126 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



be a good plant for low rockeries, but it might be 

 troublesome, for I notice on our railway banks and 

 cuttings that it spreads rapidly ; yet where it can be 

 watched it might be grown for its bright golden flowers, 

 which would be welcome at any time, but are doubly 

 welcome in November. It is not a very rare plant, but 

 it is very local. I have not found it in many places, 

 but I found it abundantly in the New Forest, and it 

 grows on Wimbledon Common, but not abundantly. 



Certainly the absence of sun, and the dull skies, do 

 make November a dull and gloomy month ; and I know 

 that to many, and some of them lovers of gardens, the 

 garden in November is a piteous object, and so sadden- 

 ing that they feel obliged to leave it for the seaside. 

 I am thankful to say that to me it is not so ; indeed, 

 the seaside in November would be far more dispiriting 

 to me than my own garden, with its bare trees and 

 falling leaves, for I have no dislike to bare trees and 

 falling leaves in their proper seasons. And it is curious 

 to note how differently the same sights and smells of the 

 late autumn affect different people. Tennyson, with all 

 his love of a garden, records his feelings of the season 



4 The air is damp and hushed and close, 

 As a sick man's room when he taketh repose 



An hour before death 

 My very heart faints and my whole soul grieves 



