John Wesley rode up and down through the English countryside during the last half of the eighteenth century, his soul touched by the poverty, the drabness, and the ugliness of the village life. One day he hit upon the scheme of distributing flower seeds to the housewives, and offering prizes for the most beautiful gardens, with the result that today the English countryside has the reputation of being the most colorful in the world. One man, almost single-handedly, changed the complexion of the rural districts of an entire nation.