It was once prettily said by a lady who cultivated flowers, that she had 'buried many a care in her garden'; and the sea-weed collector can often say the same of his garden--at the shore; as many a loving disciple could testify, who, having taken up the pursuit originally as a resource against weariness, or a light possible occupation during hours of sickness, has ended by an enthusiastic love, which throws a charm over every sea-place on the coast, however dull and ugly to the world in general; makes every day spent there too short, and every visit too quickly ended. Only let there be sea, and plenty of low, dark rocks stretching out, peninsular-like, into it; and only let the dinner-hour be fixed for high-water time,--and the loving disciple asks no more of fate. Margaret Scott Gatty (1872) M. S. Gatty (1872), British Sea-weeds: Drawn from Professor Harvey's Phycologia Britannica, Bell & Daldy, London. return to poem and quote index