264 EVERSLEY GARDENS 



We children each had our own little plots in 

 the back garden ; and, not wholly content with 

 my first little bed close to the great Fir tree 

 near the back-yard, with its Damask Rose bush, 

 white Pinks, Polyanthus, and two precious 

 plants of blue and pink Hepaticas, I managed 

 to get an extra portion containing a fine 

 standard of Coupe d'Hebe, which I had long 

 desired. But after hours spent in sowing and 

 raking, great was the fall of my pride when 

 George Chaplin remarked as he passed, " Why, 

 Miss Rose, have the hens been a-scratching 

 here ? " The back garden was a delightful 

 place ; and the long straight walk that runs 

 from the stable-yard to the old Heath house 

 my father built us for a play-place, was always 

 brilliant in Spring and Summer with a well- 

 filled flower border on either hand. The old 

 Damask Roses simply ran riot in those borders, 

 with common crimson Pceonies, white Pinks, 

 green cushions of Saxifrage hypnoides, clumps 

 of the great pink S. crassifolia, Polyanthus and 

 Wallflowers, Moss and Cabbage Roses, and 

 Violets everywhere. But those said Violets 



