

296 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

favourite ; but the true plant is very scarce, though
it is found in most nurserymen's catalogues ; 'but
though the plants generally offered are very good
varieties, the true plant is known by always having
only one flower, and not a bunch of flowers, on a branch,
the flower also being always nodding. The other old
rose that must have been known long before Shakes
peare's time is the York and Lancaster (R. versicolor
of Parkinson) ; not the rose usually now so named which
is R. mundi, a fine rose and long established in English
gardens, but with coarse colouring and a rampant
habit. The earlier rose is a compact bush with bunches
of roses of different colours, some red, some white,
some red and white ; or, as described by Shakespeare :

The roses fearfully in thorns did stand,

One blushing shame, another white despair,

A third, nor red nor white, had stolen of both ;

and he speaks of " roses damasked red and white."
I am quite sure that in the account of the brawl in the
Temple Gardens the red and white roses were intended
to be growing on the same bush ; the passage will
quite bear that interpretation. The whole scene is
entirely of Shakespeare's imagination ; there is no
other record of it ; and in spite of his grand contempt
for correct chronology, I do not think he would put
into a scene of the time of Henry VI a rose of recent
introduction ; and Chaucer speaks of " floures partie
white and red," probably roses, and Spenser must
surely have been thinking of this rose when he spoke
of " the red rose medled with the white one." x Parkin
son says that before the Wars of the Roses " there was

1 For a further account of the York and Lancaster roses I may
refer to my little book, In a Vicarage Garden, chap, xi., in
which their history is more fully given.

ROSES 297

scene at Longleete a white rose tree to beare on the
one side faire white roses, and on the other side red."
This must have been the same rose.

Very shortly after Shakespeare's death a grand rose
came into English gardens, known as the yellow cabbage
rose. It came from the East, and is still the finest of
all double yellow roses ; but it is rather tender and is
difficult to increase. Like the red cabbage rose, it does
not hold its flowers upright ; they are always drooping,
and never fully open, and so the scientific name for
it is R. hemisphaerica. With these three fine exotic
roses — and they had others, especially the musk rose
—we may say that the gardens of our forefathers of
three or four hundred years ago were by no means
badly furnished with roses.

There are some points in the name and geography
of the rose which are worth noting. The earliest
European name for it is the Greek rhodon ; and almost
all modern writers on it have followed Dr. Prior's
lead, in his English Plant Names, in saying that the
same name, more or less changed, is to be found in all
the different names which the plant now bears in
different countries, and that they all have for their
initial meaning the one word red. But Max Miiller
showed that this will not bear close inquiry, and that
the root is to be found in an Aryan word signifying
a flower or spray, thus marking it as the flower of the
vegetable world, taking rank above all others. This
high rank has been confirmed to it by the way in which
so many plants, which are not roses at all, have yet
taken the name to themselves, as giving them a place
among the most beautiful flowers ; such as the Christ
mas rose (Helleborus), the Alpine rose (Rhododendron),
rose de Notre Dame (Paeonia), water rose (Nymphaea),

298 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

the holly rose or sage rose (Cistus), the Guelder rose,
and others.

The geography of the rose is rather peculiar. As a
wild plant it is found both in the Old and New Worlds,
but with a limited range, being found chiefly between
the twentieth and seventieth degrees of north latitude.
Our little burnet rose is found as far north as Iceland ;
Hooker and Ball found our common dog-rose and the
Ayrshire rose fairly abundant in Morocco ; but the
two most southern species are R. Montezumae found
by Humboldt in Mexico, and R. sancta, found sparingly
in Abyssinia ; both of these roses are found at high
elevations, and neither of them is of much value
from the gardening point of view. No wild roses have
been found south of the Equator, but we should scarcely
be surprised if one or more should be found in the
high mountains of Central Africa.

