THE POETRY OF GARDENING. 105 



mole-hills (such as are in wild heaths), to be set with wild 

 thyme." 



Another broad drive of greensward dips from the lawn 

 into the darkest and most tangled part of the wood ; here, 

 through a long vista, you catch a glimpse of the American 

 shrubbery below. Rhododendrons, azaleas, calmias, mag- 

 nolias, andromedas, daphnes, heaths, and bog-plants of 

 every species in their genial soil, form a mass of splendid 

 colouring during the spring months, while, even in winter, 

 their dark foliage forms an evergreen mass for the eye to 

 rest upon. Returning again to the lawn, and inclining to 

 the south, you come to an artificial shrubbery, not dotted 

 about in single plants, but in large and bold clusters of the 

 same species, so that the effect from a distance is as good 

 as upon a nearer approach. Here, as elsewhere, not a sod 

 of turf is broken; but, here and there, a bed of gay 

 shrubby plants rises out of the smoothly-shorn grass, and 

 in the background, amid masses of laburnum, lilac, and 

 guelder-rose, fruit-trees of every kind hang their bright 

 garlands in spring, and their mellow produce in autumn. 

 From thence winds a path, the delicise of the garden, 

 planted with such herbs as yield their perfume when 

 trodden upon and crushed, burnet, wild thyme, and 

 water-mints, according to Bacon's advice, who bids us 

 " set whole alleys of them to have the pleasure when you 

 walk or tread." 



It were tedious to follow up the long shady path, not 

 broad enough for more than two, the " lovers' walk," 

 and the endless winding tracks in the natural wood, till you 

 burst upon a wild common of 



" Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, prickly gorse, and thorns," 

 glowing with heather bloom, and scented with the perfume 



