LIGHT SPRAY AND FROTH 203 



happiness of all is to see the fulfilment of winter 

 work in the spring garden. 



Our hill-side one always recalls lightness and froth 

 such as a sheet of water gives as it falls over some 

 height of rock, when spray and foam are added to 

 the pale blue-green of the water. The orchard 

 outskirts of the flower-garden are pure white, for 

 pears and plums seem to have forgotten the frost 

 danger that passed so close to them a short while 

 back or, maybe, as they are on high ground, it did 

 not reach them, and now they carry large blossom. 

 The terraces nearer to the pleasure-garden, against 

 the banks of which are all kinds of rather tender 

 flowering shrubs like choisya, kerryia, and myrtle, 

 are carpeted with arabis. We have the dwarf and 

 the tall erect, double kind, and their great, matlike, 

 spreading foliage clumps retain moisture beneath 

 and instead of robbing all goodness from the ground 

 benefit it by keeping it cool and damp. The 

 youngest apple trees, planted irregularly on these 

 terraces, will soon be out in flower, thus adding to 

 the light, frothy appearance. It is however in the 

 heart of the flower-garden, upon the two raised banks 

 of the herbaceous borders that descend from the 

 house to the brooks below, that soft dream colours 

 merge one into the other and white is in abeyance. 



The best time to judge of it is soon after sun- 

 rise, or at the end of a warm afternoon, and when 

 colours are not crude or harsh, for then golden 

 yellow alyssum melts into pure blue myosotis, 

 that sky-blue of southern countries, which a chalk 

 soil alone can give. Here and there a touch of 

 pink and white from old-fashioned bachelor's 



