OUR SENTIMENTAL GARDEN 



the sturdiest neighbouring branches / will conquer its " place 

 under the sun " to the detriment of the equally fair claims 

 of Oak, or Ash, or anything that strives upward. 

 No the right place of Holly is in the close-set hedge, for 

 which its forbidding, never-failing foliage and its vigorous 

 growth pre-eminently fit it. Or, again, in a dignified 

 isolation where it can, without truculent self-assertion, 

 develop on all sides its regular, shapely growth, look 

 beautiful at all times in its evergreen sheen / and, if of the 

 fruit-bearing sex, relieve with its scarlet the browns of 

 autumn and the white of a winter landscape. 



The first spot to be assailed was the area now called the 

 Blue-bell Glade, the interior of which was then terra incog- 

 nita. It had to be tackled like a fortress by regular sap. 

 Nothing was spared but the full-grown trees. Terrible was 

 the destruction, and gigantic the accumulation of small 

 firewood for future use. But great was the landscape 

 result : it gave us our first far-reaching perspective along 

 our own ground. We had, of course, fine and wide views 

 over the tree-tops from the highest terrace. But now we 

 obtained, in one direction at least, a middle-distance pro- 

 spect of green fields between the boles under overhanging 

 branches. And the effect was singularly satisfying. 

 And so the war on undergrowth was carried-on, 

 with system, until the present pleasing condition was 

 reached, when in every direction the eye is able to find, up 

 hill or down, either some far view of moor or valley, or 

 some corner of the grounds themselves, now grass-grown 

 or bright with flower-beds. 

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