vin RIVERSIDE LETTERS 61 



day the wind began to whip round to the 

 N.E., the sky, it is true, remained clear, but 

 little by little the wind grew stronger and 

 colder, whilst clouds began to appear and rob 

 us of much sun heat, and on Sunday night 

 there was a hard frost which was repeated on 

 Monday night, and the catastrophe was com- 

 plete. 



Now all my irises are shrivelled up, and 

 the oriental poppies have blackened petals 

 and drooping buds. Some lovely tender 

 sprays of Heuchera sanguined which had just 

 begun to bloom, and which were the very 

 pride of my heart, are all bent double and 

 burnt up past all hope. Two beautiful sprigs 

 of blossom on a buck-bean in my bog garden 

 are reduced to a loathsome brown mass. 

 These, for a few samples of the havoc 

 wrought amongst my flowers, will suffice ; in 

 the kitchen garden, all my potato halms have 

 turned from a healthy green colour to that of 

 withered seaweed ; the young kidney beans 

 are in much the same plight, their broad 



