CHAPTER XIII 



SHORE-LANDS PLANTING 



WHEN we think of all the lovely things in our island 

 gardens, from Caerhaes in Cornwall, to Castlewellan in 

 the north of Ireland, why should we hesitate to plant 

 near our wildest shores? Island planters should love 

 the sea, as clearly some of them do, or we should never 

 have such true gardens as Tregothnan, Abbotsbury, and 

 many others along the shores of Cornwall and Devon. 

 It is an error to suppose that these effects by the sea 

 are only to be had in the south, because we have the 

 striking instance of Lord Annesley's planting in the 

 north of Ireland. Doubtless success is to a great extent 

 a question of shelter, and one may often get that near 

 the sea as well as anywhere else, in sheltered hollows 

 near and behind hills lying against the prevailing winds. 

 Certainly if we do nothing but leave the bare shore- 

 fields to the winds we do not get much beauty ; but if 

 care is taken in building up shelter through seashore 

 shrubs and trees, then good planting may be done. 



It is not the seashore folk and those who dwell by 

 the many river valleys and estuaries that are to be pitied, 

 but rather those struggling with inland and midland 

 conditions. For those who have to face such winters as 

 those of Hungary and central Germany there is no 

 chance to walk in avenues of Palms, such as those of 

 Mr. Fox at Falmouth, or among Tree-Ferns, Bananas, 

 and Gum-trees, as at Menabilly ; so that our privilege 

 as island planters is a singular one in Europe, consider- 



