1 1 4 THE CHRONICLES OF A GARDEN. 



Retains its strength, and in the languid eye 



Religion's holy hopes kindle a joy, 



That makes old age look lovely." — Southey. 



It may seem strange that I have brought the pleasures of a 

 garden on to the end of autumn without reference to either 

 fruits or vegetables, as if it were thought that what tended 

 to jjrotit did not also afford pleasure. Practically, this 

 department of gardening is so generally left to the gardener's 

 care, the results being all we enjoy, that I have not ven- 

 tured on so extensive a theme : — the culture of fruit and 

 vegetables I feel quite beyond my province and my power. 



Yet I by no means despise either, and the garden would 

 lose much of its charm were the ornamental alone allowed 

 to prevail, and our autumn arrive ungladdened by golden 

 fruit ; though it is seldom that much benefit is derived 

 from it here, the neighbourhood of a town exposing the 

 garden to the frequent amioyance of juvenile depredators. 

 It is partly from this cause that, for some years, the fruit 

 crop has ceased to be an object of much interest ; for as 

 surely as an apple, pear, or plum-tree had been watched 

 from its spring-time of snowy blossoms to its autumn of 

 ripened fruit, so surely Avas it found some morning stripped 

 and bare. So we took more to the smaller fruits — goose- 

 berries, currants, rasjDberries, and strawberries ; though even 

 on these, the influence of a neighbouring large town jjre- 

 vailed, although in a different way. Fruit and vegetables 

 could be bought at a cheaper rate than they could be 

 reared ; so why, it was argued, take up space and time with 

 what can be so easily procured 'i By degrees, therefore, 



