“Downton Abbey with gardening tips.” — The Guardian Old Herbaceous, a classic British novel of the garden, recounts the transformation of Bert Pinnegar from orphan child into "Old Herbaceous," the legendary head gardener of an English manor house. Esteemed as the county's top flower-show judge and hailed as a horticultural genius, Pinnegar's reserved demeanor and eccentricities only add to his legendary status. His neighbors misunderstand his tendency to bluster as haughtiness, but "so long as he stuck to his gardens he was as right as rain." This witty, gently comedic portrait of an endearing and unforgettable character provides a delightful reading experience-and a few gardening tips along the way. This Warbler Classics edition features twelve wood engravings from Illustrations of the British Flora (1865) by W. H. Fitch and W. G. Smith. "Downton Abbey with gardening tips." - The Guardian Reginald Arkell (1881-1959) was a British script writer and comic novelist who wrote many musical plays for the London theater. The most popular of those was an adaptation of 1066 and All That, a spoof history book, into a play entitled 1066-and all that: A Musical Comedy based on that Memorable History by Sellar and Yeatman. He is the author of A Cottage in the Country, Old Herbaceous, and the Green Fingers series of garden verse.