144 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



Three paces through the deep shadow 

 of 'the wood/ and there is the broad 

 border of the Boccage in all its glory ! To 

 know how this had fared in my absence, 

 while yet the ground had not received 

 comfort from any kindly rain, had been 

 my secret trouble. I should like for the 

 moment to be some one else, and as a 

 stranger to describe this border quite im- 

 partially ! Yet the only words I can devise 

 as some one else's first impression seem 

 cold and dry. Such as ' a beautiful band 

 of flowers, that reflects the highest credit 

 on the care and skill which have made it 

 what it is.' That will not do. I must be 

 myself, and try to give some faint outline 

 of it. When I saw it last last month 

 roses and pinks were over ; and besides 

 some budding corn-flags and hyacinthus 

 candicans, there was little to give grace to 

 the border, saving certain patches and 

 rounds and clumps of green traced in 

 and out between the roses. I returned 

 to find this young green grown out of 

 all knowledge, and flowering with a strange 

 luxuriance of bloom, the flowers all mixing 



