H 



Thou sentest a gracious rain upon Thine inheritance; 

 and refreshedst it when it was weary/ The whole 

 garden is singing this hymn of praise/' 



GERTRUDE JEKYLL. 



JULY 



OW oppressively hot some of the past days have been ! 



" Oh, tyranny of Summer ! Oh, to feel 



No respite from the insatiable desire 

 That burns this blissful and impassioned earth 



With fierce, perennial fire ; 

 Pulsing through ev'ry ruby-hearted rose, 

 Running, more swiftly than the streamlet flows, 

 In human veins, till human veins reveal 

 Its glory on the lyre ! " 



If the freshness of leaf is over, and the newness gone 

 from field, there is beauty in the garden. It was a joy to 

 behold the Maytime fields and see 



"Tides of grass break into foam of flowers." 



But the green of the young leaf matures with all too great a 

 haste to the gold of the old one. If May and June be the 

 time when field and hedgerow are glorious, for the garden is 

 the time of July. Some of the sweetest of blossoms to-day 

 in the garden are the fairy-like sweet peas. Did not Keats 

 very happily describe them ? 



" Here are sweet peas, on tip-toe for a flight ; 

 With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white 

 And taper fingers catching at all things, 

 To bind them all about in tiny rings." 



" On tip-toe for a flight " is the very term for these butterfly- 

 like flowers. I take the following lines on the July garden 

 from "A Garden of Pleasure": "The garden is more 



177 M 



