138 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



and flowers, and ilex woods, is romantic ; 

 like a poet's dream, rather than a house 

 of the nineteenth century. Its stones, 

 however, are the grey stones of an old 

 house in Normandy. They were brought 

 over many years ago, and rebuilt here on 

 the edge of the sea in strange architecture, 

 with the carved mouldings and gargoyles, 

 and oriel windows of the past, put in just 

 as they were. The open parapet round 

 the roof reads thus in stone letters : 

 ' Suave mari magno turbantibus cequora 

 ventis Terra magnum alterius spectare lab- 

 or em} The words seem to make music 

 with the soft measure of the waves below, 

 and the sound of the wandering winds. 

 The thick-leaved ilexes soon loose them- 

 selves in woods of chestnut and fir, and 

 paths cut through them in lines of endless 

 shade close in at last, each with an arch 

 of sapphire sea. Beyond the edges of the 

 woods, wild honeysuckle and low sea- 

 blown oaks, and brambles, grow together 

 in a sweet entanglement, and grassy paths 

 between are set with purple heather and 

 knapweed (knops, or hardheads), and 



