THE FORMAL GARDEN 



entrances. On the south the path leads to the pier, on the north 

 to the service-yard, and on the west straight away down the hill to 

 the depths of the cool, dark forest. The outer southern side of 

 this wall is covered with a mass of Dorothy Perkins roses of a 

 wonderful pure pink, and in front of them hardy chrysanthemums 

 which blossom long after the roses cease, so that their colors 

 never clash. 



The brick paths, three feet wide, leave a border of ten feet to 

 plant, on three sides of the garden. There are also four inner 

 beds of equal size, and a small circle in the centre, where a simple 

 travertine stone fountain plays. The cement basin under it is 

 lined with coarse gravel, with a few rocks for the goldfish to hide 

 under, and has a border a foot wide which is always planted with 

 rose geraniums growing rank in the blazing sun. 



On descending the steps from the terrace, two small pyramidal 

 box trees stand on either side of the centre path, flanked by two 

 Japanese quinces beyond at each end of the flowering border. By 

 these grow clumps of bleeding-hearts, one in very truth from my 

 grandmother's garden, where it flourished forty years ago. Old- 

 fashioned fringed pinks fall over the path, and a mass of heliotrope 

 is tucked in by the pier gate, from whence down the southern 

 border, across the western end, and back along the northern border, 

 rise towering dahlias, pink and yellow and crimson and white, with 

 phlox of varying tints before them. Snapdragons, larkspur, and 



marigolds fill in all spaces to the lobelia border on the southern 



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