288 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



of the kind so beautifully described by Clare will to some extent 

 illustrate^my meaning : 



' And where the marjoram once, and sage and rue, 

 And balm and mint, with curled-leaf parsley grew, 

 And double marigolds, and silver thyme, 

 And pumpkins 'neath the window used to climb ; 

 And where I often, when a child, for hours 

 Tried through the pales to get the tempting flowers ; 

 As lady's laces everlasting peas, 

 True love lies bleeding, with the hearts at ease ; 

 And golden rods, and tansy running high. 

 That o'er the pale top smiled on passer-by ; 

 Flowers in my time which every one would praise, 

 Though thrown like weeds from gardens now-a-days.' 



There might be but little attempt at colour-grouping, or at the 

 production of effect by masses in a narrow sense. But was there 

 any want of beauty there ? And did you not feel, in looking at 

 those flowers, how each made you love it as a friend — the Pinks 

 and Sweet Williams, the Everlasting Peas, Valerian, Day Lily, 

 Jacob's Ladder, and a host of others ? And did you not notice 

 how ever and again you fell upon some quaint, strange plant 

 which has been expelled from the modern border, which seemed 

 to touch your inmost soul, and to fill the mind, especially if in 

 childhood, with a sense of wonder and mysterious awe? What 

 was that plant ? Could not anybody tell its name, and where it 

 came from, and all else about it, for it must surely have an event- 

 ful history ? And, with curiosity rather stimulated than satisfied 

 by the scanty knowledge you could glean, you fell back upon the 

 imagination, which set it down as an actor in some strange and 

 awful tale, as that of a young man who gathered some unknown 

 wild flowers that attracted him, and who, together with his be- 

 trothed, was poisoned by their touch. Feelings of this sort were 

 strongly awakened in my mind in childhood by such plants as 

 Caper Spurge, Henbane, Rue, and other more beautiful species, 

 as the Dog's-Tooth Violet, with its spotted leaves, the common 

 Nigella, and the pink Marsh-Mallow of the fields. 



Want of general effect ! Is there none in those cottage gardens, 