I now come to some curiosities among roses, by which
I mean peculiarities in certain species which are more
or less abnormal. Among these curiosities I give the
first place to one which, I think, deserves the first
place, because it was noticed by so many of the old
writers on roses. All rosarians know that the family
of the roses has been arranged by botanists under
several distinct groups, one of which, the group
Canineae, contains not only our dog-roses, which give
the name to the group, but also the monthly, China
rose, and others. They also know that all roses have
five sepals and five petals. In the group Canineae
there is a peculiar arrangement of the sepals, which
is found in a few roses of the other groups, but very
sparingly and not quite constantly ; in the Canineae
it is never absent. The arrangement is that of the
five sepals two are always fringed by thin beards, two

ROSES 299

have no such fringes, and one has the fringe on one side
only. This was noticed very early, and was recorded
in these lines :

Quinque sumus fratres et eodem tempore nati ;
Sunt duo barbati duo sunt barba absque creati ;
Unus et e quinque non est barbatus utrinque.

Of these lines there are many variants and many
translations, from which I select this : x

Five brothers we, all in one moment reared ;
Two of us bearded, two without a beard ;
Our fifth on one cheek only wears the beard.

I have not been able to trace this to its source ; and
the oldest mention of it that I can find is in Fumarellus
in 1557, m which he gives the lines, not as his own,
but as a quotation. It is a pleasant puzzle to try and
give a reason for this curious arrangement, and its
origin ; but it is a puzzle that we cannot answer till
we know more of the first surroundings and evolution
of the rose, and these we probably never shall know.
Sir Thomas Browne was attracted by it, and in his
Garden of Cyrus he seems to have made an attempt
at an explanation, which is worth quoting :

Nothing is more admired than the five brethren of the rose and
the strange disposure of the appendices, or beards, in the calycular
leaves thereof. . . . For those two which are smooth and of no
beard are contrived to lie undermost, as without prominent parts
and fit to be smoothly covered ; the other two, which are beset
with beards on either side, stand outside and uncovered ; but the
fifth, or unbearded leaf, is covered on the bare side, but on the open
side stands free and bearded like the other.

1 The following translation by the late Prof. E. B. Cowell is
perhaps the best, and Canon Ellacombe was very pleased with it
when I brought it to his notice :

" Five brothers of one house are we,
All in one little family ;
Two have beards, and two have none,
And only half a beard has one." A. W. H.

300 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

As a second curiosity among roses I take the green
rose. I am bound to say that this rose meets with
very little admiration ; the general verdict is, " More
curious than beautiful/' But I like the rose, and even
admire it ; and to botanists it is extremely valuable,
because it is one of the best proofs we have that all
parts of a plant above the root are modifications of
the same thing, and in the green rose every part may
be called a leaf. It is a variety of the common China
rose, and came to England about 1835, an(i is quite
constant. It also gives a strong support to the view,
held by many great botanists, that all flowers were
originally green, and that the colours in flowers are
analogous to the autumn tints of leaves1 ; and in the
green rose the flowers generally put on a reddish tint
when they begin to fade. In this view the green rose,
as we now have it, is a reversion to an older state of
the rose, or, it may be, a continuance of an undeveloped
rose. The late Sir James Paget made use of this view
in suggesting " an analogy between a green rose and
a rickety child/' 2 His meaning is very clear, that
" both are examples of what are considered arrests
of development. The roses do not attain the colour
which we regard as characteristic of their most perfect
condition ; the animals do not attain the hardness of
bone or the full size which we find in the best examples
of their several races."

Another great curiosity among roses is found in the
Himalayan R. sericea. It is an essential character of

1 The older naturalists knew nothing of this. Bacon says :
" The general colour of all plants is green, which is a colour no
flower is of. There is a greenish primrose, but it is pale and scarce
a green " (Sylva Sylvamm, 512).

2 Address on Elementary Pathology at Cambridge, 1880. The
quotation is from a letter to. myself.

ROSES 301

all roses that they should have five petals ; but this
rose produces abundance of flowers, all with only four
petals, with very few exceptions. It is impossible to
account for this exception to the general rule ; for
though we may say that one petal is abortive, that is
only explaining ignotum per ignotius.

One more curiosity may be mentioned. A few years
ago there came from America a rose belonging to the
Polyantha section, of which the peculiarity was that
it would come into full flower three months after
sowing. This is quite true ; I have seen many flowers
in June on plants of which the seed was sown in April.
It is commonly called the annual rose, but it is a peren
nial, and has the quality of reproducing itself by self-
sown seedlings, a very unusual thing in the rose family.

