KINGS IN GARDENS 



Timgad standing there under that burning sky, 

 and you will know what Rome meant and means. 



" Here in this royal Italian garden one must 

 have dreams of Italy, and dreams of Italy are 

 dreams of a great glory which has never faded. 

 I think of Italy as a golden land of palaces ; from 

 end to end I feel its grandeur ; those sunburnt 

 cities of the plains, those strong rock-built cities 

 of the hills with their scarred walls that show 

 to-day the marks ot endless battles ; the dead in 

 their sacred gardens guarded by impressive dark 

 cypress trees. Italy, to me, has a lute over her 

 shoulder and a sword in her hand, and looks with 

 fearless, passionate eyes. One speaks of France 

 as a country that smiles. I see no smiles in Italy. 

 I love France : she is my heart ; but I bow the 

 knee to Italy. 



" In those great Spanish gardens I feel a little 

 lost ; they have in them the challenge of the 

 East and its profundity and its unfathomable 

 secret. The Moor is there in those gardens, 

 proud, reserved, polite, each man looking like an 

 emperor. He holds the flower of a pomegranate 

 in his hand, and smells it delicately. It would 

 seem that he has been there for ever." 



12 



