8 A GARDEN DIARY 



garments, those "short and simple flannels of the 

 poor " hung to dry in silhouette against a back 

 fence. The truth is it is not at all desirable to 

 be so haughty. I will not go so far as to say 

 that it is unchristian, but it is certainly unbecom- 

 ing, for are we not all fellow-creatures ? What 

 if you can command seven counties from your 

 windows ? What if on one particular morning 

 to me incredible you did see three ships cross 

 Shoreham gap ? What if from your garden chair 

 you can be regaled by a fantasia of changing 

 lights and shadows ? be lapped into peace upon 

 summer afternoons, or stirred by the drama of 

 battle clouds, flung into blackness by a storm ? 

 Well, if you can, be glad of it, but for pity's 

 sake abstain from bragging! "Gi* God thanks, 

 and say no more o' it." Believe me it is not even 

 commonly lucky to be so proud, and I speak with 

 some little authority upon that subject. 



For as regards this matter of views, I too have 

 been haughty to the point of insupportableness. 

 I too have believed that the possession of wide 

 prospects argued some peculiar, some ineffable 

 superiority in myself. There was a time when 

 nothing short of an entire ocean, none of your 

 petty babbling channels, but the whole thunder- 

 ing Atlantic, sufficed for my ambition. In those 

 days only upon the largest combination of sea, 

 sky, mountain ; sea-scape, land-scape, cloud-scape, 

 did it seem possible adequately to exist. As for 