Many more curious or abnormal things among roses
might be mentioned ; but I must leave them for other
points of interest. Roses have entered rather largely
into, place names and family names. Among place
names, I suppose the most ancient is the Island of
Rhodes, of which there is good evidence that the name
came from the flower. The Rhone (Rhodanus) claims
the same origin, but it is doubtful. France and
Germany have many such names, as Rosieres, Rosen
berg, Rosendaal, Rosel, Rosello, Rosenheim, etc.
Such names are abundant also in Italy, Spain, and
Portugal; and from place names they have been adopted
as family names.

If we can believe the records there seems to be no
limit to the age or size of rose trees. The legend of
the rose at Hildesheim, over which Louis le Debonnaire
built the cathedral, is well known, and so is reputed
to be 1,500 years old ; but there can be little doubt
that it has been constantly^renewed by suckers. Joret

302 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

gives an account of a gigantic rose at Worms, planted
by a king's daughter on an island of the Rhine, which
could shelter five hundred noble ladies at once ! Of
course it is impossible, but he gives his authority
for the statement ; 1 and another is recorded by Bel-
mont, in the garden of Madame Reynen at Roosteren
(Pays-Bas), under which she was in the habit of giving
concerts, and in which forty musicians found shelter.

The scent of the rose has been from the earliest times
one of its chief charms, but there is a great variety
of rose scents. I should say that the typical scent is
to be found in the cabbage rose ; but there are a
variety of scents, ranging from the fine scents of the
cabbage and tea roses to the evil scents of the Austrian
Briar, which therefore got the name of R. foetida, and
of R. Beggeriana, both of which roses have the evil
odour of bugs. But there are roses which descend
to a lower depth still, having no scent at all ; for such
is the character of many of the fine new hybrid roses.
As a general rule, every one likes the scent of the
true roses ; but there are many curious exceptions.
I have known people to whom the first scent of a rose
was the signal for coming hay fever ; and there are
many authentic records of people who were quite
overpowered with the scent. Among these it is sur
prising to find Bacon ; yet Belmont reports that
" Bacon, le grand chancelier de TAngleterre, entrait
en fureur quand il apercevait une de ces fleurs," and
this has been copied by many other writers.2 But I
cannot believe it. Bacon often speaks of the rose,
and never in terms of dislike ; and in the " Sylva
Sylvarum " he gives a special account of the scent,
which shows how closely he had observed it. He says :

1 Thoret, La Rose, etc., p. 291. 2 Dictionnaire de la Rose, p. 5.

ROSES 303

" The daintiest smells of flowers are out of those plants
whose leaves smell not ; as violets, roses, wallflowers,
etc." (No. 389). And I think he is the first English
writer that records that " roses come twice in the year."
And one great charm in the scent of roses is that it is
permanent, not only in faded flowers, but also after
corruption. The old writers loved to dwell on this ;
Shakespeare's lines will suffice :

The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.

. . . Canker roses

Die to themselves, sweet roses do not so ;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made. — Sonnet 54.

I am sure George Herbert was thinking of roses when
he said :

Farewell, dear flowers, sweetly your time ye spent ;
Fit while ye lived for smell or ornament,
And after death for cures. — Poem on Life.

Connected with the scent of the roses, there was a
very common belief in the Middle Ages that the rose
was improved both in scent and vigour by being planted
amongst garlic ; the explanation being that the garlic,
in order to increase its evil smell, drew from the
ground all that was bad, leaving all that was good for
the rose ; or, as described by Bacon, " The ancients
have set down that a rose set by garlick is sweeter ;
which likewise may be, because the more fetid juice
of the earth goeth into the garlick, and the more odorate
into the rose " (Syl. Syl. 481). The old emblem writers
seized upon this to point the moral that a good man
may not only keep his goodness in the midst of evil
surroundings, but even profit by them. Camerarius,
in his Book of Emblems (1605), has a pretty plate of a
vigorous rose growing amongst garlic (No. 53), and
quotes from Plutarch as to the truth of the statement.

