VA RIO US FL WER GA RDENS. 43 



there are masses of flowering shrubs and an odd bed of Lilies, while 

 numerous hardy flowers are seen among the Roses and Rhododen- 

 drons. There is in the main part of the garden only one walk, which 

 takes one round the whole, and does not show, as it glides behind 

 the outside of the groups which fringe the little open lawn. 

 Instead of coming quite close to the house it is cut off from it 

 by a deep border of evergreen shrubs, intermingled with Lilies and 

 hardy plants, and their flowers look into the windows. Instead of 

 looking out of the window, as usual, on a bare gravel walk, the eye is 

 caught by Rhododendrons or Spiraeas, with here and there a Lily, a 

 Foxglove, or a tall Evening Primrose. From the other side of the 

 garden the effect of the border is quite charming, and the creeper- 

 covered cottage seems to spring out of a bank of flowers. The 

 placing of a wide border with Evergreens against the house is a 

 pleasant change from the ordinary mode of laying out little gardens. 

 Another agreeable feature of this garden is the grass walks, which 

 ramble through a thick and shady plantation. Even in our coolest 

 summers there is many a day on w r hich such shady walks, carpeted 

 with grass, are the most enjoyable retreats one can find. And their 

 margins form capital situations for naturalising many beautiful hardy 

 plants Daffodils, hardy Ferns, Scillas, the tall Harebells, Snow r drops, 

 and Snowflakes. 



CAWDOR CASTLE. The view of Cawdor shows the good of having 

 some form and variety of shape in a garden, be the garden large or 

 small. The trees, shrubs, and bushes give the light and shade and 

 variety of form which is so often absent from our gardens. The hard 

 effect which the ordinary garden shows results from the want of all 

 mystery or variety of surface or form. In the case of Cawdor the 

 beds are simple, so that we are less concerned with pattern or plan 

 than with the flowers. This is as it should be. It is not a model to 

 be followed everywhere, but such freedom and variety is greatly to be 

 desired in gardens. After all considerations of plan have been settled, 

 we ought to abolish the too common practice of excluding all things 

 of a bushy, upright nature from our flower gardens. 



DRUMMOND CASTLE. A house on a rock, graced with many 

 Ferns and Ivy, and wild flow r ers natural to the spot. It would not 

 be easy to find a more graceful example of " natural " rock gardening. 

 It is only, however, on going to the south side of the house, where the 

 ground falls rapidly and is supported by terrace walls, that all 

 gloom is dispelled by the brightest array of blossoming climbers that 

 ever clad gray stones with beauty. To fancy one's self in some 

 fairyland of sun-bathed flowers a thousand miles south in a lap of 

 the mountains would be easy. No Italian gardens could probably 

 show the same high beauty at the end of summer, whatever they 



