Women Authors From England

"As the rolling stone gathers no moss, so the roving heart gathers no affections."

"He that seeks popularity in art closes the door on his own genius: as he must needs paint for other minds, and not for his own."

"I have more confidence in the charity which begins in the home and diverges into a large humanity, than in the worldwide philanthropy which begins at the outside of our horizon to converge into egotism."

"Piety in art—poetry in art—Puseyism in art—let us be careful how we confound them."

"A man may be as much a fool from the want of sensibility as the want of sense."

"The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seed of immortality already sown within us; to develop, to their fullest extent, the capacities of every kind with which the God who made us has endowed us."

"The only competition worthy a wise man is with himself."

"Fame has no necessary conjunction with praise: it may exist without the breath of a word: it is a recognition of excellence which must be felt but need not be spoken. Even the envious must feel it: feel it, and hate it in silence."

"Reputation is but a synonyme of popularity: dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters."

"Reputation being essentially contemporaneous, is always at the mercy of the Envious and the Ignorant. But Fame, whose very birth is posthumous, and which is only known to exist by the echo of its footsteps through congenial minds, can neither be increased nor diminished by any degree of wilfulness."

""Lest that by any means When I have preached to others I myself Should be a castaway." If some one now Would take that text and preach to us that preach — * * * Yes I preach to others And am—I know not what—a castaway? No, but a man who feels his heart asleep, As he might feel his hand or foot. The limb Will not awake without a little shock, A little pain perhaps, a nip or blow, And that one gives and feels the waking pricks. But for one's heart I know not. I can give No shock to make mine prick."

"The distinguished nurserywoman Beth Chatto, who has died aged 94, was one of the most influential horticulturists of the past 50 years. Well known and respected for the she started in in 1967, she was also an inspirational writer and lecturer whose great theme was the importance of providing garden plants with an environment as close as possible to their native . During the 1970s, she won 10 successive gold medals at the , where she introduced ecological ideas into , demonstrating the possibilities of natural plant groupings, while also achieving the highest aesthetic standards. In those days nurseries arranged their plants for maximum visual impact regardless of differing plant needs. Chatto’s approach was a revelation and immediately established her significance as a guide to better and more environmentally friendly gardening techniques. She stressed the importance of looking at the whole plant, foliage as well as , and judging the quality of a plant by observing it throughout the seasons."

"The Great Parterre at , planted by , was abolished by , a priceless piece of history lost."

"Beth Chatto, who died last year, was singularly forward-thinking and knowledgeable, and her near in have been a continual draw to enthusiasts for half a century. ’s authorised biography, Beth Chatto: A Life with Plants (Pimpernel, £30), based on diaries, notes and conversations, is a faithful, workmanlike account of a truly remarkable plantswoman and artistic gardener (as well as a very nice person) who emphasised the importance of understanding ecology in growing plants successfully, and whose naturalistic exhibits in the 1970s and 1980s were a revelation."

"Florists' flowers, especially s and tulips, were already popular in the , and a book on the subject, The Florist's Vade Mecum, by the Rev. , son-in-law of the great gardener and gardening writer, , was published on 1683."

"Her second marriage was to the war correspondent and broadcaster , with whom she had a son and a daughter. He liked sport and shooting, while she preferred the arts and literature. Hastings was very rightwing, she liberal in the tradition of . They had a tremendous row over , which she considered an act of barbarism, while he saw as a hero. His remark that "I've got the three things I wanted most, a Churchill gun, a and a beautiful wife" did not go down at all well. She strongly resented "being counted as a chattel with a gun and a rod". When divorce inevitably came, she said they had never shared a close relationship."

"Wherever she went, Vita collected seeds and roots and s, and always travelled with a and a few potatoes into which she would put cuttings to keep them moist and fresh."

"Rosemary Verey, who has died aged 82, was the doyenne of the gardening world. A pioneer gardener, designer and writer, she made "good" gardening popular, and by her example — both in the aesthetic and practical horticulture so admired at her home at , , and through her serious, but highly readable, books - she also made it achievable by a whole new generation. ... Verey's work as a designer established her particular style throughout Britain and in north America, with the Prince of Wales, Sir Elton John and among her clients. In the United States, she designed for many private individuals, as well as creating a large plan for a new (still to be implemented) at the ."

"Long before it was a fancy , was famous for its . Designed by the hallowed Rosemary Verey, its vistas of purple , avenues of trees, walls and emerald lawns still cause gardeners to gasp with pleasure."

"s make a blaze of rose-pink, both ' and , while ’Blackthorn Apricot' is an orange-pink, , perhaps. It now looks well beside the grey-leafed ' with its spires of pea-green hiding tiny lemon-yellow flowers, or with the distinctive ' ’Euphorbioides', a plant I much admire."

"orientale can produce a lush effect under trees—it is much too coarse for small gardens but can be splendid where something elephantine is needed. The flowers come before the leaves; rather naked-looking pink stems of blue -like flowers in early spring are followed by huge hairy leaves, handsome in the right setting."