304 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

I believe the rose gardeners of Grasse and Bulgaria
are very particular in keeping the bushes free from
everything near them ; and I am sure that the garlic
is so liberal in imparting its evil scent to everything
it touches that if a rose in flower touched any of the
garlic or onion family the petals that were so touched
would be tainted. This, however, was the firm belief
in the Middle Ages ; and they had other curious prac
tices, handed down from the Roman writers. Thus
they followed Pliny's advice to burn their rose trees
every year, much in the same way that gorse and
heather are now sometimes burnt, and if carefully
done, so that the roots are not burnt, the result might
be the production of young, vigorous roots ; but even
those rosarians who cut down their roses to the ground-
level every year would now prefer the use of the knife.
In the same way they tried to make roses flower early
by the use of hot water poured round the roots. Pal-
ladius, among others, recommended it, and his work
on Husbandry was translated into English verse in
1420, and was a sort of handbook of farming and
gardening to the Englishmen of that date. And this
was his advice :

With crafte eke roses erly riped are ;
Tweyne handbrede of aboute her rootes doo
A delvyng make, and every day thereto
Doo water warme. — St. 77.

For colour in roses we have red of all shades, white,
and yellow. But we have no blue roses, and I am
not anxious to see them. But Guillemeau, in 1800,
gives a description of blue roses growing wild near
Turin, but adds, riest pas tres-commun, and ne jamais
mi. There is nothing impossible in such roses, though
it is a common belief that both blue and red flowers

ROSES 305

are never found in the same family. But there are
abundant examples to the contrary ; the pentstemons
are a ready example, and our own British geraniums
a still more ready one.

Considering the popularity of the rose, it is rather
surprising that there is so very little folklore connected
with the flower. The proverbial s^tb rosa connects
it with secrecy, and so it is often seen carved on con
fessionals. In some parts of England and Scotland
it is considered lucky to burn rose leaves ; Gubernatis
tells the legend of Satan's vain attempt to climb to
heaven by means of the dog-rose, and that Judas
hanged himself on one, so that the seeds are called
Judas-beeren, and the whole plant is sinistre et diabolique ;
but I have found little beyond this.

And the rose has not very much of interest for the
entomologist ;x it is visited by very few large butter
flies or moths, and the fertilisation is effected by
beetles ; so that it is rather curious that many of the
old writers asserted that beetles had a great dislike
to the rose ; yet most of us are acquainted with the
beautful green rose beetle, which in some years is very
abundant, but I have very seldom seen it of late years.
But there is one piece of insect work on the rose always
worth looking at, and formerly regarded with great
veneration. This is the bedeguar, called in some parts
by the pretty name of " Robin redbreast's pincushions."
It is like a ball of moss, and is a gall produced by the
little insect Cynips rosae.

There is a large amount of literature connected

1 Keats, however, speaks of

The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves —
but I am not aware that he was an entomologist.

U

306 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

with the rose. Of course, every writer on flowers
was bound to mention it, but, as far as I know, the
first book solely devoted to the rose is by a Spanish
physician named Monardes.1 It was published at
Antwerp in 1551, under the title of De rosa et partibus
ejus, and though a small book, chiefly concerned with
the medical qualities of the rose, it is well worth
reading, for the writer was an enthusiastic admirer
of the flower ; so that he sums up its virtues in the
words, "Inter medicinas benedictas benedictissima
merito nuncupari potest." * Since that time there
has been an increasing production of books on the rose,
so that in the Bibliografia de la Rosa, by D. Mariano
Vergara, published at Madrid in 1892, more than a
thousand books are mentioned, and the number now
is much larger. But in England the first book solely
confined to the rose is Miss Lawrance's grand folio, A
Collection of Roses from Nature, 1780-1810, a beautiful
book, now become rare and expensive. In 1819
appeared Dr. Lindley's Rosarum Monographia, a perfect
monograph of the family, which still holds the highest
rank, but of which a new edition, brought up to date,
is much to be desired.3 It would be tedious to attempt

1 See footnote, p. 206, with reference to Monardes' book which
Canon Ellacombe presented to Kew. — A. W. H.

2 Monardes' name is preserved in gardens by the Oswego Tea
or Bergamot plant, Monarda didyma.

8 It is an open secret that a book on the genus Rosa has been for
some time in preparation, to be edited by Miss Willmott, F.L.S.,
with the assistance of Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S. When completed
we have every reason to expect that it will be a complete and
valuable history of the family. It will be published by Mr. Murray.

