XX RIVERSIDE LETTERS 151 



various losses in the garden, some are irre- 

 parable, whilst others may, I hope, prove 

 only partial. A lovely Marechal Niel is very 

 badly injured, I cannot see a sign of a bud 

 on it at present, whereas, I have seen it in 

 former years with large flower buds showing 

 at this date. My China or monthly roses, 

 on either side of the trellised path, are also 

 seriously damaged ; there is far more dead 

 wood on them than living, with hardly any 

 flower buds at all showing anywhere. These 

 roses I have always accounted as most hardy, 

 but they have proved themselves inferior in 

 this respect to the damask, the cabbage, the 

 maiden's blush or the sweet brier, all which 

 seem none the worse for the frost. The 

 Rosa rugosa, Austrian briar, and some of 

 the hybrid perpetuals are also fairly well. 



My rosemary bushes have been severely 

 punished, one or two are quite dead and the 

 others only just alive. The laurestines and 

 some other evergreens are badly scorched, 

 even the lavender looks snubbed and dis- 



