In My Vicarage Garden 



advertisement to take in charge the strips of 

 garden on the platforms ; and very bright they 

 make them for us, and keep them so more or 

 less all the year. I believe this originated in 

 Scotland. Twenty years ago or more a large 

 nursery garden near Dumfries station was allowed 

 to overflow its bounds and to fill the side 

 approaches to the station with gay jflowers ; and 

 English nurserymen are slowly following the 

 example, to the great advantage of English 

 travellers, and, we may hope, to their own ad- 

 vantage. 



But it is not of railway gardens planted and 

 kept in order by stationmasters and porters, or 

 by nurserymen, that I now wish to speak. My 

 subject is railway gardens planted and kept 

 beautiful by nature. These gardens are getting 

 well-established all over the country, and if as 

 we travel we will note the flowers on either side 

 of us we shall often see much to delight and 

 interest us, and in many instances we shall see 

 some results that are very curious. 



What I mean is this. When a railway is first 

 made, the line is bounded either by the sides of a 

 cutting, or by an embankment falling away from 

 the line, or by a broad, flat verge ; but whether it 

 is a cutting, or an embankment, or a verge, the 

 result is raw, bare, and often ugly. But nature 

 does not allow it to remain so for long ; in a very 

 short time the bare sides get clothed, and often 

 before a year is past the surface is fully covered 



134 



