Max Beerbohm

“ Poor is the reward of the palate. Nor does the hand, in its prehensibility, escape a sad charring. Yet does he persist. Under the same impulse, he inclines to holly, for the sake of the pain it holds in its symbolic spears. Holly has, too, in a greater or less degree, his dearest colour. He values the plant for its crude accompaniment of berries. But the good housewife will not regret the sparse incidence of these things, in whose plenty superstition sees the exact omen of an unkind season. ”

“ To small fingers the keen points of the leaves yield their content of adventure. Never so clearly as at this season may we gauge the charm that peril has for immature minds. See the child as he snatches the dried grape from its enthralling flame! ”

“ There is a form of exclusion that is peculiar to one feast. Through the year you may garnish your house with the variable excess of its garden. "Fragrance is the wisdom of a room," it has been well said by a living poet. Not less does the room draw temperament from the colour of its flowers. ”