[Miss Ellen Willmott's book, The Genus Rosa, with drawings
by Alfred Parsons, R.A., 2 vols., was completed in 1914. The first
parts of vol. i. was published in September, 1910, and the final
part of vol. ii. in March, 1914. — A. W. H.]

ROSES 307

to select the best books on roses from the large number
now in existence ; but no rosarian's library should be
without Ros Rosarum, by the Honourable Mrs. Boyle,
and M. Joret's two books, La Rose dansl'Antiquite, etc.,
and La Legende de la Rose. The Ros Rosarum is an
excellent selection of the poetical notices of the rose
from the earliest times and from all nations ; while
M. Thoret's books are full of curious points connected
with the flower, also from the earliest times and from
all civilized countries.

Want of space forbids my describing at any length
the enormous increase in the species, hybrids, and
varietiesof the family which has taken place in European
gardens during the last three hundred years. It will
be sufficient to say that whereas in Shakespeare's day
there were probably not more than forty or fifty that
could be distinguished one from another, there are
now grown in Monsieur Gravereau's garden at L'Hay,
near Paris, nearly seven thousand, each with its different
name ; that was the number in 1902, and it increases
every year. Yet the increase has not been uninter
rupted; there was a time when the rose was almost
discarded in European gardens for the tulip. Thomas
Fuller, in 1663, puts this complaint into the mouth
of the rose :

There is a flower, a Toolip, which hath engrafted the love and
affection of most people into it. And what is the Toolip ? A well-
complexioned stink, an ill flavour wrapped up in pleasant colours.
Yet this is that which nlleth all gardens, hundreds of pounds being
given for the root thereof, whilst I, the Rose, am neglected and
contemned, and conceived beneath the honour of noble hands.

That has long been changed, and the increase in
roses seems unlikely to receive another such check ;
though we are still a long way from seeing the fulfilment

308 HENRY NICHOLSON ELLACOMBE

of Mr. Rivers's prophecy, made more than fifty years
ago, that " the day will come when all our roses, even
moss roses, will have evergreen foliage, brilliant and
fragrant flowers, and the habit of blooming from June
till November. This seems a distant view, but per
severance in gardening will yet achieve wonders/'

If I were to mention more curiosities connected with
the rose I should make my paper unduly long. But
one thing has always interested me, which I do not
like to pass by altogether, and that is the different
feelings about the rose that different nations have
shown, and so far have shown something of their differ
ent characters. I may, perhaps, conclude by quoting
what I have already written on this point, because I
cannot put it shorter :

By the Greeks and Romans the rose was always connected with
scenes of revelry and licentiousness ; French and English writers
are entirely different. By French writers the rose is often made to
teach the decay of beauty, but it is specially connected with female
beauty. The French proverb says, " Les dieux n'ont fait que
deux choses parfaites ; la Femme et la Rose." By English writers
the lessons have a tone of sadness, and often almost of sternness.
It is the thorns of the rose that seem most to have caught their
attention. They love to point to the rose and its thorns as showing
the treacherous character of all earthly pleasures ; but they love
also to point to the thorns as forming only a part, and a necessary
part, to perfect and protect the rich flower ; and so, while on one
side the lesson is that no pleasure is without pain, rosa inter spinas,
so on the other side there is the brighter lesson, that troubles lead
to joy — per spinas rosa, per tribulos coelum (In a Gloucestershire
Garden, p. 198).

Appendix

CATALOGUE OF TREES AND SHRUBS CULTIVATED

IN THE GARDEN OF BITTON VICARAGE,

DECEMBER, 1830.!

[Beyond the correction of some obvious errors in spelling we have
made no alteration in the names. — ED.]

