MIDWINTER GARDENS 



sulated from utility. Compelled by the common 

 frailties of all human nature (even in a democ- 

 racy) to maintain fortifications, the householder 

 has veiled the militant aspect of his defences 

 in the flowered robes and garlandries of nature's 

 diplomacy and hospitality. Thus reassured, his 

 own inner hospitality can freely overflow into 

 the fragrant open air and out upon the lawn — 

 a lawn whose dimensions are enlarged to both 

 eye and mind, inasmuch as every step around 

 its edges — around its meandering shrubbery 

 borders — is made affable and entertaining by 

 Flora's versatilities. 



At the same time, let us note in passing, 

 this enlargement is partly because the lawn 

 — not always but very much oftener than 

 where lawns go unenclosed — lies clean-breast- 

 ed, green-breasted, from one shrub-and-flower- 

 planted side to the other, along and across; 

 free of bush, statue, urn, fountain, sun-dial or 

 pattern-bed, an uninterrupted sward. Even 

 where there are lapses from this delightful ex- 

 cellence they often do not spoil, but only dis- 

 count, more or less, the beauty of the general 



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