Category Archives: Literature

Arts, Literature

Set it free in the world

SIR RICHARD MAITLAND, who lived in the 16th century, was an eminent judge who became blind at the age of sixty-five.

Thinking he could no longer practise law, and not yet ready to retire from a productive life, he turned to the study of – of all things – literature.

He then went on to make a name for himself as a poet.

Now, the good judge may have needed someone to write his poems down, and he probably never saw one of them in print, but not being able to see the end result of his endeavours did not stop him adding to the world’s store of beauty.

Nor should it stop us.

Too often people hestitate to help because they can’t see how it will all work out in the end.

Don’t let that concern you. If you have beauty, kindness or even poetry to give, then set it free in the world.

It will take care of itself from there.

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Arts, Books, Literature

The Heart of a Garden

PINNEGAR, in Reginald Arkell’s 1950 novel “Old Herbaceous”, is the gardener at the local big house. A foundling baby, he grows up to find home and family in the garden and its plants.

Mrs Chateris owns the garden and loves it for its beauty. She and Pinnegar often disagree about what should be planted where, but she usually submits to his expertise. In the same fashion, when a plant seems to be in trouble, Pinnegar would ask the advice of the “First Gardener” and go his way.

I am sure Mrs Arkell (and Pinnegar) agreed with the notion that most of us find out, but which Dorothy Francis Gurney put into words: “One is nearer to God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.”

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Arts, Literature, Scotland

Making it a big thing

HELPING HANDS

THERE’S an old Scots proverb that many in Scotland are fond of. It goes, “Mony a mickle maks a muckle”.

The spelling varies, but in essence it translates as “lots of little things make a big thing”.

A man might make a decent income by being good at many little jobs; lots of people doing a little bit to help someone adds up to that someone being helped in a big way.

And then there is the Russian version of that old saying which also expresses it subtly: “If everyone gave a thread, the poor man would have a shirt.”

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