Acacia Julibrissin
Acer campestre

Pseudo-platanus

saccharinum

striatum

tataricum
. Pseudo-plat, variegatum

laumatum

neapolitanum
Aesculus Hippocastanum

Hippo, variegata

flava

Pavia

Ailantus glandulosa
Alnus glutinosa

laciniata

Amelanchier Botryapium
Ampelopsis hederacea
Amygdalus communis
— macrocarpa

nana

pumila

nectarina

Andromeda pulverulenta
Androsaemum officinale

Apios tuberosa
Aralia spinosa
Arbutus Uva-ursi

Unedo

— rubra

Aristotelia Macqui
Aristolochia tomentosa
Artemisia Abrotanum
Astragalus Tragacantha
Atragene alpina

americana
Atriplex Halimus
Aucuba japonica
Azalea pontica

Baccharis halimifolia
Berberis vulgaris

nepalensis

provincialis

emarginata
Betula alba

— pendula
Bignonia capreolata

grandiflora

radicans

1 Published in The Garden, December, 24, 1881, p. 612.
309

APPENDIX

Buddleia globosa
Bupleurum fruticosum
Buxus balearica
sempervirens
semp. angustifolia
semp. marginata

Caragana arenaria
Calluna vulgaris

vulg. alba

vulg. fl. pi.
Calycanthus floridus

praecox

Carpinus Betulus
Castanea vesca
Catalpa syringaefolia
Ceanothus americanus
Celastrus scandens
Cephalanthus occidentalis
Cercis canadensis.
Cercis Siliquastrum
Chimonanthus fragrans
Chionanthus virginica
Cineraria maritima
Cistus albidus

candidus

corbariensis

cordatus

creticus

crispus

cyprius

hirsutus

incanus

ladaniferus
— maculatus

lauiifolius

laxus

populifolius

platysepalus

purpureus

rotundifolius

salvifolius

villosus

Cistus symphitifolius

undulatus

oblongifolius
Clematis Flammula

crispa

latifolia

florida
— fl. pi.

Vitalba

Viticella

fl. pi. pulchella

— rubra
virginiana
Viorna

Cobaea scandens
Colutea cruenta

arborescens

Comptonia asplenifolia
Corchorus japonicus
Cornus mascula
Cornus sanguinea

sibirica

Coronilla Emerus
Corylus Avellana
Cotoneaster microphylla

Uva-ursi
Crataegus odoratissima

Oxyacantha

— rosea

— praecox
Pyracantha

Cupressus sempervirens

thyoides

Cydonia vulgaris
Cytisus argenteus

leucanthus

capitatus

Laburnum
— dwarf.

multiflorus

nigricans

purpureus

sessilifolius

APPENDIX

Cytisus supinus
standard

Daphne Cneorum
collina
Laureola
Mezereum

— album
pontica

Diervilla humilis

Edwardsia grandiflora
Erica arborea

carnea

ciliaris

cinerea

fucata

ramulosa

mediterranea

scoparia

stricta

tetralix

— alba
vagans alba

Eriobotrya japonica
Euonymus europaeus
latifolius

Fagus sylvatica

syl. comptoniaefolia

syl. purpurea
Ficus Carica
Fraxinus excelsior

ex. aurea

ex. pendula

Gaultheria procumbens

Shallon
Genista florida

candicans

sagittalis

sibirica

scorpius

Genista tinctoria

triquetra ^

radiata

germanica
Gleditschia horrida

triacanthos

inermis
Glycine frutescens

sin ensis

Halesia tetraptera
Halimodendron argenteum
Hedera Helix

canariensis
Helianthemum alpestre

apenninum

croceum

cupreum

hyssopifolium fl. pi.

Milleri

macranthum multiplex

pulverulentum

polifolium

rhodanthum

roseum multiplex

mutabile multiplex

diversifolium multiplex

canescens

racemosum variegatum

sulphureum multiplex

venustum

versicolor

virgatum

vulgare
— multiplex
Hibiscus syriacus

fol. variegatus
albus plenus
ruber
variegatus
plenus
purpureus
Hippophae rhamnoides

312

APPENDIX

Hydrangea quercifolia

arborescens
Hypericum calycinum

Kalmianum

Iberis correaefolia

gibraltarica

saxatilis
Ilex Aquifolium

— flava

— albo-marginata

— aureo-marginata

— Scotch

— myrtifolia

— ferox aurea

— variegata
balearica
Cassine
heterophylla
Perado

Jasminum fruticans

officinalis

revolutum

humile

Juglans regia
Juniperus communis

alpina

prostrata

hibernica

Sabina

— fol. var.
suecica
virginiana
phoenicea
chinensis
Lycia
tamariscifolia

Kalmia latifolia
Koelreuteria paniculata

Laurus nobilis
Sassafras

Lavandula spica
Ledum palustre
Ligustrum lucidum
vulgare

— leucocarpum

— italicum

— chrysocarpum
nepalense

Liquidambar styraciflua
Liriodendron tulipifera
Lonicera flava

flexuosa •

grata

implexa

japonica

Periclymenum

— quercifolia
pubescens

sempervirens minor
tatarica
Xylosteum

Lycium barbarum '

