214 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



heedless shore. Or you shall find some sequestered 

 corner of the land that keeps its scars of old-world 

 turmoil, the symj^toms of the hustle of primeval 

 days, the shock of grim shapes, long ago put to sleep 

 beneath a coverlet of sweet-scented turf; and the 

 unspoiled grandeur of the scene will prick and arouse 

 your dulled senses, while its peaceful face will 

 assure you that, as it was with the troubled masonry 

 of the hills in the morning of the world, even so 

 shall it be with you — time shall tranquillise and at 

 length cancel all your woes. Or again, 



" Should life be dull, and spirits low 



'Twill soothe us in our sorrow 

 That earth has something yet to show, 

 The bonny holms of Yarrow." 



Better tonic, one thinks, for the over-wrought 

 brain than the soft glamour of the well-swept lawn, 

 the dipt shrubs, the focussed beauty of dotted speci- 

 mens, the ordered disorder of wriggling paths and 

 sprawling flower-beds of strange device, the ran- 

 sacked wardrobe of the gardener's stock of gay 

 bedding-plants, or other of the permitted charms of a 

 modern garden ; better than these is the stir and 

 enthusiasm of Nature's broad estate, the boulder- 

 tossed moor, where the hare runs races in her mirth, 

 and the lark has a special song for your ear ; or the 

 high transport of hours of indolence spent basking in 

 the bed of purple heather, your nostrils filled with 

 gladsome air and the scent of thyme, your eyes 

 followinor the course of the milk-white clouds that 

 ride with folded sails in the blue heavens overhead 



