252 



THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



with many a flush of flowers. — What pinks ! Aye, we know 

 them well — the beautiful garden plats on the banks and braes all 

 round about our native town, pretty Paisley — and in among the 

 very houses in nooks and corners which the sunshine does not 

 scorn to visit — and as the glamour goes by, sweet to our soul 

 is the thought of the Kilbarchan, the loveliest flower in heaven 

 or on earth — for 'tis the prize pink of our childhood, given us 

 by our Father's hand, and we see now the spot where the fine- 

 grained glory grew. — Loudon on the Education of Gardeners. 

 {Blackwood's Magazine^ i834-) 



—^A/\/V^ 



THOMAS 



LOVE 



PEACOCK 



{1785-1866). 



Friend of Shelley ; for thirty-seven years clerk to the East India Company ; 

 married the ''Beauty of Carnarvonshire,^ and wrote the poem ' Rhododaphne,^ 

 and the satyrical novels ''Headlong Hall,^ ' Nightmare Abbey,' and * Crotchet 

 Castle. ' 



A/TR MILESTONE}— This, you perceive, is the natural state 



of one part of the grounds. Here is a wood, never yet 



touched by the finger of taste ; thick, intricate, gloomy. Here 



is a little stream, dashing from stone to stone, and overshadowed 



with these untrimmed boughs. 



Miss Tenorina. — The sweet romantic spot ! How beautifully 

 the birds must sing there on a summer evening ! 



Miss Graziosa. — Dear sister ! How can you endure the horrid 

 thicket ? 



Mr Milestone. — You are right, Miss Graziosa ; your taste is 

 correct, perfectly ^;'z regie. Now, here is the same place corrected 

 — trimmed — polished — decorated— adorned. Here sweeps a 

 plantation, in that beautiful regular curve ; there winds a gravel 

 walk ; here are parts of the old wood, left in these majestic 

 circular clumps, disposed at equal distances with wonderful 

 symmetry; there are some singular shrubs scattered in elegant 

 profusion ; here a Portugal laurel, there a juniper; here a laurus- 

 tinus, there a spruce fir ; here a larch, there a lilac : here a 



^ Possibly a caricature of ' Capability ' Brown or of Humphry Repton. 



