48 Old Time Gardens 



step, usually in the home of the well-to-do. A 

 great shell might be on either side of the door- 

 sill, if there chanced to be seafaring men-folk who 

 lived or visited under the roof-tree. Annuals were 

 few in number ; sturdy old perennial plants of many 

 years' growth were the most honored dwellers in 

 the front yard, true representatives of old families. 

 The Roses were few and poor, for there was usually 

 some great tree just without the gate, an Elm or 

 Larch, whose shadow fell far too near and heavily 

 for the health of Roses. Sometimes there was a 

 prickly semidouble yellow Rose, called by us a 

 Scotch Rose, a Sweet Brier, or a rusty-flowered white 

 Rose, similar, though inferior, to the Madame Plan- 

 tier. A new fashion of trellises appeared in the 

 front yard about sixty years ago, and crimson Bour- 

 sault Roses climbed up them as if by magic. 



One marked characteristic of the front yard was 

 its lack of weeds ; few sprung up, none came to 

 seed-time ; the enclosure was small, and it was a 

 mark of good breeding to care for it well. Some- 

 times, however, the earth was covered closely under 

 shrubs and plants with the cheerful little Ladies' 

 Delights, and they blossomed in the chinks of the 

 bricked path and under the Box edges. Ambrosia, 

 too, grew everywhere, but these were welcome — 

 they were not weeds. 



Our old New England houses were suited in 

 color and outline to their front yards as to our 

 landscape. Lowell has given in verse a good de- 

 scription of the kind of New England house that 

 always had a front dooryard of flowers. 



