14 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



paper covers), entitled 'The Lady in the 

 Arbour,' could not have been written now. 

 In the woodcut frontispiece, the lady, 

 drest in a scanty short-waisted gown, a cap 

 on her head, and a narrow shawl pinned 

 round her shoulders, sits in the arbour 

 with a book on her knee. It is a prim, 

 precise looking latticed arbour, with no 

 wild garlanding of anything about it. Be- 

 hind is a bit of old broken park paling, 

 and a very black wood. Through: a gap in 

 the paling creeps a little child, as if intent 

 on making its way to the lady in the arbour. 

 I think the idea was, that the lady waited 

 there every morning for the wood-cutter's 

 child to read to it from the Bible on her 

 lap. Not much, perhaps, in the simple 

 little story to interest a child-reader. The 

 charm must have lain in that picture of 

 the gap, with its infinite suggestions of 

 all that might lie beyond the wood, and 

 of all there might be on the other side, 

 of moss or snail-shells, or velvety field 

 mouse among the withered leaves and 

 sticks. 



What would I not give to see again 



