41 6 Old Time Gardens 



white cows, and flocks of white sheep, and the 

 splendid oxen were white. White pigeons circled 

 in the air around ample dove-cotes, and the farm- 

 yard poultry were all white ; an enthusiastic chronicler 

 recounts also white peacocks on the wall, but these 

 are also denied. 



On every side were old terraced walls covered with 

 Roses and flowering vines, banked with shrubs, and 

 standing in beds of old-time flowers running over 

 with bloom ; but behind the house, stretching up 

 the lovely hillside, was The Garden, and when we 

 entered it, lo ! it was a White Garden with edg- 

 ings of pure and seemly white Candytuft from the 

 forcing beds, and flowers of Spring Snowflake and 

 Star of Bethlehem and Jonquils ; and there were 

 white-flowered shrubs of spring, the earliest Spiraeas 

 and Deutzias ; the doubled-flowered Cherries and 

 Almonds and old favorites, such as Peter's Wreath, 

 all white and wonderfully expressive of a simplicity, a 

 purity, a closeness to nature. 



I saw this lovely farmstead and radiant White 

 Garden first in glowing sunlight, but far rarer must 

 have been its charm in moonlight ; though the white 

 beasts (as English hinds call cattle) were sleeping in 

 careful shelter ; and the white dog, assured of their 

 safety, was silent ; and the white fowl were in coop 

 and cote ; and 



" Only the white sheep were sometimes seen 

 To cross the strips of moon-blanch' d green." 



But the White Garden, ah ! then the garden truly 

 lived ; it was like lightest snow wreaths bathed in 



