238 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



hedges, lies the little Dahlia plot, so full of interest. 

 In it, built in the wall, stands the Arbour in which 

 the poet Samuel Rogers used to sit, of whom the 

 third Lord Holland (whose friend he was) wrote 

 the following distich in his honour : 



"S. Rogers, author of 



' Pleasures of Memory.' 

 Here Rogers sat and here for ever dwell 

 With me, those Pleasures that he sings so well. 



V- H.D. 1818." 



Framed and hung up in the Arbour is a long 

 poetical attempt of Henry Luttrell's, who appears 

 to have found poetry more difficult than prose. The 

 following lines are, perhaps, worth recording : 



" Not a line can I hit on, that Rogers would own, 

 Though my senses are ravished, my feelings in tune, 

 And Holland's my host and the Season is June ! " 



Opposite this Arbour a delightful little Fountain 

 splashes, fills, runs over, and fills again, sprinkling 

 the Dahlias behind it with a perfect shower of 

 spray. This Dahlia bed is of great note, for it was 

 here that the first Dahlias ever grown in England 

 were planted. For though they had been brought 

 into England from America by Lady Bute in 1789, 

 the attempt to grow them was an absolute failure, 

 and it was not till 1804 that they were successfully 



