118 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



admire a grand display of Crown Imperials; and in 

 many cottage gardens I admire (I hope without undue 

 envy) the spikes of white lilies, which with me are 

 very loth to flower at all 



But at no other time of the year is the value of 

 these outside gardens more brought home to me than 

 in the late autumn, in the end of October and the 

 beginning of November. The elm is the common tree 

 of this district, and as I look round my garden I am 

 forced to acknowledge that the points of interest and 

 beauty have been much diminished ; but when I look 

 at its surroundings and see the hillsides and hedge- 

 rows, which form a part of my garden view, a rich 

 mass of golden foliage, I then see that the interest and 

 beauty have only been changed from one part of the 

 garden to another. I lately saw, in an American 

 paper, an account of the beauty of the American 

 autumn, in which this view of the extension of the 

 garden is very pleasantly put : 



'At this time of year the garden seems to me the least 

 interesting one of the year, . . . but around us is the 

 glamour of the glorious American autumn, tinging the fields 

 and ripening leaves with a wealth of colours overpowering the 

 brightest garden. Seen under a declining sun at this season, 

 our Jersey meadows show broad, harmonious, and exquisite 

 shadings of colour, which no expert in bedding-out can hope 



