ARRANGEMENT. IO9 



written in 1755) "to see just and noble ideas 

 brought into practice, peculiarities banished, pros- 

 pects opened, the country called in, nature rescued 

 and improved, and art decently concealing itself 

 under her own productions." '' I am now," wrote 

 the Czarina to Voltaire in the year 1772, *' wildly 

 in love with the English system of gardening, its 

 waving lines and gentle declivities ;" and so was 

 all the gardening world. Sixty years later, in my 

 own childhood, there v/ere in the garden, before 

 me as I write, — and now little more than one sub- 

 divided flower-bed, — those bowers and meandering 

 walks, many a pleasant nook, where the aged 

 might rest, young men and maidens sigh their 

 love, and happy children play. Ah, what delicious 

 facihties for *' I spy" and for "hide-and-seek," 

 where now there is but scant concealment for the 

 furtive hungry cat ! What lookings into eyes, 

 what approximations of lips, where now it would 

 be "bragian" boldness to squeeze a body's hand ! 

 I look through the window, and I see the place 

 where, under drooping branches, we were kings 

 and queens ; where we entertained ambassadors 

 with surreptitious food ; where I was crowned 

 with laurel (the only bit of reality) as the great 

 poet of my day ; and where, for brilliant service, 

 I was knighted scores of times, on my return from 



