SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



to the house at another side. We could not quite manage 

 this at Kellie but put as light a fence as possible between the 

 lawn and the park." 



The castle garth, with its sunny grey walls, 

 archway of clipped yew, trellised roses, and thick 

 box edging a couple of feet high, has been kept 

 much as it must have been when " Fiddler Tarn " 

 made it resound with the strains of his violin. The 

 charm of eld, so difficult of attainment by any 

 accelerating process, hallows every bush and border. 

 Little is grown here except the common old favourites 

 of our great-grandmothers ; some fine plants of 

 Piptanthus nepalensis, flowering luxuriantly at the 

 time of my visit, seemed scarcely at home among 

 their eighteenth century neighbours. A modern 

 garden house, with stone roof and shadowy eaves, 

 at the north-east corner of the garth, has been 

 so deftly brought into harmony with a distant past, 

 as to cheat one into believing it to be part of the 

 original design. 



And over all this tranquil scene presides the 

 time-worn fortalice, with its crow-stepped gables and 

 clustered tourelles, prompting the inevitable, invari- 

 able wish "Ah, could these walks but speak!" 

 " Futile ! " say you. Nay, but they do speak, and 

 have much to tell to understanding hearers. 



"All pain, all passion, all regret, 



All love and longing come 

 To swell the strain whose burden yet 



Imploreth ' Home, sweet home.' " 

 108 