Magnolia grandiflora
Melianthus major
Menispermum canadense
Menziesia globularis
polifolia

— fl. albo
nana

Mespilus Amelanchier

germanica

tomentosa
Morus nigra

alba

papyrifera
Myrtus communis

mucronata
Myrica Gale

Ononis arvensis
pendula
fruticosa

APPENDIX 313

Ononis rotundifolia Firms serotina

spinosa alba Strobus

Ornus europaea sylvestris

Ostrya virginica Taeda

nigra

Paeonia montana Clanbrasiliana

rosea halepensis

Paliurus vulgaris inops

Passiflora coerulea rubra

racemosa Pistacia Terebinthus

filamentosa Lentiscus

Periploca graeca Pittosporum Tobira

Philadelphus coronarius Platanus occidentalis

fol. var. j orientalis

Phillyrea latifolia undulata

angustifolia Polygala Chamaebuxus

media Populus alba

— nana balsamifera
laevis dilatata
laurifolia Potentilla dahurica
ilicifolia trifoliata
oleaefolia fruticosa

Phlomis fruticosa Prunus Armeniaca

Pho-tinia arbutifolia lusitanica

serrulata Laurocerasus

Pinus Abies serotina

alba Cerasus plenus

balsa mea pendula

canadensis Holbin's Plum

Cedrus angustifolia

Mughus Chinese double Cherry

taurica Chinese laurel

Fraseri narrow-leaved Laurel

Laricio Punica Granatum

— macrocarpa Pyrus Aucuparia
Cembra domestica
Larix japonica
Picea — alba
Pinaster Malus
Pinea prunifolia
Pumilio angustifolia
lanceolata intermedia angustifolia
maritima spectabilis

314

APPENDIX

Quercus Cerris

dentata exoniensis

coccinea

Robur

Rhamnus Alaternus

— aureo-marginatus

— argenteus
latifolius
catharticus
Paliurus

Rhododendron hirsutum

japonicum

ponticum
Rhus Cotinus

lucida

radicans

typhina

Vernix
Ribes alpinum

aureum

Grossularia

sanguineum
Robinia microphylla

elegans

hispida

— inermis
Pseudacacia
monstrosa;v
viscosa

Rosa alba

— fl. pi.

— great blush

— celestial
alpina

— pendula

— speciosa
anemonaeflora
arvensis

— variegata

— Andersoniana
— • scandens

Banksiae

— lutea

Rosa Borreri blanda
Borreri
bengalensis scandens

— alba
Biebersteini
Boursaulti

— alba
bracteata

— fl. pi.
chinensis florida
canina plena
caucasica
Carolina
caroliniana
collina
cuspidata
corymbosa
centifolia
muscosa

— multiplex

— alba

— pomponia

— cluster

— de Meaux

— mossy de Meaux
Provins single

— common

— Childing's

— blush

— white

— Shailer's

— Spong's

— St. Francis
cinnamomea
fecundissima
damascena

— Grand Monarque

— blush Belgic

— blush Monthly

— Incomparable

— Quatre Saisons

— Paestana

— red Monthly

APPENDIX

315

Rosa damascena (continued).
•— Belgic

— Rouge Agathe

— Swiss

— Watson's blush

— white Damask

— white Monthly

— York and Lancaster

— Zealand
dahurica
Doniana

— ferox
dumetorum
ferox
florida
fraxinifolia
Grevillei
hibernica
gallica

— Atlas

— Bijou

— Bishop

— Bouquet Royale

— Brussels

— Cardinal

— Chancellor

— Couleur de Feu

— double velvet

— Duchesse d'Orleans

— Dutch 100 leaved

— Giant

— grand purple

— Ornement de Parade

standard

— grand velvet

— Mundi

— Pluto

— Pompadour

— Portland

— Proserpine

— Queen

— Royal crimson

— sanspareil

Rosa gallica single velvet

— Tuscany
glaucophylla
grandiflora
involuta
laxa

Lee's Perpetual

Brunswick

indica

— superba

— coccinea

— nigra

— major
minor

— Barclay's
kamtschatica
Lewisi
Lawranceana

— fl. pi.
lucida
lutea
lutescens
macrophylla
majalis
microphylla
Monsoniae
moschata

