72 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



and the ipomaeas of the Tropics, for the delicious 

 fragrance of our wild banks of violets, our lilies-of- 

 the- valley, and our woodbine, or even for the passing 

 whiff of a hawthorn bush, a clover or bean field, or 

 a gorse -common. 



With such hedgerow flowers within his reach, and 

 in so favourable a climate, it is not to be wondered 

 that the garden of the English cottager has been 

 remarked among our national distinctions. These 

 may be said to form the foreground of that peculiar 

 English scenery which is filled up by our hedge- 

 rows and our parks. The ingenious authoress of 

 ' Leila in England ' makes the little new-landed girl 

 exclaim for the want of "fountain-trees" and 

 " green parrots." This is true to nature but not 

 less so the real enthusiasm of Miss Sedgwick, on her 

 first arriving in England, at the cottage-gardens of 

 the Isle of Wight. Again and again she fixes upon 

 them as the most pleasing and striking feature in a 

 land where everything was new to her. Long may 

 they so continue ! It is a trait of which England 

 may well be proud ; for it speaks would we could 

 trace it everywhere ! of peace, and of the leisure, 

 and comfort, and contentedness of those who " shall 

 never cease from the land/' 



We would even make gardens in general a test of 

 national prosperity and happiness. As long as the 

 British nobleman continues to take an interest in his 

 avenues and hot-houses his lady in her conserva- 

 tories and parterres the squire overlooks his 

 labourers 1 allotments the "squiresses and squirinas" 



