ten feet within the walls and parallel with them. Quite in the middle 

 the path passes round a fountain basin, and there are four arches on which 

 Roses and Clematis are trained. 



Such flower borders give ample opportunity for the practising of 

 good gardening. The task is the easier in that only one of the pairs of 

 borders can be seen at a glance, and a definite scheme of colour pro- 

 gression can easily be arranged. Such schemes are well worth thinking 

 out. The writer's own experience favours a plan in which the borders 

 begin with tender colourings of pale blue, white and pale yellow, with 

 bluish foliage, passing on to the stronger yellows. These lead to orange, 

 scarlet and strong blood-reds. The scale of colouring then returns 

 gradually to the pale and cool colours. 



It is by such simple means that the richest effects of colour are 

 obtained, whether in a continuous border or in clump-shaped masses. A 

 separate space of flower-border may also be well treated by the use of an 

 even more restricted scheme of colouring. Purple and lilac flowers, with 

 others of pink and white only, and foliage of grey and silvery quality, 

 the darkest being such as that of Rosemary and Echinops, make a 

 charming flower-picture, with a degree of pictorial value that any one 

 who had not seen it worked out would scarcely think possible. 



The right choice of treatment depends in great measure on the 

 environment. When this, as at Palmerstown, consists of old walls and a 

 grand hedge of venerable yews, a suitable frame is ready for the display 

 of almost any kind of garden-picture. 



The yews are ten feet high and six feet through. Over a seat one of 

 them is cut into the form of a peacock. To the left of the green 

 archway in the Lavender picture, the yew takes the form of the heraldic 

 wild-cat, the Mayo crest. Outside the garden is a yew walk of un- 

 trimmed trees ; they show in the picture to the right, over the wall. 

 Here, in the heat of summer, the coolness and dim light are not only in 

 themselves restful and delightful, but, after passing along the bright 

 borders, where eye and brain become satiated with the brilliancy of Hght 

 and colour, the cool retreat is doubly welcome, preparing them afresh for 

 further appreciation of the flower-borders. 