— fl. pi.
multiflora

— alba
nitida
Noisettiana

— rubra
odorata

— • superba
parvifolia

— - double
parviflora
praecox
pumila
punicea

pimpinellifolia sibirica
rapa

3i6

APPENDIX

Rosa rubella

— striata

— alba
reversa
Roxburgh!!
rubiginosa

— fl. pi.
ruga
rubifolia

— Cherokee
Sabini
semperflorens

— alba

— diversifolia

— atrorubens
sempervirens
setigera
sinica

stricta
spinosissima

— blush

— marbled

— Provins

— red

— white

— yellow

— velvet

— purple

— purple Fairy

— bright crimson

— Townsend's

— Lady Finch Hatton

— Princess Elizabeth

— Lord Byron

— Sir James Mackintosh

— Artemisia

— aculeatissima

— Glasgow

— Juba

— Hector

— Lady Douglas

— Aristides

— Transparent

Rosa spinosissima Aurora

— Smith's

— two coloured

— lanthe

— Proteus

— Sabina

— Mrs. Hooker

— Mr. Aston

— Lady Harriet Wynne

— Duchess of Gloucester

— Lady Agrippa Stewart

— Sappho

— Erebus

— Sylvia

— Scotia

— Hecuba

— Lady Compton

— Lady Banks

— Pomona

— Lady Gwyder

— Janus

— Saxonia

— dwf. bicolor

— Ajax

— Agrippa

— Lady Jane Montgom

ery

— Sybilla

— Lady Clive

— Lord Lyndoch

— March, of Bute
stricta

Dandry

taurica

teneriffensis

Woodsi

sulphurea

systyla

— Monsoniae
tomentosa

— resinosa

— oxoniensis
turbinata

APPENDIX

317

Rosa umbellata
villosa

— fl. pi.

Roses from Sweet's Hort. Sub.

1830
alba vars.

— Rodway
acicularis
Globe White hip
Italian evergreen Brier

— Hort. Varietates
Abundant

Dutch Cluster
Bouquet panache
double hip
Tree Paeony
crimson Perpetual
Brunswick
Lee's Perpetual
Grand Velvet
Lubeck

Watson's blush
Wellington
Rubus coronarius
fruticosus

— variegatus
Idaeus
Linkianus
laciniatus
arcticus
macracinus
nutkana
odoratus
saxatilis

Ruscus aculeatus

Hypoglossum

Hypophyllum

racemosus
Ruta graveolens

Salisburia adiantifolia
Salix argentea

Salix babylonica
— annularis

Buonaparti

Candida

Doniana

herbacea

lanata

pentandra

reticulata

vitellina

violacea

undulata
Smilax aspera
Spartium radiatum
Spiraea bella

chamaedrifolia

corymbosa

frutex

hypericifolia

salicifolia

sorbifolia

trilobata

ulmifolia

Shepherdia sericea
Symphoricarpos glomeratus

racemosus
Syringa chinensis

persica

vulgaris coerulea

— alba

— dwarf

Tamarix gallica

germanica
Taxus baccata

— hibernica
Teucrium flavum

lucidum
Thea viridis
Thuja occidentalis

Lucas's

prientalis

APPENDIX

Thuja sibirica

plicata
Tilia europaea

Ulex europaeus fl. pi.

hibernicus
Ulmus campestris

montana

— pendula

— spiralis
Cornish
vegeta

Viburnum Lantana
Opulus
Tinus

— lucidum

— rotundifolium

— laevigatum

— hirsutum
Vinca major

Vinca major variegata
minor

— coerulea fl. pleno

— alba

— atropurpurea multiplex

— variegata alba
media

Vitis laciniata
riparia
vinifera

Yucca acuminata
aloifolia
glaucescens
recurva
angustifolia
stricta

Zanthoxylum fraxineum

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