38 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



absence of any pretentious "plan" which lets the flowers tell their 

 story to the heart. The walks are only what are needed, and so we 

 see only the earth and its blossoms. 



A Cottage Garden in Kent. — Driving on one of the sunny 

 days of autumn through the Weald of Kent from Charing to 

 Ashford — a country strewn with pretty houses and gardens — an old 

 house set in flowers was seen to the left just after passing the pretty 



Old mill-house garden at Mount Usher, Wicklow. 



village of Charing and the big woods above it. We turned from the 

 main road, and, looking over the low garden wall, were asked in to 

 see the pretty old house, oak-panelled, and to stroll about the small 

 garden, little more than a cottage garden in its simplicity of planting. 

 No pretentious plan to consider, only the yellow Sunflowers of the 

 season massed in their own way and running about inside the little 

 wall, and by their profusion giving an unity as well as richness of 

 colour. One lesson of these little gardens, that are so pretty, is 

 that one can get good effects from simple materials, and the absence 

 of complexity and pretence of " design " aids these pictures very much. 

 Many things are not needed for good effect, and very often we see 