"Chrysanthemum parthenium aureum, the golden feverfew — now known as aureum, is the golden variety of the old physic herb grown widely an antidote to fever and headache. it is native to Europe and reliably hardy."

"Make a list of herbs you want to grow. Begin with the s and greys, as these will make the framework of the garden and be most apparent in the winter. These plants include , , , , , and ."

"s are undoubtedly among the garden aristocrats and every garden should have one, somewhow, but not on an east-facing exposure. They are and their oval shiny leaves are a joy at all times of the year, but they come into full glory when covered in flowers. The sheer number of varieties and is bewildering. For years I only admired them from afar, put off from growing them, by my very limey soil and by the successful growers who made me fell too ignorant to own them"

"Concerning whether to or not, of course I do not disapproved of all watering. That would be hypocritical, since we must irrigate the nursery crops and do water parts of the garden, such as the Wood Garden, in very dry times. But my thinking on the subject is based on the assumption that water is our most precious commodity as the world population continues to explode, and modern demands for water are often in excess of actual need. Combine this with the , then surely we must be prepared to reconsider some of our gardening practices."

"Darkness began to drink up the last cold light upon the mountainside."

"Physical inferiority is always stressed rather than relieved by a militaristic rule; so that it would not surprise me to find that the half of the human race that produces and trains the other half, will be once more degraded! One must not forget that many women will like it better. For one pets what one degrades; and one has to support what one has enfeebled."

""Ought"! What an ugly word that is!"

"Even the slightest failure was an indignity to Olaf; but to Hans failure had no more moral significance than success."

"When you know a person particularly well, you cannot escape their ruffled feelings."

"Every hen thinks she has laid the best egg! Can we not all believe as we choose? But the choice of others — what is that to us? Let them alone — Nazis and Communists. How do we know that they are not two ways of avoiding the same thing?"

"The only creative power I know is that of what might roughly be called "love"; not of course a sentimental love: a far more impersonal and less individual emotion. I sometimes think that migratory birds may have it for each other. They fly in the same direction, and have never been seen to interfere with each other's flights."

"There is no thermometer for wants!"

"In my early life, and probably even today, it is not sufficiently understood that a child's education should include at least a rudimentary grasp of religion, sex, and money. Without a basic knowledge of these three primary facts in a normal human being’s life — subjects which stir the emotions, create events and opportunities, and if they do not wholly decide must greatly influence an individual’s personality — no human being’s education can have a safe foundation."

"Knowledge cannot be changed, but the use to which it may be put can very easily be changed."

"It is true that her heart is sick, but where there is laughter there is always more health than sickness."

"No emergency excuses you from exercising tolerance."

"A red-hot belief in eternal glory is probably the best antidote to human panic that there is."

"My first choice must be that of the landscape architect Sylvia Crowe who published Garden Design in 1958. It remains the most comprehensive book on design I know... She covers Far Eastern developments, the , , English garden development and finally the contemporary garden in the West. But it is not all history – she weaves in design theory as she describes historical settings."

"You can't always predict what will get a child's imagination started, but in my experience they tend to remain absorbed longer with fantasy games."

"I believe that all daughters, even when most aggravated by their mothers, have a secret respect for them. They believe perhaps that they can do everything better than their mothers can, and many things they can do better, but they have not yet lived long enough to be sure how successfully they will meet the major emergencies of life, which lie, sometimes quite creditably, behind their mothers."

"The boy still has that uneasy half-deluded love a man never wholly loses for his mother; but I should suppose that the girl Gillian has emptied from her hard little heart the last traces of her childhood's affection for her mother. Both children were no doubt used as active recipients for their parents' conflict. They were filled, poor little empty cups, by their parents, with the poison of their differences; and then passed from one to the other."

"Psychology...is a science, not a sort of Savonarola. It cannot reform people against their wills. It can only provide a better method of mixing the human ingredients presented to it. As it is a social science it must depend as much upon the patient's willingness to be cured, as upon the physician's skill in curing. There is neither force nor magic in psychiatry."

"When a reserved person once begins to talk, nothing can stop him, and he does not want to have to listen, until he has quite finished his unfamiliar exertion."

"A doctor is a man who, if his career is well-chosen, looks upon himself as a guardian of life; he cannot take lightly what infringes the rights of his great charge.And yet can life be made undignified by any act of man? Life is being interrupted on these nights by man's obscenity, as nature is interrupted by storms, or by the explosions of pent-up gases; but such catastrophes are not permanent, as are the laws of nature. Nor are these cruel obscenities from the innocent skies, made by man against his brother, capable of inflicting any real indignity upon life. They will cease, and life itself will be unchanged by them."

"Morale is not a single instinct. It has many ingredients. A sense of personal responsibility, the natural courage of an individual, the amount of his acquired self-discipline — and above all his interest in others — these together make up the spirit of morale."

"There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them."

"Even not being liked has a certain virtue about it, if the reason for the dislike does not lie in yourself!"

"Time stood as still as an enemy in ambush."

"is the only element, besides birds and human beings, which brings life and movement into the garden, while an expanse of still water gives a unique sense of space and unity. It clarifies a design by accentuating the basic level to which all else relates."