VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 39 



gardens rich in plants, but not artistic because too much cut up into 

 dots. There is no reason why gardens should not be rich in plants 

 and pictures too, but such are rare. A precious thing in a garden is 

 a beautiful house, and this, with its pretty, brown-tiled roof and oak- 

 timbered walls, is an example of many in the Weald of Kent which 

 have braved several hundred winters and are so beautiful in colour. 

 If these cottage gardens are beautiful from such simple materials, how 

 much more might we get by good hardy flower gardening round 

 old country houses with lovely backgrounds and old walks. The 

 Somersetshire cottage garden is in a milder climate than this, and 

 in Somerset things seem to do so well, and in all that delightful 

 west-country. In Kent we must trust to the hardy things of which 

 there are so many that no cottage garden can contain half of them ; 

 but in Somersetshire we may have many things which seldom thrive 

 on the eastern side Myrtle, Bay, and Passion-flower, tall Fuchsias, 

 and even things in the open air in winter which in many other 

 districts we have to put in the greenhouse. 



MOUNT USHER, A WICKLOW GARDEN. A quaint creeper-laden 

 mill-house at Ashford, with an acre or two of ground, partly 

 wooded, through which the silvery Vartry River flows, gentle as it 

 falls over its little rocky weirs in summer, but swollen and turbid 

 after wintry storms. The place is really an island at the bottom 

 of a valley ; the hilly country around is beautifully diversified, and 

 is graced by the finest of native timber trees. The garden is quite 

 unlike any other garden I have seen, and to see it in the time of 

 Lilies, Roses, Paeonies, Poppies, and Delphiniums is to see much 

 lovely colour amongst the rich greenery of the rising woodlands. In 

 autumn the colour is less brilliant, but equally satisfying as the eye 

 wanders from the Torch Lilies and Gladioli to the blue Agapanthus, 

 and thence to the Pine and Fir-clad hills. 



An old Ivy-covered wall makes a good background for the 

 brilliant Tropaeolum speciosum, which everywhere runs wild about 

 the place, throwing its soft green wreaths over twig and branch, their 

 tips scarlet with blossoms, or heavily laden with turquoise-blue berries. 

 Here also the soft rosy Hydrangeas bloom, and may be seen 

 the big scarlet hips on the great Apple Rose of Parkinson (Rosa 

 pomifera), with its large glaucous leaves scented like those of the 

 Sweet Brier. Mount Usher is a charming example of the gardens 

 that might be made in river valleys, especially those among the 

 mountains and hills. In such places there is often delightful shelter 

 from violent winds, while the picturesque effect of the mountains and 

 hills around offers a charming prospect from the gardens. There 

 is a distinct charm about many Irish gardens, and the country 

 also is excellent, at least in the shore districts, for the growth 



