38 . A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN. 



declared bis " manners was 'igh, and his appearance 

 'airy." And even the mild kind-hearted Mr. Oldacre 

 was reported to have murmured something about "a 

 pornological puppy ; " to have spoken disparagingly of 

 Mr. Chiswick's " foliage "-to wit, his moustaches 

 and beard ; and to have told the Duke's huntsman, 

 that " he would find some excellent covert at the Hall, 

 when he w y anted a fox next season." I think that a 

 little breeze of apprehensive jealousy stirred the 

 tranquil waters of that grand old heart. Mr. Chiswick 

 had won medals at the London shows ; there was to 

 be a new orchard house at the Hall (poor Mr. Oldacre 

 had only four, well stocked with fruit-bearing trees) ; 

 and our King of Spades looked sternly (it was but for 

 a moment) from his palace upon the modest vinery of 

 Naboth. 



Now what do you think that the King's daughter, at 

 this crisis of our history, the Princess Mary of Oldacre, 

 went and did ? Exactly so ; for I know that you have 

 guessed it ; she did, indeed. As you, iny subtle 

 reader, have well inferred, she did not wear her second- 

 best bonnet, much less did she distort her very lovely 

 face with unnecessary sniffs and sneers when she met 

 the bearded knight, whom the King, her father, was 

 disinclined to honour. The knight fell head over 

 beard (his ears were planted out by extensive shrub- 

 beries, and so I vary the old expression that they may 

 preserve their position of retirement) head over 

 beard in love with the Princess ; and " Jill " (if I may 

 apply such a term to royalty) " Jill came tumbling 

 after." When Mr. Chiswick got sixty-eight runs from 

 his own bat in our annual match with the Slawmey 



