"The first three men in the world were a gardener, a ploughman, and a grazier; and if any object that the second of these was a murderer, I desire him to consider that as soon as he was so, he quitted our profession, and turned builder," according to the English poet Abraham Cowley (1618-67). Somewhat earlier in his play concerning the melancholy Dane Hamlet, Shakespeare opined: "There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers and gravediggers; they hold up Adam's profession." Alas, as the days shorten and high summer turns to low fall, we occasionally reflect upon how others view us.
