126 EVERSLEY GARDENS 



consequently being more devoutly believed in 

 than ever. What would the amateurs of the 

 late 'fifties say to our cheerful plantings nowa- 

 days, with a good mulch in October, a few bits 

 of bracken drawn through the branches in 

 December, and no pruning till April. 



One of the wonders and delights of my 

 childhood was a fine plant of Souvenir d^un Ami 

 the beautiful salmon-pink Tea Rose brought 

 out ten years before, in 1846, by Defougere 

 which grew up a pillar in the conservatory at 

 Fir Grove near by. And when once the dear 

 owners bestowed one of its flowers upon me, I 

 think there was not a happier little girl in all 

 Hampshire. For sake's sake I determined it 

 should be the first Tea Rose I planted when I 

 made my garden here, though the old legend 

 still hung in some cobwebby recess at the back 

 of my mind, making me feel, in spite of con- 

 trary experience, that I too was perhaps being 

 hideously reckless, if not positively immoral. 

 However, I put my Rose into the border with 

 a certain amount of fear and trembling, and 

 could hardly believe my eyes when it laid hold 



