A SEASIDE GARDEN 237 



beach, but on either side there is a stretch of sand 

 pocketed among the rocks, and in the back a dune stops 

 abruptly at the margin of wide salt meadows, creek- 

 fed and unctuous, as befits the natural gardens of the 

 sea. 



The other cottages lying to the eastward are gay 

 in red-and- white striped awnings, and porch and window 

 boxes painted red or green are filled with geraniums, nas- 

 turtiums, petunias, any flowers, in short, that will thrive 

 in the broiling sun, while some of the owners have 

 planted buoy-like barrels at the four corners of their 

 enclosures and filled them with the same assortment of 

 foliage plants with which they would decorate a village 

 lawn. This use of flowers seemed at once to draw the 

 coolness from the easterly breeze and intensify the heat 

 that vibrates from the sand. 



Have you ever noticed that the sea in these latitudes 

 has no affinity for the brightest colours, save as it is a 

 mirror for the fleeting flames of sunrise and sunset? 



The sea-birds are blended tints of rock, sand, sky, 

 and water, save the dash of coral in bill and foot of 

 a few, just as the'coral of the wild- rose hips blends with 

 the tawny marsh-grasses. Scarlet is a colour abhorred 

 even by the marshes, until late in autumn the blaze of 

 samphire consumes them with long spreading tongues 



