THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



Many things are not needed for good effect, and very often we see 

 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. 



Old mill-house garden at Mount Usher, Wicklow. 



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. 



