56 



THF. GARDENER'S MONTin.\ 



[February, 



eral, but we like to know beforehand Just what 

 we are to pay.*' It wa* twelve miles out, and 

 the bargain was made that fur eighteen shillings 

 we should have that '* lly " lor the whole day. 

 and " we could pay it to the driver" on return. 

 We hand the driver the mom-y when back, 

 who takes it very thankfully, and we close our 

 pocketbook, but are brought up with, " You have 

 not remembered the tiger, sir.'' " Remembered 

 the tiger!" "Yes, sir; every gentleman re- 

 members the tiger, sir, and I was sure you would 

 like me to tell you, sir, what the gentleniens 

 here does." It is no use, of course, and we half 

 surrender with, " Well, how much i.s it?" " We 

 allays leaves that to the gentleman hi.sself, sir ; 

 but they never thinks, sir, the tiger worth less 

 than live shillings." And the five shillings go, 

 for you cannot forget that an "American never 

 bothers about sixpences." But it is over, you 

 think, and you feel relieved. But not yet, 

 my friend. ' ' There was four puts up, you know, 

 sir, and these cost a shilling each — four shil- 

 lings." It begins to be rather warm, and you 

 say, " We enquired first what we had to pay, 

 and was told just eighteen shillings." " Yes, 

 sir; its all right, sir; that was for the horse and 

 fly, sir ; but every gentleman, sir, pays for his 

 horse when he is fed." It is all done so gen- 

 teelly, and so politely, that I think the Ameri- 

 can man comes rather to like these extras at 

 last, and never feels so happy as when he has a 

 " bob " between his fingers just ready to bestow 

 on the first appeal to his " gentlemanship." 



But that " fiy ride " to Lord Salisbury's was 

 worth all we paid. We passed the monument 

 which told of one of the bloodiest battles be- 

 tween the adherents of the Red and White 

 Roses. Far behind us, towards the great city, 

 we could just see in the horizon the glass domes 

 of the great Alexandra Palace twinkling like a 

 hundred stars in the morning sun. In the fields 

 in every direction were hundreds of mowers at 

 the hay, swinging the old scythes one after 

 another as unconcernedly as if there never was a 

 Yankee mowing machine in the world. Men 

 with forks were turning, and girls and women 

 with hand rakes gathering hay together, just as it 

 used to be in the olden time. It brought up all 

 the poetry of hay-niaknig, and seemed to put our 

 plain matter-of-fact way of disposing of the crop 

 at a sad discount. But of course farming is for 

 money; we were out for a pleasure ride, and 

 had but the poetry to see. All around were 

 countrv seats, some small and full of art. others 



immense estates glorious with the touch of na^ 

 ture. But no matter how large or how small 

 j the gardens might be, they were always well 

 cared for. We go through our country, and we 

 see where people have built great houses, and 

 laid out large grounds when they were well otl*, 

 but now in neglect and weeds. It is still the 

 "style" to keep the house, but no one seems- 

 to think he ha« gone down in society because he 

 lets his garden go down. But here the sign of 

 his status hangs from his garden, and when he 

 lets that go down, he may bid good-bye to bis- 

 rank, and take "apartments" somewhere. It 

 was certainly among the most remarkable of al! 

 our P^nglish and French experiences, that a neg- 

 lected garden, in the sense in which we should 

 understand it, never came once before my eyes. 

 Once I thought I had this unique sight. The 

 gate entered from the public highway. For 

 many rods the gardener took us through rank 

 weeds higher than our heads — much to our sur- 

 prise, till the old gardener explained that " it be 

 a notion of master's. He think the thieves be 

 fooled, and won't bother themselves to come hi' 

 after the fruit." And we must say that the gar- 

 den proper, when we got there, was a model of 

 cleanliness. The currants and gooseberries es- 

 pecially, which thrive so well in the English 

 climate, being sights to see. We ride along the 

 smooth turnpike road. The hawthorns are out 

 of flower, but the Dog rose, which, in spite of the 

 assertion of the books — which give the name to- 

 the sweet briar — we look on as the real "Eglan- 

 tine " of the poets, was in full bloom everywhere 

 by the wayside, and filled the air with a perfume 

 we doubt not fully equaled any that ever floated 

 over "Araby the blest." The colors vary from 

 white to deep rose, and the plants make huge 

 bushes by the wayside, often four or five feet 

 tlirough. Near these are the blackberries. 



" That frnit full well the schoolboy knows, 

 Wild bramble and the brake," 



the brake especially, or bracken fern as it is- 

 sometimes called, which grows in the parks 

 where there is game, in immense profusion, for 

 which it makes a good cover. 



We knew at once when we came to the estate 

 of the Marquis, not only by the profusion of this 

 fern, under the huge old oaks, but by the im- 

 mense quantities of Rhododendrons then in 

 bloom. Laurels (or kind of cherry with huge 

 evergreen leaves) and other things betokening 

 the large landed estates. Besides this a wall of" 

 concrete lined the main rnad for miles along (he- 



