ALPINE GARDENS. 



IN the last six months I have seen a large number of 

 gardens from one end of the land nigh unto the other, 

 from Cornwall to Yorkshire gardens magnificent and 

 gardens mean wild gardens (none so charming as 

 Mr. Boscawen's at Lamorran) and tame gardens ; oh, 

 so tame ! so scrupulously done to scale and pattern, so 

 shaven and shorn, like the ecclesiastic in the house 

 that Jack built, so raked and rolled, so tied and trim, 

 that they looked more like schools awaiting the 

 government inspector than [happy children at play, 

 and only a strong sense of my duty towards my 

 neighbour restrained me from a cheer when I found a 

 sowthistle, and prevented me from brandishing it 

 under his nose. I have seen spring gardens (Belvoir 

 La Belle, par excellence) and summer gardens, some 

 laid out with a natural grace, fair and fragrant with 

 hardy shrubs and flowers, annual, biennial, perennial, 

 and some of geometrical design, brilliant with those 

 more tender plants, which cannot abide our frosts, 

 artistic, and attractive, and appropriate, where the 

 site suggests them, as surroundings, for example, to 



