202 GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. 



the most blazing effects that we behold nowadays on 

 expensive lawns, for the privilege of enjoying once more 

 the old garden behind grandmother's house. I wish you 

 could see the quaint old place us I recall it after the lapse 

 of many years. It was, I confess, a somewhat formal and 

 prim affair; but there was nothing commonplace or vulgar 

 about it, as in the baser sort of what is now called ribbon 

 gardening. On the contrary, there was a distinct flavor of 

 individuality in the character of its appearance. The de- 

 signer, being either a practical housewife, or inspired by 

 one, had thought of many things besides mere ornament, 

 and even the ornament had a distinct difference, which gave 

 this garden a special suggestiveness of its own. 



The paths were laid out with entire regularity, and 

 marked with long rows or borders of dwarf box ; but there 

 the regularity and sameness ceased, unless we count as regu- 

 lar the scrupulously kept gravel of the walks, bedded with 

 white pebbles. Such a garden naturally had its grape-vine, 

 trained on some suitable supports, which, in this case, hap- 

 pened to be the stable wall. The next-door neighbor, I 

 remember, had an arbor for his grape-vines, that began, as 

 it seemed, nowhere in particular, and ended twenty feet off 

 with the most delightful neglect of any why or wherefore, 

 except that it existed for the grape-vine; that was evi- 

 dently enough for Deacon Jones. Nowadays such an 

 arbor must have done duty alike as a place for seats, for 

 a promenade, and also for the display of architectural 

 ornament in the Queen Anne style. Not that such a triple 

 performance of duty is not proper enough, but only it was 

 not the way of gardens of those earlier days. 



