THE SUMMER GARDEN 103 



gathered 360 perfect blossoms) on the south 

 front of the seven-gabled seventeenth-century 

 house, with its panelled rooms, its fine oak 

 staircase, and its thirteen alarming attics 

 reached by three different stairways. Hers 

 was the standard Pactole on the lawn my 

 first acquaintance with that old and unjustly 

 neglected Tea Rose. Hers the flame-coloured 

 Ahtrcemeria psittacina under the study window ; 

 and the white Jessamine, and the delightful 

 old pink Rose whose name I never was able 

 to discover, against the wall of the little 

 corner garden. So that when I had the joy 

 of restoring that little corner garden to its 

 original uses, filling it with choice Roses instead 

 of Potatoes, I liked to fancy that her gentle 

 spirit was pleased to see the place she had 

 loved cared for once again. And I should 

 like to think that after I go to my rest, I 

 may leave some such imprint behind me in 

 the garden I have made. 



But this personal note is a subtle thing 

 that cannot be learned from books. There 

 is no recipe for making it, such as those for 



