The Game of the Earthly Paradise was received with great delight by
the readers of the story; one family of children adopted the word
"Mary-meadowing" to describe the work which they did towards
beautifying hedges and bare places; and my sister received many
letters of inquiry about the various plants mentioned in her tale.
These she answered in the correspondence columns of the Magazine, and
in July 1884 it was suggested that a "Parkinson Society" should be
formed, whose objects were "to search out and cultivate old garden
flowers which have become scarce; to exchange seeds and plants; to
plant waste places with hardy flowers; to circulate books on gardening
amongst the Members;" and further, "to try to prevent the
extermination of rare wild flowers, as well as of garden treasures."
Reports of the Society, with correspondence on the exchanges of plants
and books, and quaint local names of flowers, were given in the
Magazine until it was brought to a close after Mrs. EWING'S death; but
I am glad to say that the Society existed for some years under the
management of the founder, Miss ALICE SARGANT, and when she was
obliged to relinquish the work it was merged in the "Selborne
Society," which aims at the preservation of rare species of animals as
well as plants.
The "Letters from a Little Garden" were published in _Aunt Judy's
Magazine_ between November 1884 and February 1885, and as they, as
well as "Mary's Meadow," were due to the interest which my sister was
taking in the tending of her own Earthly Paradise,--they are inserted
in this volume, although they were left unfinished when the writer was
called away to be
"Fast in Thy Paradise, where no flower can wither!"
HORATIA K.
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