BAKNCLUITH 



be occupied by an extensive collection of the choicest 

 flowering shrubs. The borders also, effectively as 

 they are stored with familiar things, such as rockets, 

 stocks, poppies, wall-flower and ferns, present the most 

 tempting variety of aspects to meet the requirements 

 of every kind of hardy subject. This most enviable 

 demesne has lately passed into the hands of a new 

 owner (or at least occupier) for whom a most absorbing 

 occupation lies await, if he has any turn for it, in 

 improving these terraces into one of the most remark- 

 able gardens in existence, horticulturally, as it is 

 already architecturally. 



For the rest, these terraces are a fantasia of clipped 

 yew and box. One need not grudge the labour spent 

 on this somewhat barbarous form of decoration, albeit 

 one may prefer a tree in the form which God has pre- 

 scribed for it to one hewn laboriously into the shape 

 of a peacock or a tea-pot. Nevertheless, there is time 

 and money spent here upon what one cannot but 

 regard as misdirected industry. For instance, the 

 whole length of one of these terraces is occupied by 

 no less than forty little square beds in the Dutch 

 manner, each with its box edging, each enclosed with 

 a gravel path. Weeding these paths and clipping this 

 box must absorb a considerable amount of attention, 

 without a corresponding spectacular result ; for the 

 effect would be far finer were these toy beds thrown 

 into one long border, filled with the flowers of all sea- 

 sons. They are designed, of course, for the separate 

 cultivation of masterpieces of the florist's skill, and, 



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