OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



within or without, lacks its most considera- 

 ble charm. If the beauty of the remoter land- 

 scape lie in its wild and unkempt condition, 

 the contrast of extreme care at the house-side 

 with such savagery, will be all the more en- 

 gaging. And if the beauty of the outer land- 

 scapes lie merely in graceful and undulating 

 forms, care around the doorstep will be requi- 

 site to mark definitely the outflow of the do- 

 mestic wants and influences. The path I 

 tread ten times a day should be smooth; the 

 patch of croquet ground should be reduced 

 to absolute level, and any intruding tussock be 

 shorn away from reach of the tender- footed 

 gamesters; but the walk along the further 

 hill-side, where I go only after a long reach 

 of days, may be only a tramped foot-path on 

 the sward; and the stretch of turf-land where 

 the Alderneys are feeding may have its eye- 

 lets of dandelion and golden buttercups. But 

 the care and order of which I speak should not 

 be a finical nicety. Martinetism is odious 

 everywhere. It must be a care that shall con- 

 ceal itself — that shall be marked by the lack 

 of everything disagreeable, and not be cog- 

 nizable by traces of a recent broom or roller. 

 The scar of a spade-cut is an unpleasant re- 

 minder of the art which is best when all traces 



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