LAYING OUT GARDENS. 67 



pasture loses itself in the thorn, hazel, and holly thicket below, while the 

 silver thread of the running brook here and there sparkles in the light. And 

 how happily the miniature prospect, framed by the gnarled branches of those 

 gigantic oaks, discloses the white spire of the village church in the middle 

 distance ; while in the background the smoke drifting athwart the base of 

 the purple hill, gives evidence that the evening fires are just lit in the far-off 

 town. At the right-hand corner of the lower terrace the ground falls more 

 abruptly away, and the descent into the lawn, which is overlooked from thu 

 high western terrace, is by two or three steps at a time, cut out in the native 

 rock of red sandstone, which also forms the base of the terrace itself. Eock 

 plants of every description grow freely in the crevices of the rustic battle- 

 ment which flanks the path on either side ; the irregularity of the structure 

 increases as you descend, till, on arriving on the lawn below, large rude masses 

 lie scattered on the turf and along the foundation of the western terrace. 



162. ** A profusion of the most exquisite climbing roses, of endless variety, 

 here clamber up till they bloom over the very balustrades of the higher 

 terrace, or creep over the rough stones at the foot of the descent. Here, 

 stretching to the south, is the nosegay of the garden. Mignonette, ' the 

 Frenchman's darling,* and the musk-mimulus, spring out of every fissure of 

 the sandstone ; while beds of violets — 



• Strew the green lap of the new-come spring,' 



and lilies of the valley scent the air below. Beds of heliotrope flourish 

 around the isolated blocks of sandstone ; the fuchsia, alone inodorous, claims 

 a place from its elegance ; and honeysuckle and clematis, of all kinds, trail 

 along the ground, or twine up the stands of rustic baskets filled with the 

 more choice odoriferous plants of the greenhouse. The scented heath, the tube- 

 rose, and the rarer jasmines, have each their place here ; while the sweet-brier 

 and the wallflower, and the clove and stock gilliflower, are not too common to 

 be neglected. To bask upon the dry sunny rock, on a bright spring morning, 

 in the midst of this ' wilderness of sweets,' or on a dewy summer's eve to 

 lean over the balustrade above, while every breath from beneath wafts up the 



perfumed air — 



' Stealing and giving odour,' 



is one of the greatest luxuries in life. 



163. ** A little farther on the lawn, are the trunks and stumps of old pollards 

 hollowed out, and from the cavities, filled with rich mould, climbers, creepers, 

 trailers, and twiners, of every hue and habit, form a singular and picturesque 

 group. The lophospermum, the eccrymocarpos, the maurandia, the loasa, the 

 rhodochiton, verbenas, and petunias, in all their varieties, festoon themselves 

 over the rugged bark, and form the gayest and gracefullest bouquet imagin- 

 able ; while the simple and pretty snapdragon weeps over the side, till its 

 tiny pink threads are tangled among the feathery ferns that fringe the base 

 of the stump. 



I. '14. " The lawn now stretches some distance westward, its green and 



F 2 



