86 NOTES. 



NOTE III. 



A POET'S FLOWER-BED. 



THE quaintest of all devices in flower-beds was the 

 one which Mrs. Browning then Elizabeth Barrett 

 made for herself when a child. In after years she told 

 the story of it in a poem, and I venture to extract some 

 stanzas, as they may not be known to all my readers, 

 and as they illustrate my subject rather curiously. Hope 

 End, where Miss Barrett lived, and where this " Hector " 

 flowered, was once well known to me. Crossing the 

 Majvern Hills on the Herefordshire side, and passing 

 the Colwall valley, you find the ground sloping up again 

 into a little ridge. Here, hidden away in a side valley, 

 was the strange-looking house, with Moorish pinnacles. 

 Here was the pond where "little Ellie" found the 

 "swan's nest among the reeds." And here the young 

 girl of nine years old, who had already drunken so deeply 

 of " the wine of Cyprus." formed her garden-bed in the 

 shape of her hero Hector, while a laurel stood on a 

 mound close by, and the birds sung in an old pear-tree 

 which cast soft shadows on the ground : 



" In the garden, lay supinely 



A huge giant, wrought of spade ! 

 Arms and legs were stretched at length, 

 In a passive giant strength, 

 And the meadow turf, cut finely, 

 Round them laid and interlaid. 



