192 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



surroundings from whence their cHpped wings will 

 not allow them to escape, incline you to believe 

 that this world is a smooth, genteel, beneficent 

 world after all, and its pastoral character is here 

 so well sustained that no one would be a bit sur- 

 prised if Pan with his pipe of reeds, or Corydon 

 with his white-fleeced flock, should turn the corner 

 at any moment. 



It is only upon man's terms, however, and to 

 suit his scheme of scenic effects, that these tame 

 things are allowed on the premises. They are not 

 here because man loves them. Woe to the satin- 

 coated mole that blindly burrows on the lawn ! 

 Woe to the rabbit that sneaks through the fence, 

 or to the hare that leaps it ! Woe to the red fox 

 that litters in the pinetum, or to the birds that make 

 nests in the shrubberies ! Woe to the otter that 

 takes license to fish in the ponds at the bottom of 

 the pleasaunce ! Woe to the blackbirds that strip 

 the rowan-tree of its berries just when autumn 

 visitors are expected ! Woe to the finches that nip 

 the buds off the fruit-trees in the hard spring frost, 

 presuming upon David's plea for sacrilege ! Death, 

 instant or prolonged, or dear life purchased at the 

 price of a torn limb, for the silly things that dare to 

 stray where the woodland liberties are forbidden 

 to either plant or animal ! 



plumage." But Lord Beaconsfield is Benjamin Disraeli — a master of 

 the ornate, a bit of a dandy always. In Italy, too, they throw in 

 porcupines and ferrets for picturesqueness. In Holland are our old 

 friends the tin hare and guinea-pigs, and the happy shooting boy, in. 

 holiday attire, painted to the life. 



