Glory gardens series 7 books collection set by bob cattell

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Title] The Glory of the Garden: Normally such a phrase would refer to the beauty of the flowers, bushes, and trees growing in a garden, and/or to the horticultural skill that has nurtured and arranged the various plants into a splendid pattern. It also invokes many images which link God’s presence with gardens, the ‘glory’ of the one often being equated naturally with the glory of the other. Kipling refers to these various connotations in his poem, but insists that the true glory of the garden lies elsewhere. Line 24] glorifieth everyone (see also l.28, a partner in the glory) Kipling is also alluding here to chapter 17 of the Gospel of John, where Christ speaks of the Father glorifying Him, of His glorifying the Father, and of believers than being united to this glorification. John 17 is part of the same long final discourse of Christ as is John 15.1-8, on Christ as the vine, the Father as the husbandman, the believers as the branches. This too is in Kipling’s mind: vineyards are proximate to gardens (note in particular 15.8: “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit”). All in all, Kipling is suggesting an equivalence between England and the Incarnate Son of God. [D.H.] Kipling is even more concerned, though, with the popular children’s hymns that inculcated this view of creation and along with it a bland mood of social passivity. Of these hymns, Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander’s “All Things Bright and Beautiful” is the type: The image of a kingdom, state, or community as a garden, with all its accompanying connotations of natural growth and development, seasonal change, decay and rebirth, is ages old. The main literary traditions on which Kipling draws are those established by the Bible and Shakespeare. He is also obviously aware of the country-house poem which holds such a distinguished place in English literature, though in the main he stands aloof from it, largely for positive reasons. It is the garden itself that Kipling wants to focus on, not the grand architecture of a house or its social arrangements which feature so prominently in many country-house poems. In the opening stanza of the poem, Kipling seems to suggest that he might be writing just that kind of poem, and then discards the possibility. Recent ventures with the illustrator Michael Woods resulted in Reynard the Fox, a new translation of the medieval fable, and Agon, a selection of Greek myths.

Line 10] Told off to do: to have tasks allotted to them. Large country houses employed a number of specialist gardeners and many assistants who would be informed of their daily jobs in just this quasi-military way.

I respectfully disagree with Dr Keating’ here. The distinction between work and prayer is clearly made in l. 31, and both are encouraged. Whatever Kipling’s private views on prayer (surely complex), an exhortation to pray after work fits perfectly well into the conservative and didactic tone of the School History of England. pp. 33-35 of the School History are indicative here: Christ is called Our Lord; monks are reproached for seeking to withdraw entirely from the world, but also praised for their actual real-world accomplishments, including gardening! (“I think it is to the monks that we English owe our strong love of gardening and flowers”). In short, the mood is: “we are Christians, but not of the silly sort who look down on hard work”.

First published in A History of England (1911) by C.R.L.Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling, and then in all subsequent editions of the book. It was placed at the end of Chapter XII, ‘George III to George V, 1815-1911,’ though it is not related specifically to this chapter, but serves rather as a summary of the whole book and a final exhortation to the reader. When the poem was reprinted in the Inclusive Edition of the Verse (1919), it was also used as the closing poem of the volume, even allowing two extraneous poems – “Philadelphia” and “When ’Omer Smote ’Is Bloomin’ Lyre” – to be inserted awkwardly between it and the rest of the items from the School History. It seems likely that in re-arranging the poems in this way Kipling was making a patriotic statement on the recent close of the First World War. Shakespeare’s presence in the poem is more oblique than that of the Bible. He is never alluded to directly (as the Bible is several times), but the political and social ideas being explored by Kipling are often unmistakably associated with the form they have been given by Shakespeare. They echo throughout Kipling’s poem. Bob was a voracious reader, avid traveller, generous host, controversial conversationalist and consistent friend. From 2000 he made his base a cottage in east Suffolk.Line 7] cold-frame: a small unheated container with a glass top for protecting young plants; hot-house, a heated building, made largely of glass, for rearing tender or exotic plants; dung-pit, a compost heap; tanks, to store water. The condition of a nation-state, like that of a garden, depends on constant vigilance and work. Vegetation must be controlled, and weeds handled ruthlessly if they are not to destroy healthy plants. Richard II and Queen Isabel are forced to learn this lesson. So, in a very different Shakespearean context, is Hamlet:

Kipling’s view in “The Glory of the Garden” is little different from that of Shakespeare, except that he is writing for a newly democratic age. This understanding guides his whole approach. He is not in the position of a medieval King who can deal with the situation by lopping off the heads of a few rebellious ‘weeds.’ Nor is it necessary for him to act out the part of melancholy Hamlet because Kipling knows all too well what is to be done. If everyone in society, high or low – and it is soon clear that Kipling’s own view of English society in the poem remains firmly hierarchical – can be persuaded to play a part in making sure that the garden does not become over-run with weeds, then ‘things rank and gross in nature’ will be unable to ‘possess it merely.’ If not, then England could become as ‘weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable’ as Denmark was to Hamlet. Line 13] begonia: a plant which has flowers with brightly coloured sepals, no petals, and glossy leaves; bud, to graft a bud from one plant onto another.Lines 30-33] That half …upon his knees … wash your hands and pray…away!: As has been made clear throughout the poem, Kipling’s call for people to sink to their knees and pray has little to do with conventional religious practice: he is simply asking that the same kind of devotion demanded by religious institutions be given to secular activities. Line 26] netting strawberries: Strawberries grow along the ground and are covered with nets to stop birds from eating them. While freelance copywriting provided his income for many years, Bob’s heart and much of his time were engaged in less lucrative projects. He gave his energy to such charities as Friends of the Earth, Book Trust and Chance to Shine and was for many years an active school governor in Tower Hamlets. He was always ready with practical help and advice to would-be authors.

Lines 21-4] There’s not a pair of legs so thin … glorifieth every one: lines which capture to perfection the range of attitudes Kipling is balancing throughout the poem. Although everyone has a democratic part to play in maintaining a healthy garden, according entirely, that is, to individual abilities, the process still clearly reveals the hierarchical manner of the whole enterprise already noted in the gardener distributing jobs (line 10). But, with that said, it remains true, that if all members of society really do play a part, with the kind of dedication expected by traditional worship, then the Garden certainly will glorify every one, though the glory will now have been inspired by a patriotic and national passion rather than religious faith.Not Much of a Warrior - Wigan RLFC in the fifties and sixties, through rose coloured glasses. A golden age of legendary players and memorable moments, along with some personal memories. There is a very interesting section on Kipling and Fletcher’s collaboration in Peter Sutcliffe’s The Oxford University Press: An Informal History (1978, Oxford), pp. 158-62. I quote from pp. 161-62: Wigan and the American Civil War - Wigan Coal and Iron Company, The Right Honourable John Lancaster MP for Wigan, the Confederate Raider Alabama, USS Kearsarge, Cherbourg and the yacht Deerhound all feature in the last great sea battle of the American Civil War. The gardener spends so much time on his knees not because he is praying but because he is working in the garden. His devotion or dedication is to that work. Only thus can the glory of the garden of England be preserved. If people assume that they can rely on God to save the country, then it will swiftly and certainly decline. But if everyone works hard at the job, then ‘the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away!’ It may be that Kipling had this hymn specifically in mind. After all, “The Glory of the Garden,” along with all the other poems in A School History was also written with the aim of instilling into young children a very different set of values and overthrowing the views expressed in hymns like “All Things Bright and Beauty.” He must have felt that this ambition had to some extent been achieved, because on 11 October 1919 he proudly told André Chevrillon that “The Glory of the Garden” had become ‘a sort of school recitation piece’. Letters 4, p. 580.