3 o6 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



botanically arranged, as if tlie Linnaean traditions still 

 held sway. The path leading from the front of the house 

 to the conservatory has a border set amphitheatre-wise 

 with lines of rare plants in sunken pots, sheltered by a 

 pine grove. The foregrounds are massed with clumps of 

 gunnera scabra and lady fern. The air is full of sounds 

 of birds, the swans float by and halt, and lose themselves 

 again in the thickets. The lawn in front of the house 

 is planted like a park with various trees, well arranged 

 with an eye to colour. The road, itself invisible, crosses 

 the view, so that one can see the picturesque passers-by, 

 who animate the scene at just the distance an artist 

 would set them in his .picture ; beyond the road the 

 park sweeps upward to a belvedere, high-raised (for 

 Holland, that is) at the end of the vista. An immense 

 oval bed of roses is spread just before the house. 



' One should think that the proprietor of all this 

 must be happy.' l Nay, sir,' said Johnson. i All this 

 excludes but one evil poverty.' So Clifford felt till 

 Linnaeus came. Carl enjoyed it all without the cares 

 attaching to ownership. I like to picture him with this 

 pleasant background about him. The front door, as 

 usual in houses of that age, is in the centre of the 

 house ; the steps are flanked with large ornamentally 

 painted tubs of palms, aloes, and masses of New Zealand 

 flax. The inlaid marble pavement before the house is 

 so deeply buried in sand, the driftings of the last few 

 months, that it shows how important a factor the wind 

 is in the making of Holland. It has a far quicker action 



