NEW FASHIONS. 21 



some poem of his from which I have already 

 quoted, has sense enough to approve 



" For green is to the eye, what to the ear 

 Is harmony, or to the smell the rose." 



But green lawns all over England were being 

 destroyed. The flower-borders, where there had 

 been no walled garden, had hitherto generally 

 followed the line of the shrubberies and planta- 

 tions, and the windings of garden walks ; but 

 these and the flowers that grew there were 

 now neglected. 



Still worse was the effect on the smaller 

 villa-gardens. They had had their flowers on 

 the sunny side of the garden wall, their pleasant 

 bit of lawn with specimen trees, their fence of 

 scented shrubs. The trees were destroyed, the 

 lawn was cut up ; and all for the sake of red 

 and yellow patches during four summer months. 

 Even the cottagers in many places seem to have 

 forgotten the old English flowers, such as grew 

 in Perdita's garden, the " hot lavender," the 

 marygold, the crown-imperial and the lily, and 

 have taken to slips of pelargonium and the like. 



