THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



charcoal for palette and brush and show in 

 floral, arborescent, redolent detail what is the 

 actual pictorial excellence of these New Orleans 

 gardens. 



For notwithstanding all their shut-in state, 

 neither their virtues nor their faults are hid 

 from the passing eye. The street fence, oftenest 

 of iron, is rarely more than breast-high and is 

 always an open fence. Against its inner side 

 frequently runs an evergreen hedge never taller 

 than the fence's top. Commonly it is not so 

 tall, is always well clipped and is so civil to 

 strangers that one would wish to see its like on 

 every street front, though he might prefer to 

 find it not so invariably of the one sort of growth 

 — a small, handsome privet, that is, which 

 nevertheless fulfils its office with the perfection 

 of a solid fine of palace sentries. Unluckily 

 there still prevails a very old-fashioned tendency 

 to treat the front fence as in itself ornamental 

 and to forget two things: First, that its naked- 

 ness is no part of its ornamental value; that it 

 would be much handsomer lightly clothed — 

 underclothed — like, probably, its very next 



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