SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



able words the aforesaid Dr. Paterson spoke upon 

 this matter. 



"When home is rendered more attractive, the market-gill 

 will be forsaken for charms more enduring, as they are also more 

 endearing and better for both soul and body. And ! what profu- 

 sion of roses and ripe fruits, dry gravel and shining laurels, might 

 be had for a thousandth part of the price given for drams . . . 

 Thus external things, in themselves so trivial as the planting of 

 shrubs, are great when viewed in connection with the moral 

 feelings whence they proceed and the salutary effects which they 

 produce. . . Wherever such fancy for laudable ornament is found 

 (and it is a thing which, like fashion, spreads fast and far), the 

 pastor, by suggesting this guide to simple gardening, may do a 

 kindness to his flock." 



Now let me descend from the pulpit which I 

 have usurped, and enter the manse garden which I 

 have brought the reader so far to see. Favoured 

 by fortune as few gardens of this class have been, 

 it has passed successively through hands which hav< 

 carefully tended it. Various stories are told to 

 account for the amplitude of the kitchen garden 

 and the high walls enclosing it. According to one 

 version, these walls were the gift of his wife 

 to a former incumbent, Mr. Manson, and, scarcely 

 was the mortar dry in them when the Disrup- 

 tion of the Kirk came to pass (in 1843), and Mr. 

 Manson "went out/' surrendering his benefice and 

 forsaking his beloved garden for conscience' sake. 

 Another variant attributes these walls to another 

 lady, wife of the Rev. John Falconer, who was 



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