JANUARY 15 



those little penny books with their Bewick- 

 like woodcuts ! Alas ! I seek them in vain. 

 I can recall a few titles such as * The 

 Rosebuds,' * The Little Dog Flora, and 

 her Silver Bell,' ' The Two Dolls,' < The 

 Snow,' * Sophronia and her Kitten.' Very 

 little hope remains of copies of these or any 

 others ever rewarding my long search. But 

 we have wandered far from Peach Corner. 

 Through the glass walls of the green-house 

 which bounds one side, come gleams of 

 scarlet geranium and of red winter carna- 

 tions. The raised border alongside is 

 this year filled with double violets. They 

 are the dark purple kind that are never 

 met with now. Their scent is powerful; 

 and if a drawback to their cultivation 

 exists, it is only that their stalks are too 

 short. Aubretia hangs over the stone 

 edges of this violet bed, and we half-per- 

 ceive behind the glass, a grove of arum 

 lillies, with all the promise of their long 

 spirals soon to untwist and open out in 

 broad patches of ivory white. 



The great Rhynchospermum jasminoides, 

 which for years had filled up one corner 



