GARDENS OLD AND NhU/. 



and more, the embodiment of stately purity and the pride of 

 Munstend. Near the old cottage are rampant and luxurious 

 roses of the simpler kind. Here, alongside the birches, is a 

 group of brilliant cistuses, and well placed elsewhere are Ghent 

 azaleas. The purple of the autumnal leaves of the blackberry, 

 the gorgeous hues of the autumnal fungi, are not forgotten. 

 In (act, that wood is a perfect example of how much may be 

 done to improve a thoroughly wild spot without depriving it of 

 its essential wildness. 



In dealing with the garden proper, it is only possible to 

 make clear the principles on which Miss Jekyll acts, and they 

 are more conspicuously visible in the aster walk and in the 

 herbaceous border than elsewhere. As you look up the aster 

 walk towards the house (which has a liltle flagged courtyard 

 on that side, with the ripple marks of thousands of years ago 

 showing in the flags, and here and there a tiny plant growing 

 in a crevice), behind the asters are tea roses, and the asters 

 themselves are not less remarkable for their abundance and 



striking but all of them with due thought of the effect not 

 only at one season, but in successive seasons. Of groups and 

 masses, planned out with thoughtful regard to colour effects, 

 she is an ardent, but not a s'avish, supporter, with a wise 

 foresight which saves her from monoto iv of outline or of level. 

 Low-growing foliage plants, especially those of a neutral grey, 

 are encouraged near the edges in many groups, but they are 

 not trimly kept. Indeed, in late autumn at any rate, Miss 

 Jekyll's herbaceous border is not trim'.y kept, or intended so 

 to be. One sees many a dead head, more than one mass 

 of withered foliage, through which an errant nasturtium 

 may send a flash of colour ; but the whole effect, the grey, 

 and the scarlet, and the yellow of the late flowers, the 

 coppery sheen of the lingering foliage, the soft warm red 

 of the wall behind, and the purple of the belated vines, 

 is excellent. The rule by which to produce such effects 

 is simple in enunciation, difficult in the following. Group 

 boldly with a thought of all the seasons and of all the colours ; 



ENTRANCE TO THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



exquisite groupings of colour than for variety of level. They 

 are tumbling waves of purple, and lilac, and palest lavender, 

 and white ; and in front of them is a broad edging of white 

 pinks, in the summer a blaze of fragrant white against a green 

 background, in winter and late autumn a band of silver grey 

 in front of the river of asters. Then the herbaceous border. 

 A good wide path, along which a cart could be driven, runs 

 straight across from the pergola in the direction of the " hut." 

 On the left hand, as you face the hut, is a lawn with b?ds of 

 many rare and luxuriant shrubs, and on the right the border, 

 no mere strip, hut a genuine bed of generous proportions, anJ 

 behind it a little path running concealed beneath the wal , 

 so that the climbers and the vines, with their leaves purple in 

 autumn, may be approached with ease. It is a glorious sight 

 when the delphiniums, of many shades of blue and in bold 

 masses, are in flower, when the giant poppies are in their 

 glory, and the hollyhocks tower aloft. Nor is it less charming 

 when these are over, and gypsophila is clothing the space 

 which would have been bare, and dahlias and helianthus flash 

 their colour upon the eye. But let no man suppose that tln-M.- 

 are all. Miss Jekyll cultivates all herbaceous plants that the 

 soil will support one I ttle colony of yuccas is remarkably 



form many successive pictures in your mind, pictures which 

 shall be harmonious in themselves and compatible one with 

 another, and make them. That is the beginning and end of 

 the whole matter, but it is also where the imagination of the 

 artist comes in. For the rest, the golden rules are two, which 

 are easily obeyed not, in such a garden, to be a slave to 

 tidiness, and not to attempt to grow plants which do not like 

 your soil. Miss Jekyll's ground, for example, is by no means 

 congenial to the growth of exhibition roses, and she does not 

 attempt them ; but she lets the teas and the ramblers and the 

 cluster roses ramp and climb trees and evergreens at their 

 will, and the effect is at least as beautiful as that of any 

 rosery. Especially is this the case near the hut, where 

 monumental yew hedges, and hollies and roses, common but 

 luxuriant, make a delightful picture. And everywhere a 

 grateful odour, in wood and in garden alike, proclaims that 

 Miss Jekyll does not forget the pleasures of scent in seeking 

 and ensuring those of sight ; and in her two delightful books, 

 "Wood and Garden" and "Home and Garden," will be 

 found a score of distinct and well-chosen epithets showing how 

 much store she places on fragrance, and how acutely she 

 distinguishes it in its different kinds. 



